D&D 5E How do you handle secret doors?

[Swarmkeeper]

I find that handles kind of defeat the purpose of making a door secret. What you see a handle just randomly sticking out somewhere... you know a door is probably there as well.

EDIT - GAH!!! @Aldarc BEAT ME TO THE JOKE BY 5 SECONDS!!! DAMN YOU @Aldarc! DAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! ** shakes fist at sky **

LOL

This now makes me want to put a big door handle randomly on a wall that is..... a mimic

 

[Bill Zebub]

There kinda is an established procedure? Secret doors are precisely what passive perception is for. On rare occasion if I feel it's more fun to let the PCs have a chance to find or not find a secret door, I'll roll randomly behind the screen using the highest perception bonus for passive detection. Usually once (Probability being what it is, using 3+ individual rolls is almost certain to find the door regardless of difficulty - well.... regardless of difficulties needing a natural roll in the extreme upper end). Active searching is always performed individually at the players' discretion, of course.

I agree this is established, I have just decided that I don't think it's very interesting or fun.

Sometimes I merely provide clues and let the PCs play around actively until they find out what's going on. "You feel an odd draught of air as you pass the corner here". "There are some scratches on the floor along this hall." "The stonework looks a little different in this area." "You notice a trail of faint smudges that extend partway along the east wall." "It looks like there's a piece of hair stuck between the wall planks over there." "The thumping of your footsteps sounds off for a second." "You notice a place where it look like the cobwebs have been torn away."

I've found that these sorts of clues give away too much, and players don't really feel like they've done something on their own. I prefer to give them a hint that there are rooms they haven't discovered, to which they conclude there must be a secret door somewhere that they haven't discovered, so they start looking at their maps trying to figure out where it must be. If I've really done my job right they remember a clue I previously gave them in passing (that they weren't supposed to pick up on at the time), but usually I have to give them new hints once they start looking in the right place(s). But because they are intentionally looking, and the hint is in response to their actions, the revelation of those clues doesn't feel like a giveaway, it feels like something they accomplished. It's really fun when they finally solve the puzzle.

But....it takes a lot of prep.

 

[el-remmen]

I include two kinds of secret doors. Ones that meant to found and those not meant to be found.

By "meant to be found," I don't mean they will necessarily be found, but they are either specifically narratively interesting or are tied in to a plot element (the magical sword that will help kill the final boss is in there) and thus moves the adventure along in a productive and helpful way.

For those "not meant to found," I don't mean they can't find them, but they have some kind of logistical use that the PCs can use in unexpected ways but they have to be very lucky or clever to search in just the right area for them. I usually give no clues beyond the description of the area and they have to say where they are specifically searching. For example, in a recent adventure raiding the swamp lair of a cult, the party druid was like "I search for a secret door in the wall behind that statue at the back of the nook ." I had given no clues. It was just a statue in a nook in a hallway across from the high priest's quarters. This was a map I drew myself so, it is not like the player could have seen the module ahead of time. He just thought, "I am gonna look" and he was right. It happened to be the secret passage that allowed the high priest to go from his quarters to the shrine on the lower level without having to deal with all the various guardians and traps in-between. This allowed the PCs to avoid most of that too and get the drop on the priest! I love when unexpected things happen. But essentially that passage was meant to explain how some of the bad guys get around some of lair's dangers, not a narrative thing where I expected the PCs to do that too.

But in general, players either prompt the search specifically or find clues in part of searching in general or for something else. Since my players love to walk around in the dark, they usually are dealing with dim "darkvision" conditions, so their passive perceptions suffer and they turn on light for specific searches anyway.

 

[Scott Christian]

In 5e, there is no default procedure for secret doors afaik.

I ask my players to describe exactly what they are doing, and if they are doing a thing that might reasonably find the secret door, I'll let them find it and describe how the opening mechanism is hidden (so they could use again if they want). If they are doing something sort of close, then I'll let them roll perception or investigation.

How do you handle?

Literally the exact same way. I generally throw something into the description of the setting; a soft breeze, a swept or crumbly floor, a smell, tiny sounds. I am sure to add those to other areas too if they are in an area where there would be such a thing. Lastly, if they are doing the general investigation or perception (or sometimes nature), I will sometimes re-highlight the description, so as to lead them to the door. When crunched for time, I will just let the roll succeed.

 

[jayoungr]

I had a similar question a few months ago. You might find that thread useful:

D&D 5E - Secret Doors

I'm running an adventure with a lot of secret doors right now, and I'm struggling with how to keep them from becoming monotonous on the one hand or trivial on the other. I don't want to slow down the game while the players go over every inch of wall, but just allowing the characters with high...

www.enworld.org

And here are some older threads with more advice:

D&D 5E - How do you do secret doors?

I'm gearing up to run Caverns of Thracia converted to 5e in the Summer and I really don't have an idea on how to do secret doors in a meaningful way. In the old days it was just a d6 roll whenever the party passed on, and I suppose the logical continuation of that would be a perception check now...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - The Art of the Secret Door

I posted this a long time ago elsewhere, but I felt like it was worth discussing again with the 5e release. [1] Do you design secret doors with mechanisms which require specific verbal instructions from your players to discover and unlock? If so let us hear the details of any you devised that...

www.enworld.org

 

[Li Shenron]

There is, actually, in the DMG, pp. 103-104.

Secret Doors
A secret door is crafted to blend into the wall that surrounds it. Sometimes faint cracks in the wall or scuff marks on the floor betray the secret door’s presence.

