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<blockquote data-quote="thewok" data-source="post: 6253346" data-attributes="member: 60907">&quot;Passive&quot; is actually not a great term for it.&nbsp; Perception itself is somewhat passive anyway.&nbsp; More active examinations would be Search.&nbsp; Think of the Passive Perception as the baseline.&nbsp; Then, monsters and traps will roll against that DC in order to determine if they've hidden (or were hidden, in the case of traps) well enough.In my games, passive perception is the &quot;Always on until you tell me otherwise&quot; stat.&nbsp; Players can, of course, decide to make more active Perception checks (say, by looking more closely at those flowers to see if they're poisonous, looking up to see if Darkmantles are above them, trying to see if that chest has a strange sheen to it that might be a mimic's &quot;glue,&quot; etc.), but they run the risk of focusing on the wrong thing at an inopportune time (i.e. failing their roll).Re: Speed changes, I'm all for them.&nbsp; Speed is pretty much just combat speed, anyway.&nbsp; As I said on the WotC forum, when combats last a very short amount of time (usually less than 30 seconds, almost always less than a minute), then it makes sense that a Small race can keep stride with a Medium race.&nbsp; In fact, we already have this phenomenon with a creature's space, as both Small and Medium take up a five-foot square in combat.&nbsp; The Medium guy might move less to cover all the angles, but that also means that the Small race has to be able to move quickly around in that fighting area.&nbsp; When speed really matters is when moving overland, or in sprinting.&nbsp; Generally, a Medium race should carry a higher multiplier for running than a Small race has.&nbsp; A gnome could keep pace with a half-orc in combat, but over an entire day, the gnome's not going to be able to keep up that speed.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="thewok, post: 6253346, member: 60907"] "Passive" is actually not a great term for it. Perception itself is somewhat passive anyway. More active examinations would be Search. Think of the Passive Perception as the baseline. Then, monsters and traps will roll against that DC in order to determine if they've hidden (or were hidden, in the case of traps) well enough. In my games, passive perception is the "Always on until you tell me otherwise" stat. Players can, of course, decide to make more active Perception checks (say, by looking more closely at those flowers to see if they're poisonous, looking up to see if Darkmantles are above them, trying to see if that chest has a strange sheen to it that might be a mimic's "glue," etc.), but they run the risk of focusing on the wrong thing at an inopportune time (i.e. failing their roll). Re: Speed changes, I'm all for them. Speed is pretty much just combat speed, anyway. As I said on the WotC forum, when combats last a very short amount of time (usually less than 30 seconds, almost always less than a minute), then it makes sense that a Small race can keep stride with a Medium race. In fact, we already have this phenomenon with a creature's space, as both Small and Medium take up a five-foot square in combat. The Medium guy might move less to cover all the angles, but that also means that the Small race has to be able to move quickly around in that fighting area. When speed really matters is when moving overland, or in sprinting. Generally, a Medium race should carry a higher multiplier for running than a Small race has. A gnome could keep pace with a half-orc in combat, but over an entire day, the gnome's not going to be able to keep up that speed. [/QUOTE]

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