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<blockquote data-quote="Lyxen" data-source="post: 8550492" data-attributes="member: 7032025">So, you are reading &quot;These characters don’t contribute their passive Wisdom (<a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules/using-ability-scores#Perception" target="_blank">Perception</a>) scores to the group’s chance of noticing hidden threats.&quot;.Please explain how you deduce from the above that characters who do not specifically spend all their time looking for threats are automatically surprised if combat starts ?Because that is the single step that is missing from all these reasoning. I understand that some people as a DM, think that people not specifically watching for a threat should be distracted and therefore be automatically surprised. And indeed, the rule framework allows them to do this, as surprise is a check and a DM is free to autofail him if he thinks that the character deserves it.The only thing that I'm saying is that there are NO RULES that say this, no suggestion to do this, and it's the contrary, both the stealth rules and the surprise rules tell to check EVERYONE on EVERY side of the conflict. And the example from the lead dev tells you SPECIFICALLY that a distracted character, so engrossed in a play that he does not see an enemy come out of hiding and move close to him, has his FULL passive perception.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lyxen, post: 8550492, member: 7032025"] So, you are reading "These characters don’t contribute their passive Wisdom ([URL='https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules/using-ability-scores#Perception']Perception[/URL]) scores to the group’s chance of noticing hidden threats.". Please explain how you deduce from the above that characters who do not specifically spend all their time looking for threats are automatically surprised if combat starts ? Because that is the single step that is missing from all these reasoning. I understand that some people as a DM, think that people not specifically watching for a threat should be distracted and therefore be automatically surprised. And indeed, the rule framework allows them to do this, as surprise is a check and a DM is free to autofail him if he thinks that the character deserves it. The only thing that I'm saying is that there are NO RULES that say this, no suggestion to do this, and it's the contrary, both the stealth rules and the surprise rules tell to check EVERYONE on EVERY side of the conflict. And the example from the lead dev tells you SPECIFICALLY that a distracted character, so engrossed in a play that he does not see an enemy come out of hiding and move close to him, has his FULL passive perception. [/QUOTE]

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