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Passive Investigation?
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6385853" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>Can't speak for anyone else... but I'm using Passive Investigation for traps and secret doors.</p><p></p><p>I hate, *hate*, HATE that the game uses Perception for everything. With a passion. Reading <em>HotDQ</em> it seemed like Perception checks (either passive or active) appeared 75% of the time, and all the other skills in the game appeared 25%. I found it just ridiculous. There's no reason why anyone would want any skill first other than Perception, it was just used so often for so many disparate things.</p><p></p><p>I've mentioned this in other threads before... but I've amended the whole process of seeing/hearing/sensing things into a quadrant.</p><p></p><p>Any passive checks to notice or sense things that might be missed while you do other things is a Wisdom check.</p><p></p><p>Any active checks to find things through actual searching and looking (IE using your Action) is an Intelligence check.</p><p></p><p>Any creature hiding that moves, makes noise, causes motion and leaves potential trails to be noticed (IE needs to make a Stealth check to be Hidden), you can add your Perception proficiency to the check to notice it (in my mind, it's a "Danger Sense".)</p><p></p><p>Anything that is an object that doesn't move, doesn't have to worry about sound, and doesn't have to make Stealth checks to remain unseen, you can add your proficiency in Investigation to the check.</p><p></p><p>And then you combine the pairs:</p><p></p><p>To sense that kobold hiding in the bushes... the DM would check your Passive Wisdom (Perception) against its Stealth check.</p><p></p><p>If you are walking through the dungeon and there's a tripwire across the hallway... the DM would check your Passive Wisdom (Investigation) check against the DC to find the trap.</p><p></p><p>On your turn, if you didn't notice the kobold passively and wanted to try and find it... you would use your action to make an Intelligence (Perception) check against the Stealth check of the kobold.</p><p></p><p>And on your turn, if you think there's a trap in front of you (perhaps the trap that was connected to the tripwire you may or may not have noticed)... you would use your action to make an Intelligence (Investigation) check.</p><p></p><p></p><p>By doing things this way... I remove the complete overabundance of Perception checks... passive and active. Plus, it gives Investigation something actually worthwhile to do. And thus for me (and my player who actually took Observant)... it makes Passive Investigation into actually a thing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 6385853, member: 7006"] Can't speak for anyone else... but I'm using Passive Investigation for traps and secret doors. I hate, *hate*, HATE that the game uses Perception for everything. With a passion. Reading [I]HotDQ[/I] it seemed like Perception checks (either passive or active) appeared 75% of the time, and all the other skills in the game appeared 25%. I found it just ridiculous. There's no reason why anyone would want any skill first other than Perception, it was just used so often for so many disparate things. I've mentioned this in other threads before... but I've amended the whole process of seeing/hearing/sensing things into a quadrant. Any passive checks to notice or sense things that might be missed while you do other things is a Wisdom check. Any active checks to find things through actual searching and looking (IE using your Action) is an Intelligence check. Any creature hiding that moves, makes noise, causes motion and leaves potential trails to be noticed (IE needs to make a Stealth check to be Hidden), you can add your Perception proficiency to the check to notice it (in my mind, it's a "Danger Sense".) Anything that is an object that doesn't move, doesn't have to worry about sound, and doesn't have to make Stealth checks to remain unseen, you can add your proficiency in Investigation to the check. And then you combine the pairs: To sense that kobold hiding in the bushes... the DM would check your Passive Wisdom (Perception) against its Stealth check. If you are walking through the dungeon and there's a tripwire across the hallway... the DM would check your Passive Wisdom (Investigation) check against the DC to find the trap. On your turn, if you didn't notice the kobold passively and wanted to try and find it... you would use your action to make an Intelligence (Perception) check against the Stealth check of the kobold. And on your turn, if you think there's a trap in front of you (perhaps the trap that was connected to the tripwire you may or may not have noticed)... you would use your action to make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. By doing things this way... I remove the complete overabundance of Perception checks... passive and active. Plus, it gives Investigation something actually worthwhile to do. And thus for me (and my player who actually took Observant)... it makes Passive Investigation into actually a thing. [/QUOTE]
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