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Passive Investigation?
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7376903" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>Some kind of thread on passive checks comes up on the regular around here and, I imagine, in other venues. And inevitably one or more people intuits it to mean that the character is being passive and that in other cases they are being active and that there are passive and active checks to distinguish the two. That's just wrong from a rules standpoint. So calling it an "active Perception check" does not help in my view. Leave it to a game designer to either run or explain their games poorly!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Again, we've had this discussion before, you and me. As I see it, the <em>result</em> doesn't come until well after <em>uncertainty as to the task's outcome</em> is determined with the step in between being the resolving of that uncertainty via a passive check or ability check against a DC (which itself might be fixed or variable). This also addresses certain objections to Expertise as I show in a recent thread on that subject.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I typically call for just the ability and the players apply the proficiency that fits their approach. The rules say the players might ask which applies, but I think it's better to reduce the amount of questions in the game.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In some cases maybe. But I think how the character impacts the outcome usually happens after uncertainty as to the outcome of the task is determined and their ability checks come into play.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>From the rules for passive checks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7376903, member: 97077"] Some kind of thread on passive checks comes up on the regular around here and, I imagine, in other venues. And inevitably one or more people intuits it to mean that the character is being passive and that in other cases they are being active and that there are passive and active checks to distinguish the two. That's just wrong from a rules standpoint. So calling it an "active Perception check" does not help in my view. Leave it to a game designer to either run or explain their games poorly! Again, we've had this discussion before, you and me. As I see it, the [I]result[/I] doesn't come until well after [I]uncertainty as to the task's outcome[/I] is determined with the step in between being the resolving of that uncertainty via a passive check or ability check against a DC (which itself might be fixed or variable). This also addresses certain objections to Expertise as I show in a recent thread on that subject. I typically call for just the ability and the players apply the proficiency that fits their approach. The rules say the players might ask which applies, but I think it's better to reduce the amount of questions in the game. In some cases maybe. But I think how the character impacts the outcome usually happens after uncertainty as to the outcome of the task is determined and their ability checks come into play. From the rules for passive checks. [/QUOTE]
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