iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Your passive perception is always on
Except when it's not.
Your passive perception is always on
Well, walking into a forest with a passive Perception of, say, 12 would also spot 20 hidden people in six seconds (if their Stealth check results were 12 or less, which is an average for average people); are you saying that because the +2 Perception guy spots 20 hidden people in six seconds that he is also quasi godlike?
Or he has a +2 perception and makes one active check and rolls 19 for a total of 21. He still spots all 20 people in 6 seconds with a single roll.
Or he rolls a 1 and can't spot any of the 20 people, not even the poorly hidden ones.
Except when it's not.
Again, the issue is the absolute perfection of passive scores.
Let me show you.
Let's instead of using one example, use 1 million of them. The guy with +10 will spot those DC 20 hiders 1 million times out of 1 million. The guy with +2 will fail 850,000 times. Now let's raise the guy from +2 to +10 and no passive perception. He still fails 450,000 times out of 1 million.
The DM has to turn it off, though. The rules have it always on.
When it's being used, it's both.Perceived issue. I don't agree that it is either absolute, or perfect.![]()
Just kidding. My counterpoint is that your numbers wouldn't really apply to a game of D&D. In a white room situation with perfect lighting and no environmental factors or situational modifiers, sure. But that's not D&D.
Dim light, giving disadvantage on perception checks, for a -5 to your passive perception? Now the passive 20 guy fails 100% of the time, but the actively perceiving guy succeeds at least some of the time.
Some of the hidden creatures aren't just nameless, faceless NPC's, but actual rangers or shadow monks who can cast Pass Without Trace. Now it's a DC 30 and everyone fails to spot them 100% of the time.
It's overcast and raining, with gusts of wind that keep moving the foliage and underbrush unpredictably and making noise. Disadvantage on spot checks, and advantage on stealth checks. That's a 10 point swing without any magic involved.
Any number of circumstances can give disadvantage on perception checks, or even advantage on stealth, tilting the odds in favor of the hidden. All that is in the purview of the DM.
The DM can even say that passive perception doesn't apply, if they they are in a situation that doesn't seem threatening and the PC's don't specifically say they are being paranoid. (Harvest festival where they are being celebrated as local heroes, a tavern they've frequented, their own base of operations, etc.)
The only part I would disagree with is that you can't "watch for traps" and "look for secret doors" at the same time - both of them involve examining the walls, floors, etc for subtle differences that indicate something is amiss.