Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Nothing about what I said implied that players could not search how they like. There's just a default to the competence of the PC unless they tell me otherwise.That may be how you run the game, but it is not a rule. I allow players to search however they like.
Again, competent default. The PC knows better than you, me or the player whether the tools should be used in a given situation. I don't assume incompetence and default to the player to guess at it.The decision of whether or not to use any given tool depends on a lot of factors that have nothing to do with IQ. If the player is concerned that contact with a trap’s mechanism might set it off, for example, they may opt not to touch it with anything, including thieves’ tools.
It's not an assumption. It's defaulting to the competence of the PC, rather than requiring that the player guess at whether it's safe to touch or not. If the player wants to override the default, he's welcome to do so.That is an assumption. Maybe it’s an assumption that’s a built-in part of your table rules - at your table, it’s understood that an attempt to search for something always involves whatever contact and tool use may be necessary to find it, unless the player specifically states otherwise. That’s a perfectly fine expectation to set, but it is not the expectation at my table.