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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jubles" data-source="post: 7080639" data-attributes="member: 6875874">If an enemy is lying, passive insight is a check against deception.  If there is a blatant deception I probably wouldn't reveal that through passive insight.  However I don't like to subjugate player builds and abilities to make my job easier.  In my campaign we have a druid with an insight modifier of 10, or a passive of 20.  Frankly he should be able to see through a sleazy merchant.  He is level 12 though, and not likely to be concerned with the honesty of a random merchant.  If he were level 3 with a passive insight of 15, I wouldn't automatically grant him that knowledge.  I think that passive insight is also always on.  I'm sure everyone has an experience where they were talking with someone, maybe a poor salesperson and you just get that feeling that you know something is off about that person.  I don't know which part of his spiel was deceptive but I know I'm talking to someone that is probably not giving me the straight story.  I use passive insight as a way to enhance the story and scene.  Often I won't even be revealing information that is mechanically important.  Sometimes it's revealing positive information.  Insight is a tricky thing because it is not telepathy (despite many players wishing it were) so even with a very good insight roll it's always just a gut feeling.  But lying and lie detection is an art and some people are naturally very good at it.  Many players are supernaturally good at it.  I like the DM rolling insight on the player's behalf behind the screen.  That can certainly make the mystery more potent.  I also have a tendency to give false information on low checks.  Maybe a poor active insight roll suggests the merchant is lying about his daughter but in fact the merchant was completely honest.  Another point is that if the players know Bob is always got a good knack for insight, that doesn't mean Bob was able to tip them off.  If they're still talking to the merchant it's not as if Bob begins to actively ignore the merchant, physically turn to his party and, in front of the merchant say, "I think this dude is lying," before turning back to talk to the merchant again.  If other players are using privileged information then perhaps an additional complication is better.  Maybe before Bob detected a lie about the daughter because the merchant was trying to exploit the party in some low level scheme.  Now with a new complication, the merchant is trying to save the party's life by sending them on a wild goose chase before the really mean evil black knight of this-and-that comes back to town to collect half of everyone's wealth.</blockquote>

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