Passive Checks

[Tellerve]

I was thinking of doing this for a number of skills when I read in the PHB that it mentions it for Arcana and Dungeoneering. Which is great, and I think for all the monster checks a passive check might be nice.

I was reading through one of the Scales of War adventures, Umbraforge, and there was a mention of opening a door with an dc 12 strength check. I was wondering if other DM's would allow passive strength checks as well? I also find it odd at the table when the wizard is able to break down the door when the dwarf fighter fails etc.

Just wondering what others have thought of passive checks. I want to segway into asking about Skill Challenges, but maybe that should be another post.

 

[James McMurray]

Passive checks instigated by the player are called Take Ten.

 

[HarbingerX]

Passive checks instigated by the player are called Take Ten.

Take 10 is a 3.0 rule. I'll leave it up to the many previous threads to explain why Take 10 was 'un-fun' and removed.

Passive checks are really just that - passive. A player doesn't instigate them.

After carefully reading through the books, reading the forums, and giving it some thought, for me it boils down to this:

• If the players ask want to perform an action, ask yourself 'is this something at which they might fail?'

• If it is, then set the DC and let them roll. Failure is failure, no matter what their passive values might be.

• If it isn't, then just let them succeed.

• If the players to have a chance to notice something automatically.
  • See if their passive DC is high enough to give them the information.

So a roll for Perception for example, should always be to find something that they wouldn't have noticed anyway.

I keep a list of my player's passive scores handy and use that to let them know who notices things. They're not so good at noticing stuff now that their Wizard died and was replaced with a Barbarian....

 

[James McMurray]

Take 10 is a 3.0 rule. I'll leave it up to the many previous threads to explain why Take 10 was 'un-fun' and removed.

You may want to check your PHB (page 179 to be exact). Perhaps you're thinking of take 20?

If you house rule take 10 away and then house rule in a weaker version of it, why not just house rule take 10 itself?