The Hooded Lantern is a standard '30 ft. bright light / 30 ft. dim light' light source, that can be hooded to only provide 5 ft of dim light.
According to rules on vision and light, dim light creates a lightly obscured area, which imposes disadvantage on perception checks. It does not affect stealth checks.
However, as we can see from the rules on hiding, you can't hide if the enemy can see you. Dim light by itself doesn't create enough opportunity to let you hide (hiding behind a barrel in dim light does make it harder for people to detect you, as per the disadvantage on Perception mentioned above). - A heavily obscured area (such as that created by complete darkness) lets you hide by itself (just mind enemies with darkvision). - Other abilities (such as the skulker feat or the wood elf trait 'Mask of the Wild') allow you to hide in dim light without other cover or concealment.
So, to reiterate:
Dim light doesn't impose disadvantage to stealth checks. In fact, it makes stealth easier by imposing disadvantage on perception checks. However, it doesn't let you hide at all unless there are other conditions that allow you to hide.
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Asking for my friend who is playing a halfling ranger.
Not necessarily, but... In darkness, I could see DMs giving creatures advantage to notice the light source.
There are a few things to examine here.
The Hooded Lantern is a standard '30 ft. bright light / 30 ft. dim light' light source, that can be hooded to only provide 5 ft of dim light.
According to rules on vision and light, dim light creates a lightly obscured area, which imposes disadvantage on perception checks. It does not affect stealth checks.
However, as we can see from the rules on hiding, you can't hide if the enemy can see you. Dim light by itself doesn't create enough opportunity to let you hide (hiding behind a barrel in dim light does make it harder for people to detect you, as per the disadvantage on Perception mentioned above).
- A heavily obscured area (such as that created by complete darkness) lets you hide by itself (just mind enemies with darkvision).
- Other abilities (such as the skulker feat or the wood elf trait 'Mask of the Wild') allow you to hide in dim light without other cover or concealment.
So, to reiterate:
Dim light doesn't impose disadvantage to stealth checks. In fact, it makes stealth easier by imposing disadvantage on perception checks.
However, it doesn't let you hide at all unless there are other conditions that allow you to hide.