Detecting a Secret Door. Use the characters’ passive Wisdom (Perception) scores to determine whether anyone in the party notices a secret door without actively searching for it. Characters can also find a secret door by actively searching the location where the door is hidden and succeeding on a Wisdom (Perception) check. To set an appropriate DC for the check, see chapter 8.

Opening a Secret Door. Once a secret door is detected, a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check might be required to determine how to open it if the opening mechanism isn’t obvious. Set the DC according to the difficulty guidelines in chapter 8.

If adventurers can’t determine how to open a secret door, breaking it down is always an option. Treat it as a locked door made of the same material as the surrounding wall, and use the guidelines in the Running the Game section to determine appropriate DCs or statistics.

The rule is so surprisingly uncomplicated that it is almost hidden in the DMG. We also know that a lot of people don't actually read the DMG so I think the OP is excused for not noticing it

I used to hate the DMG rule because of passive perception, which makes every hidden door automatically found or viceversa not-found by default so basically when the DM "designs" the door, she decides whether it will or won't be found.

However I later realized that this is not entirely true...

If I use a published adventure that has a hidden door with a DC such that my PCs will find it, so be it. It is NOT MY FAULT. Instead of the randomness of the dice, there's the randomness of me picking this adventure and a player having put a high score enough in passive perception.

If I write an adventure myself, I just make sure the DC is high enough so that no PC can find it with passive perception. It makes sense a secret door is built purposefully at least "hard" (DC 20) in most cases except on a cheap or hasty job, so it's easy to make it not-found by default. But that means the PC either need to choose to search for it in the correct place and roll, or otherwise had the right intuition to boost their passive perception.

I no longer use them. Problem solved.

It's an option. Taken to the extreme, if you stop playing the game, you solve all the problems you have with it.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I try to give little clues in the room description that get more detailed for characters with high Passive Perception or Investigation, or for characters actively searching. For example:

A puddle of fetid water pools beneath the north stone wall.

For a character with a high enough Passive Perception or Investigation, (or for characters actively investigating the puddle) I might add:

The puddle seems to pass through a small gap beneath the wall.

Now the search is on! I can expect characters to start poking and prodding the stone wall, trying to figure out how to open it. Let's say I already decided that pushing on a certain stone will open the door. When a character describes doing so, the door will open. Otherwise when the characters roll high enough, or have a high enough Passive check, I might say:

You notice one of the stones is a little offset from the others, set a little further into the wall...

No matter what, I'll never just tell the players how to open the door, but I'll lead them right up to the solution if needed!

 

[Umbran]

If I use a published adventure that has a hidden door with a DC such that my PCs will find it, so be it. It is NOT MY FAULT. Instead of the randomness of the dice, there's the randomness of me picking this adventure and a player having put a high score enough in passive perception.

In addition... randomness is overrated. If the player has put enough into their ability to find such stuff... they should find it. That's okay - it is part of their shtick, and they should be allowed to have it. It is not the GM's job to specifically try to bypass things players have worked to attain.

I often allow a character to use Investigation rather than Perception, and have them have slightly different chances depending on the situation. Perception will find the door itself, and Investigation will find the evidence that implies the door's existence so that they find it. Which has the lower DC I handle on a case-by-case basis.

This policy brought to me by characters with passive Investigation of 23+, who really kind of be able to figure things out in Sherlock Holmesian fashion.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I try to give little clues in the room description that get more detailed for characters with high Passive Perception or Investigation, or for characters actively searching. For example:

A puddle of fetid water pools beneath the north stone wall.

For a character with a high enough Passive Perception or Investigation, (or for characters actively investigating the puddle) I might add:

The puddle seems to pass through a small gap beneath the wall.

Now the search is on! I can expect characters to start poking and prodding the stone wall, trying to figure out how to open it. Let's say I already decided that pushing on a certain stone will open the door. When a character describes doing so, the door will open. Otherwise when the characters roll high enough, or have a high enough Passive check, I might say:

You notice one of the stones is a little offset from the others, set a little further into the wall...

No matter what, I'll never just tell the players how to open the door, but I'll lead them right up to the solution if needed!

I love all of that except the passive perception part. I mean, do that, too. But I feel it robs the players of a little victory.
I might add another hint, such as that a steady trickle of water seems to be running down the opposite wall, and trickling across the floor into the puddle. That will (I hope) make them wonder why the water level isn't rising. (Or maybe why this only recently started happening, which is another possible hook.)

If that fails I might have to use passive perception. :-(

 

[Shiroiken]

I've completely redone a few things to create expanded travel rules to work with short term travel, such as exploring a site or dungeon. Searching for oddities is one of the options, where you're looking for things that seem out of place, usually indicating a trap or secret door. I roll 1d20+[DC-11] against the character's Passive Investigation (with advantage if the character is in Dim Light), and a failed roll indicates the PC notices the oddity. I don't bother with a secondary check to figure out how to opening it or what the trap is.

The biggest advantage of this is moving most traps and secret doors away from Perception, which is already considered one of the strongest skills. Additionally, it makes sense to me, since a lot of triggers and other things that rely on perception should be easily seen, but disregarded as unimportant, since you see lots of these types of things. Loose stones, discoloration, torches at slightly odd angle, etc, are signs of age and shoddy construction, not necessarily a trap or secret door. Intelligence/Investigation helps sort out what's important and what's not.