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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8543127" data-attributes="member: 97077">Players can't actually bend rules though or even abuse them. The only one who has control over the rules is the DM who is tasked with arbitrating between the rules and the players. The player in this thread is asking if the wolf can work together with the PC for a bonus to passive Perception, not abusing the rules.Your interpretation of the rules appears to be, like many DMs, too generous which makes passive Perception overvalued. It's not always-on radar except in combat or setting up for combat (i.e. determining surprise). Players do have to declare their actions, whether they are one-offs or repeated actions. And some of those actions can be mutually exclusive with other actions. To do otherwise incentivizes maximizing Perception beyond what the game likely intends. To then suggest it's somehow wrong to maximize Perception in that context is a little weird in my opinion. The DM in this case sets the stage for it happen and then judges the player when they do what they are incentivized to do. Why wouldn't I want to detect creatures, traps, and secret doors much of the time with very little opportunity cost and no risk? That's a great deal if the DM is running the game that way!We're talking about traps and secret doors, right? Those are both things to be poked and prodded to figure out how they work and, in the case of traps, disarm (or at least bypass in some fashion). I'm not sure what you mean as to uncertainty about how interesting it is. Why would you include content in your game that isn't interesting?Further, I don't see why this invalidates other characters' abilities to interface with the environment. Everyone is free to declare whatever actions they want while traveling the adventure location. There's no need for the DM to make any special preparation for highly perceptive characters either. I certainly don't. If you're keeping watch and in the front rank, you might avoid surprise and see the traps - great!For the first bullet, I don't think you've established how this is invalidating parts of the game for others.For the second bullet, it seems to me you are ignoring certain rules for reasons that are unclear when it comes to how you handle Perception, thus creating a situation where it is more useful than intended. To correct for this, you then have a social agreement that nobody should then avail themselves of the opportunity by investing in Perception accordingly unless they have some kind of good in-character reason for it (which is easy to just make up in my view). It seems easier to me to just run Perception as it says to and everything else will fall into place. [USER=6812658]@Seramus[/USER] has helpfully posted a number of the related rules to take into account.</blockquote>

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