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<blockquote data-quote="bganon" data-source="post: 5316898" data-attributes="member: 60886">If you want a trap that's easy to actively spot but not just automatically detected passively, then you can always be liberal with granting significant &quot;circumstance&quot; bonuses, especially if the rogue looks in the &quot;right place&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Example: there's a covered pit in the middle of the hallway, DC 20 to notice, which beats the Passive Perception of 17.&nbsp; But if the player says &quot;hold on, I check the floor for traps&quot;, well, you might give a +4 to their roll because they said &quot;floor&quot;.Another option is multi-stage checks, where the DC to notice that there's something funny is fairly easy (and the passive Perception might give the player this warning automatically), but the DC to locate exactly -what- is &quot;off&quot; might be harder.Example: the DC to notice something funny is 15, so the character (with passive Perception 17) walking into the hallway automatically notices something isn't right.&nbsp; But the DC to actually find the pit trap is 20, so they need to roll.&nbsp; If the roll succeeds, they notice the pit trap as normal, but if they fail, even though the party will know there's a trap, you don't tell them where it is unless they come up with another way of finding it.I like the second method, myself.&nbsp; Notice that if the first DC is below the passive Perception, then you're really not doing any extra rolling.&nbsp; The main difference is that instead of traps falling into basically two categories (&quot;auto-found&quot; and &quot;hard to detect and springs without warning&quot;), you've now got a third category of &quot;hard to detect but gives some warning&quot;.You can also do the multi-stage part more literally, and if you make it complex enough it becomes the skill challenge method described by our Ewok friend.&nbsp; But you can get &quot;in between&quot; a bit, with something like:There's an easily noticable pressure plate on the floor.&nbsp; What does it do?&nbsp; Hard Perception to find what it connects to.&nbsp; If you don't, a Thievery check can jam the plate but this might be unreliable (characters stepping on it make an easy Athletics/Acrobatics check, which triggers the trap if they fail).&nbsp; If you do find the spears in the ceiling that the plate triggers, then disabling those are easier and more permanent.&nbsp; The idea is that this isn't a full-blown skill challenge, but a trap that isn't just completely disabled with a single roll once noticed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bganon, post: 5316898, member: 60886"] If you want a trap that's easy to actively spot but not just automatically detected passively, then you can always be liberal with granting significant "circumstance" bonuses, especially if the rogue looks in the "right place". Example: there's a covered pit in the middle of the hallway, DC 20 to notice, which beats the Passive Perception of 17. But if the player says "hold on, I check the floor for traps", well, you might give a +4 to their roll because they said "floor". Another option is multi-stage checks, where the DC to notice that there's something funny is fairly easy (and the passive Perception might give the player this warning automatically), but the DC to locate exactly -what- is "off" might be harder. Example: the DC to notice something funny is 15, so the character (with passive Perception 17) walking into the hallway automatically notices something isn't right. But the DC to actually [b]find[/b] the pit trap is 20, so they need to roll. If the roll succeeds, they notice the pit trap as normal, but if they fail, even though the party will know there's a trap, you don't tell them where it is unless they come up with another way of finding it. I like the second method, myself. Notice that if the first DC is below the passive Perception, then you're really not doing any extra rolling. The main difference is that instead of traps falling into basically two categories ("auto-found" and "hard to detect and springs without warning"), you've now got a third category of "hard to detect but gives some warning". You can also do the multi-stage part more literally, and if you make it complex enough it becomes the skill challenge method described by our Ewok friend. But you can get "in between" a bit, with something like: There's an easily noticable pressure plate on the floor. What does it do? Hard Perception to find what it connects to. If you don't, a Thievery check can jam the plate but this might be unreliable (characters stepping on it make an easy Athletics/Acrobatics check, which triggers the trap if they fail). If you do find the spears in the ceiling that the plate triggers, then disabling those are easier and more permanent. The idea is that this isn't a full-blown skill challenge, but a trap that isn't just completely disabled with a single roll once noticed. [/QUOTE]

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