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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 7094820" data-attributes="member: 1465">Yes, I think you are basically seeing it now the same way I do...I suppose that potentially you can find a situation for every skill to be used repeatedly/continuously enough so that the DM decides to use the passive skills rule. There is one more thing to consider however: the examples which are really the original reasons for designing the passive skills rule in the first place are all about a character not knowing what they are using their skill against. For instance, you are continuously trying to be perceptive because you don't know where or when there is anything to be noticed; you are continuously trying to be stealthy because you don't know where or when someone might be noticing you. The general idea is that every now and then there's something with its own DC (or skill check result) waiting for you to "pass by" and activate a contest. Like a hidden door vs your Perception, or a guard on alert vs your Stealth.But this actually means that the passive skill rule is not strictly needed. You can just totally ignore it, and instead require a check only when there is indeed something with a DC.The choice of using the passive skills rule then becomes more a matter of preference on randomness. Do you want a probability of failure for stuff with fairly low DC? Then use checks. Do you want autosuccess for most of them? Then use passive scores. And Crawford's approach pretty much explains how to achieve the latter consistently, if that's what you wish.</blockquote>

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