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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Brennen" data-source="post: 6942989" data-attributes="member: 553">It *can* represent repeated activity, where you just want to determine something based on the average of rolling over and over. For instance, I might tweak money earned making a living for downtime activities based on passive tool proficiency for a craftsman or passive Performance for a bard. Obviously this is simpler than rolling everyday to see how many horseshoes the character has made.It can also be subconscious, like Passive Perception, which is not about trying to notice something over and over; it's what you're able to notice when you're not looking.I wouldn't handle it either way.Not completely sure what you mean by "bouldering", but I'm kind of picturing rolling down a hill like Westley in the Princess Bride. If I had characters trying to quickly get down a steep, rocky slope like that, would I have them roll for each boulder? No. Would I just take their average Str (Athletics) or Dex (Acrobatics) and compare to the DC of each boulder? No, not that either, since in your repeated activity explanation, that would mean they either hit ALL the boulders or NONE of the boulders. That right there causes the "passive = repeated" argument to fails for me in many scenarios.What I would do in this case is, first, realize that I don't need to call for a roll for every boulder. If it's a fair distance down the hill, I may have the players make two or three rolls, likely one check per round of movement, but nothing more. You fail, you fall and roll, taking some damage. Continue making checks to try and stop your uncontrolled tumble, or take more damage. I may shake it up a bit by tweaking what happens based on high/low rolls, or a natural 1 or 20. Sort of a mental house rule I apply at my discretion.I'd also do it this way because it from a player perspective, you'd either taking automatic damage or not, based on a static score, without a chance to save yourself. Rolling lets the players feel more in control of their characters, and as I let their rolls sometimes alter the narrative, it gives a feeling of contributing to the action and the story, even if the roll failed.For library research, in my games that's not a repeated activity, but an extended one. It'd require a single roll - Investigation or some other knowledge skill (Religion, Arcana, Nature, etc) as applicable - and the result would be pretty much pass/fail. I might decrease/increase the time spent, or give more/less info, based on the result of the roll, as I mentioned above.Again, in your scenario a PC with a passive score below the DC will always take all day, and the skilled Investigator will always take just an hour. Sometimes it's more fun to have the low-Int half-orc fighter surprise everyone and stumble across the "stupid elf book" before the scholarly wizard does.So, still looking for examples for Passive Investigation in particular. Adding to the oddness of it in the Observant feat seems to give as much weight to it as Passive Perception, which is sort of a special Passive skill. I mean, it's the only one given a spot on the official character sheet. And for a feat to include it, it seems like something that should come up more often.I've seen people mention it might have been something accidentally carried over from the playtest docs, where Passive Investigation had a more specific meaning.</blockquote>

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