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?

[TiQuinn]

Ok we are in a Dungeon full of secret doors that you need an Investigation check to find. The whole party dumped Intelligence. We do have a Rogue that has expertise in Investigation, so he is pretty good at it, but he is out for 2 weeks. The rest of us have a -1.

The DM lets us use other abilities if we can explain how we do it. My Warlock 4/Fighter 1 has a +2 Strength, +2 Dex and +4 Charisma. The problem is I can't think of a creative way to use those abilities looking for secret doors.

You very suavely lean against the light fixture as you take a sip from your wine glass, and just happen to activate the secret door mechanism by nothing else but your overwhelming coolness. Kind of like Fonzie hitting the side of a radio on the fritz and making it play rock and roll.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Well, as others have already noted, your character can't use charisma to find secret doors, absent very specific circumstances (such as finding an NPC that knows where they are and persuading them to tell you).

On the other hand, you, the player, can!

You can intimidate the DM. Nice game you got here. Shame if anything happened to it. Say, are there any secret rooms in here?

You can persuade the DM. I hear your partner needs a new coat. What's that $100 bill doing by the DM screen? Anyway, any secret doors in here?

You can deceive the DM. I heard some weird noises coming from the kitchen- you should check it out. I'll make sure no one looks at the map while you're gone.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Options:

- Accept you are going to find barely any secret doors and travel through the dungeon as far as you can just on the normal pathways. Once you are done, leave the dungeon and come back later if you really need to get through those secret doors for whatever reason.

- Rather than trying to find methods that allow you to use Charisma, find methods that would allow you to use Perception.

- Take two week off from gaming until the Rogue player comes back. If the DM doesn't want to do that, tell the DM that if this dungeon is really so important to the overall plot of the campaign that it needs to be completed... they then should amend some of their requirements on what it would take for the party to get through it. The DM can either have the party complete the dungeon (and let the players have a little more leniency on what it would take to find/complete it) or the party won't complete it and the DM has to accept that fact. Hopefully the DM does not have their heart set on your group finishing it (at least over the next two weeks when you are missing your rogue) because odds are, you aren't going to.

Also lesson learned: Min-maxing is usually not the best decision when creating a character. Especially if every player chooses to min-max for the same thing the same way.

 

[TiQuinn]

You can also just accept that you’re weak at investigation rolls. Not everyone can be good at everything.

 

[aco175]

Well, as others have already noted, your character can't use charisma to find secret doors, absent very specific circumstances (such as finding an NPC that knows where they are and persuading them to tell you).

On the other hand, you, the player, can!

You can intimidate the DM. Nice game you got here. Shame if anything happened to it. Say, are there any secret rooms in here?

You can persuade the DM. I hear your partner needs a new coat. What's that $100 bill doing by the DM screen? Anyway, any secret doors in here?

You can deceive the DM. I heard some weird noises coming from the kitchen- you should check it out. I'll make sure no one looks at the map while you're gone.

I seem to recall an old Dragon Magazine article about this. Mostly about not interacting with the game and the DM will then react and make the game happen. The DM has this cool adventure planned and you say you cannot locate anything so you all want to just leave and go back to town. The DM suddenly reveals a secret door or NPC happens to come by or such.

Not sure I agreed with the whole article though. Some of it seemed like throwing a tantrum as a player over playing a PC, but there is also a DM responsibility to play 'fair'.

 

[Koloth]

Ok we are in a Dungeon full of secret doors that you need an Investigation check to find. The whole party dumped Intelligence. We do have a Rogue that has expertise in Investigation, so he is pretty good at it, but he is out for 2 weeks. The rest of us have a -1.

The DM lets us use other abilities if we can explain how we do it. My Warlock 4/Fighter 1 has a +2 Strength, +2 Dex and +4 Charisma. The problem is I can't think of a creative way to use those abilities looking for secret doors.

The players made a decision to dump Int for reasons. Now you expect the DM to give you a Get Out of Jail Free card because the dungeon is Int based. Nope. The party is stuck with it.

One option is go back to town and Hire a competent secret door finder. Seems you are loaded with Chr so the negotiations should go in your favor. Or find same in the dungeon and make a deal.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Anyone have decent Insight instead? Perhaps they can find a little non-threatening critter down there that knows about all the secret doors, doesn't want to give anything away, but has a terrible poker face.

 

[Micah Sweet]

carry lots of water and pour it down the walls and see if it drains somewhere in walls or floor, or just take a maul and bash on every wall.

also carry several corpses of orcs or similar so you can tie a rope around it and throw down the hallway to trigger any traps while you are dragging it back towards you.

That's my preferred way. Clever solutions based on the setting and how you interact with it.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Charisma is for interacting with other thinking beings. If the only thinking beings in the room are the party, and they don't have that information... you need to make some more thinking beings.

Cast speak with animals and then do a persuasion check to ask a spider or a rat if they know any secret passages big enough for a humanoid.

 

[SkidAce]

You very suavely lean against the light fixture as you take a sip from your wine glass, and just happen to activate the secret door mechanism by nothing else but your overwhelming coolness. Kind of like Fonzie hitting the side of a radio on the fritz and making it play rock and roll.

"Haaayyyyyyy!"