D&D 5E (2024) How can I do a Charisma-Investigation (or a Strength/Dexterity-Investigation if I can't use Charisma) to find a secret door?

[ECMO3]

Where was the party when the last session ended? Was there a time skip or did you pick right up where you left off?

Picked up right where we left off, literally in a Dungeon (actually the basement of a warehouse connected by secret underground tunnels to other areas under the city and infested with cultists).

 

[ECMO3]

Are you really going to use the, "but magic, so nothing has to make logical sense ever" straw man? How tired and busted does that poor fella have to be by now?

I am saying a colleague/ally/friend being right next to you one minute and not with your group the next is not any more immersion breaking than anything else in the game and in terms of "suspension of disbelief" it is a whole lot easier to accept than some of the things both people and enemies can do in the game.

Magic is one thing, but if you want to talk strictly non-Magic, our Fighter can hit an elephant with a stick and make it fall to the ground.

What is so difficult to accept in game about a guy who was with you a minute ago not being with you now?

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, because Mind Flayers that can hurl psychic energy at you make so much more sense then an ally/friend just not being with you all the time.

(the group in the middle of Undermountain where teleporting and plane shifting are blocked)
DM: Okay guys, Joe isn't here so his rogue poofs out of existence despite all of Hallister's protections.
(a bit later when Joe arrives later)
DM: Welcome Joe! The rogue pops back into existence and joins the group.
(an hour before the game ends when Joe gets an emergency text and has to leave)
DM: There goes Joe out of existence again! Hallister is having fits.

Like I said when I first started playing a lot of 5E I worried about this like you do now. But once you try it, it doesn't even come close to the other things you need to do to bend reality into the story.

Those things actually make sense in the fiction, unlike Poofing Joe.

 

[Hriston]

Maybe he disappeared into one of the secret doors.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

What is so difficult to accept in game about a guy who was with you a minute ago not being with you now?

But how could you prioritize making the gameplay more enjoyable for everyone when you can be a slave to verisimilitude? Heresy!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Picked up right where we left off, literally in a Dungeon (actually the basement of a warehouse connected by secret underground tunnels to other areas under the city and infested with cultists).

And yet the complete disappearance of your party rogue is in no way unusual?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am saying a colleague/ally/friend being right next to you one minute and not with your group the next is not any more immersion breaking than anything else in the game and in terms of "suspension of disbelief" it is a whole lot easier to accept than some of the things both people and enemies can do in the game.

Magic is one thing, but if you want to talk strictly non-Magic, our Fighter can hit an elephant with a stick and make it fall to the ground.

What is so difficult to accept in game about a guy who was with you a minute ago not being with you now?

The fact that is very obviously makes no logical sense? We all have different lines, and I don't casually accept the kind of breaks from reality you're suggesting without explanation.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But how could you prioritize making the gameplay more enjoyable for everyone when you can be a slave to verisimilitude? Heresy!

A party who disappears without explanation and no one cares makes my gameplay less enjoyable. Sorry if that seems strange to you.

 

[Reef]

If you are already accepting disappearing and reappearing characters with no explanation, and are trying to bend the game into getting to use your best stats for every roll, you might as well just ask the DM to handwave the secret doors. “Uh…I guess Bob the Rogue magically popped in long enough to point out that secret door before vanishing again…”

Seriously, enjoy the fact your characters have weaknesses. Use that fact to create interesting side quests. Find another way around the secret doors. Go sweet talk a wizard into lending you a Wand of Secret Door Detection (and what storylines might pop up from that?). Turn the challenge into a cool story to tell.

And if you’re stuck in a dungeon, can’t leave, and are totally dependent on finding secret doors to progress….well, that’s a bad dungeon. And if such a thing is common in your campaign, maybe your group should have built some redundancy into your characters.