Active Perception and Passive Perception

[On Puget Sound]

We have a super perceptive ranger and a cleric with fairly good perception. It's hard to hide anything using standard DCs and passive perception, so I mostly don't try. Lurker monsters can still surprise them sometimes, but hidden traps are a waste of notebook paper for this group. If I use a trap, it's one that they can detect but can't necessarily avoid if they want to get where they are going, or one that will trigger during a combat.

It's kind of fun to let the ranger smell something coming, feel a vibration in the floor, or otherwise get to feel cool about her perception being so high. And in ambushes, she gets to act in the surprise round.

 

[Zaran]

Noticing it while swinging upside down from a burning vine while fighting Tiamat is not a mundane task.

Actually, I believe that if your Passive Perception is still high enough to beat the DC even with all those negative modifiers you should still be able to notice it passively.

 

[BruntFCA]

I just watched the DM in the Robot Chicken Vids at wotc.

He seems to do what KD as been suggesting. Over and over again, he only seems to allow the PC to make perception checks and even notice things when they get closer; watch it and see.

As a good DM he's "peeling the onion" as it were and keeping the suspense. The idea that some PC sends out some "radar like " ping and notices everything in the room is really silly as far as I'm concerned.

As for rangers scouting ahead its a good idea sometimes. Only how does he stay stealthy? If he's carrying any light he can't stealth, if he's not got any light, it will mess up his perception. MOst PC classes don't have dark vision, just another thing to think about.

 

[Colmarr]

As for rangers scouting ahead its a good idea sometimes. Only how does he stay stealthy? If he's carrying any light he can't stealth, if he's not got any light, it will mess up his perception. MOst PC classes don't have dark vision, just another thing to think about.

One of the interesting changes to 4e was not only did most PC races lose darkvision, but so did most other races.

As such, it's quite rare to be adventuring in a lightless environment. Of course, when you do come across one, that will pose some difficulties for your scout