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<blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6853392" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I use passive checks pretty frequently. To me passive checks can be used as a baseline, but I provide less information with a passive check. This is combined with the concept of variable success/failure. For example, a party is travelling through the woods and some orcs have set up an ambush. I'll tell a player with a high enough passive Perception something like, &quot;you feel like you're being watched,&quot; or &quot;you heard a twig snap to the right.&quot; Then they decide how they want to proceed. A rolled Perception would potentially yield more information.A passive Investigation check would yield a &quot;hunch&quot; as to what the various clues mean (gives me an opportunity to fill in some blanks if they aren't &quot;getting it&quot; on their own). Some passive checks I use as just automatic success. Passive Athletics checks give me an idea of how difficult a climb a particular character is good at before having to start rolling checks. If they engage in combat while climbling, they'll most likely have to make some actual checks.I also use a modification of the &quot;Take 20&quot; concept. That is, if the character is capable of succeeding, then they will eventually, given enough time. I don't want to deal with rolling over and over. So if the DC is 20, the character has a +3, and rolls an 8, the difference between the DC and the roll is the amount of time it will take (they don't know how long that is). In this case 9 rounds. If they stop before that they don't succeed.But, I also still want to allow some chance of outright failure, although it shouldn't be too high. So if they fail by more than 5, or more than 10, there may be other consequences, although that doesn't prevent them from continuing.The Reliable Talent ability isn't really affected. That comes into play when an active check is needed, and since it's an 11th level ability, it's also more for the very complex tasks (DC 25+), since many things would be well within their reach without the ability. Overall, I find passive checks very useful.Ilbranteloth</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ilbranteloth, post: 6853392, member: 6778044"] I use passive checks pretty frequently. To me passive checks can be used as a baseline, but I provide less information with a passive check. This is combined with the concept of variable success/failure. For example, a party is travelling through the woods and some orcs have set up an ambush. I'll tell a player with a high enough passive Perception something like, "you feel like you're being watched," or "you heard a twig snap to the right." Then they decide how they want to proceed. A rolled Perception would potentially yield more information. A passive Investigation check would yield a "hunch" as to what the various clues mean (gives me an opportunity to fill in some blanks if they aren't "getting it" on their own). Some passive checks I use as just automatic success. Passive Athletics checks give me an idea of how difficult a climb a particular character is good at before having to start rolling checks. If they engage in combat while climbling, they'll most likely have to make some actual checks. I also use a modification of the "Take 20" concept. That is, if the character is capable of succeeding, then they will eventually, given enough time. I don't want to deal with rolling over and over. So if the DC is 20, the character has a +3, and rolls an 8, the difference between the DC and the roll is the amount of time it will take (they don't know how long that is). In this case 9 rounds. If they stop before that they don't succeed. But, I also still want to allow some chance of outright failure, although it shouldn't be too high. So if they fail by more than 5, or more than 10, there may be other consequences, although that doesn't prevent them from continuing. The Reliable Talent ability isn't really affected. That comes into play when an active check is needed, and since it's an 11th level ability, it's also more for the very complex tasks (DC 25+), since many things would be well within their reach without the ability. Overall, I find passive checks very useful. Ilbranteloth [/QUOTE]

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