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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6807214" data-attributes="member: 12731">I use passive checks to justify telling the players what I would like to tell them anyway. For instance, if they pass by a bandit ambush, the maths tell me it is very likely SOMEBODY in the party will roll high enough to spot the clumsy bandits. This means, rolling dice essentially only decides WHO spots the bandits. With passive checks, I can simply say "anyone meets DC 14 spots bandits in the woods" and get on with it. You could say this unduly rewards the high-Perception character, but really, what it does, is tell the group what the group would like find out anyway. In cases where there is a significant advantage from being the one succeeding on a roll, then roll. Don't use passive Perception to decide who finds and gets to keep the King's Crown.--- I would not feel obliged to apply their passive checks on everything. I could apply it on everything if I want to focus on the action and/or speed things up, but I don't have to.That would include illusions. All the passive check does is, when the player has his character suspect foul play ("I disbelieve!") you can immediately tell him whether he sees through the illusion or not, without having to ask for a die roll. You could also ask for the roll. Or decide the player hasn't earned such a check yet.This speeds up the game, since players only spend actions to percept, investigate or sense motive if their passive checks isn't enough to satisfy the players curiosities and suspicions. Without the passive check, there would be many more actions taken on these skills. And many of them would be trivial or boring, and above-all time-consuming.</blockquote>

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