The crescendo of noise at kick-off could not hide the tension with so much at stake for both clubs.
Stoke made the majority of the early running with a couple of corners and the long throws of Rory Delap testing the Leicester defence.
A clattering challenge by Steve Howard, which earned a booking, forced Stoke into an early change with Lewis Buxton replacing the injured Andy Wilkinson.
But more than half-an-hour of shredded nerves past before the first real opportunity arrived when Mamady Sidibe headed Liam Lawrence's free-kick straight into Paul Henderson's arms.
Henderson was forced into more serious action two minutes later with a terrific double save from Ricardo Fuller after he had got the better of Bruno N'Gotty.
Barry Hayles responded for Leicester with a 44th-minute shot which was comfortably held by Carlo Nash as an unbearably nervy opening half neared its close.
Scores elsewhere did nothing to save any fingernails during the interval, but the Stoke fans really got behind their team in the second half.
The players responded with Henderson saving magnificently at his near post from Leon Cort before Fuller and Lawrence as the pressure intensified.
But Leicester were inches away from taking a 62nd-minute lead on the counter-attack when Gareth McAuley's towering header from Iain Hume's corner struck Nash's left-hand post.
Foxes boss Ian Holloway was forced to throw caution to the wind late on with news that Southampton were winning and Nash came to Stoke's rescue twice with flying saves from Hume and then Richard Stearman.
But Stoke weathered the late storm to claim a point which, as it turned out, they did not need after Ipswich's win over Hull.