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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Magus Coeruleus" data-source="post: 4432428" data-attributes="member: 1704">Fair enough.  Of course some traps can be stand alone but those might be better as skill challenges.  Still, when integrating traps and monsters I find it much more likely that I would my players would face monsters that would use traps to help ambush them, i.e. the trap is sprung and then, while the PCs are discombobulated, they attack.  There is a lot invested, for me anyway, in giving the traps a decent chance to catch PCs unaware.  Otherwise why not just delete "traps" as such from the DMG and call them all "hazards" since they're just obstacle courses or even "terrain features" since everyone can so often detect and exploit them?This.  If there are Easy, Medium, and Hard DCs my preference is that Easy = ~50/50 chance if totally unskilled and unexceptional in relevant ability; ~75/25 if skilled; approaching 100 if skilled and high ability etc.  And then just shift those as you move up difficulty.  Errata/Reworking notwithstanding, if you look at the set DCs for many Skills for comon actions like hearing a conversation vs. whispers, swimming in smooth vs. rough vs. stormy waters, etc., my general feeling is that skill checks are not supposed to be DC 5 even for easy.So anyway, here's my current thinking: I like a "stealth" roll for the trap vs. passive perception to minimize rolls but not make trap detection a forgone conclusion.  I worry about using a roll for the trap AND rolls for the party with active perception checks because that creates a LOT of variance, more than I care for.  It may seem clunky but I'm thinking an active check for the trap vs. passive perception but a static DC vs. active perception rolls.  My brain is addled right now but I also have the sneaking suspicion that the static DC shouldn't necessarily just be the active check mod +10 in order to the get the sorts of probabilities I'd like but I'll think on this.</blockquote>

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