Is there any way to get past pondering in hiding without constantly being at pole or melee range with creatures?

Rosery is an Empath. She uses hiding as her main defense. It's her way of not allowing creatures to advance on her in the first place.

After the change she's never been above pondering and AES stops learning much sooner then it does for other skills. I always thought it was triggered by how much was learned. With hiding not going past pondering that should be a very long time.

Rosery's player