Sometimes direct protection against physical or energy damage isn’t as important as just avoiding detection. The best defense for an attack is simply not to be attacked.

Stealthskins are made of a special fiber that makes no noise when it rubs together. It is silent, even to the enhanced hearing of some races. Robotic devices or technologies with advanced hearing sensors will not even hear it rub together.

The Stealthskin is only effective when worn alone – no other clothes, no skeinsuit, no screen. When wearing the Stealthskin, the character is fully encased in a single piece of dark black fabric, stretching from top of his head to his toes. Even his face is covered. A single strip of specially-made non-reflective synthetic transparency runs across the eyes, allowing the wearer to see out quite easily. Many tiny stretchpockets exist along the thighs, waist, and arm, to give the wearer a place to place gear where it won’t rub or bounce or touch other equipment he carries.

The Stealthskin fabric is quite stretchy. It allows for the unusual shape-shifting abilities of a Dralasite to function normally. Additionally, the suite can be purchased to accommodate the wing membranes of a Yazirian or the unusual shape of a Vrusk, but when purchased for one of these other races it can only be worn by members of that species.

Benefits. When wearing a Stealthskin, the character is permitted to use the Stealth and Concealment subskills of the Environmentalist skill as if he were a Level 1 Environmentalist. If the character already has the Environmentalist skill, he can make amazing use of this fabric and gets a bonus of +10% to both of these skills.

If a character sustains more than 25 points of personal damage, or is encumbered with gear (carrying more than half his STA score in kilograms) the Stealthskin no longer provides these bonuses.