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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Prism" data-source="post: 5116446" data-attributes="member: 9501">Its not so much the problem with the actual DC but with the static nature of the passive check. Lets say as the DM you follow the guidelines to some degree and set the DC for spotting traps, secret doors and opponents to 19 for your 8th level party. The 14 WIS perception trained ranger will spot everything all the time with their +11 check. The 10 WIS perception trained rogue will also see everything. The untrained WIS 20 cleric also sees everything. The ranger doesn't feel special at all even though they are considered the party spotter. So you decide to change the DC slightly to 20. Now the rogue and cleric see nothing and the ranger  probably feels important again. The rogue wonders why he bothered training perception at all. The cleric still has other things going on with 18 WIS and probably isn't as botheredSo what do you do? You vary the DC? This is exactly the problem - you are choosing who gets to see each thing with no random element and no dice rolling. Surely that is fine sometimes but everytime? The players will possibly begin to feel out of control of the situation. The DM decides if the ambush should or should not be spotted. It should be just as important to roll perception, which is often a vital skill just before an encounter, as any other roll. Static scores or 'take 10' if you like should be reserved for mundane, unimportant tasks - not vital perception rollsIf I was playing the rogue above I would want to thing that sometimes we would all spot something, often the ranger would see something I missed and occasionally I would see something the ranger missed. We are only +2 apart in skill level. How does that work with passive perception?</blockquote>

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