Yes, I only use "Player describes action and intention, and DM decides whether an ability check is needed to resolve" as a player and DM in D&D 5e. It's in the table rules that I share with players for every adventure or campaign. As a player, whether the DM is fine with people asking for checks or not, I'm not asking for them, and to foster clear communication I state my goal and approach with reasonable specificity, always.
So what do you do if a player blurts out, "I'm rolling a perception check?" Tell them they have to describe what they're listening/looking/smelling for, even if it is totally obvious? And wjay if they say that they're taking a moment to look for something, but there is a clear audio clue they could hear - if they roll a good perception check for their attempt to look ... do they miss the audio clue because they did not say they were listening?
I ask them to tell me what they are trying to accomplish and how. Maybe there's a roll and maybe there isn't - I can't decide that until I hear what they want to do. It isn't awkward - it's people communicating clearly to each other.
Knowledge. "How much do I know about arcanoloths?"
Which is something my players may say at my table. They can also say "Knowledge of arcanaloths?" or "Insight check?" I don't see those statements as being different. At least not in substance or clarity.
A key difference is that there might be no PC roll called for.
It’s not totally obvious. “I’m rolling a perception check” doesn’t tell me what the player is trying to accomplish or what the character is doing to try to accomplish it, it only tells me they think their training in perception is relevant to their chances of success. What I would do is tell them that; something along the lines of, “I’m hearing that you want to use your character’s training in perception to spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. What is it that you’re trying to find, and what does your character do to try and find it?
If there’s a clear audio cue they could hear, that should have been part of my description of the environment in the first place. Maybe contingent on a successful passive Wisdom (Perception) check, if hearing it would be particularly difficult, such that it would only be noticed by someone who is continually engaged in watching/listening.
It’s quite organic, it’s just a different mindset than a lot of people have been trained to use when playing D&D.
Not to speak for @iserith and they’re welcome to correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that they do not consider a question to be a declaration of action, they would ask that the player state what they want to learn and how they try to learn it. For example, “I think back to my long nights in the Arcane library to try and remember the details of the arcanaloth’s behavior patterns” or “I pay close attention to his body language to try and read his emotional state.”
