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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 7161248" data-attributes="member: 2011">Two issues with this:1) Having a player declare that they are searching for secret doors and then having a trap autohit doesn't make sense to me. He is searching. He really doesn't know what he is searching for, but he is looking. Pressing stone, blowing dust over edges, whatever. To me, if he declares he is searching for a secret door and there is only a hidden trap, I let him roll to find the trap. If there is a hidden monster behind an illusory ceiling tile, I let him try to find the hidden opening, the monster does not automatically win surprise because the PC was busy searching for a secret door. Searching for secret doors also allows him to find non-conspicuous runes or anything else out of the ordinary. He's searching.2) The 10x effort and auto succeeds on a check rule in the DMG (page 237) is problematic to me. I don't think that PCs should automatically succeed at tasks, just because they put extra time in. Climbing Mount Everest is slow going, but low skill (and even highly trained) people still fall. I would only use that rule if the DC is within a reasonable range of being successful. Say the PC has to roll an 18 on the die roll to make the check, he's not going to make it automatically (in my game) by taking 10x as long. A better rule (IMO), is to allow him to roll once with advantage if he takes 10x as long. I don't like auto-successes. Also, you mentioned that the PC would automatically know with certainty with the 10x rule that if nothing is found, nothing is there. According to the DMG, that is not quite correct. It might be an impossible task for this PC and he autofails, but it might be a possible task for a different more skilled PC. He doesn't know that nothing is there, he knows he tried his best and didn't find it.</blockquote>

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