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Perception vs Investigate
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 6943230" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>I look at it this way: There are three parts to a trap/danger: IDENTIFY IT, INVESTIGATE IT, DEFEAT IT. Basically, you need to realize it exists, then you need to figure out how to beat it, then you need to successfully perform those steps. Not all traps/dangers will involve difficulty in all three areas.</p><p></p><p>First, you need to identify a trap exists. Sometimes the traps are hidden. In these cases, you need perception to see the thing that looks out of place. However, some traps or dangers might be quite obviously out of place and will not require a perception check to notice that there is trouble afoot.</p><p></p><p>Once you realize there is something of concern, you need to figure out what to do about it. This is often an investigation check, but it could be arcana, nature, medicine, survival, or something else. The DM should ask the PC to make a check that makes sense for the trap and the skills of the PC. If this succeeds, they know what their options are regarding the trap / danger.</p><p></p><p>Once they know what to do, they need to do it. This may be easy (set fire to it), or it could be complex (sabotage the inner mechanism without disrupting the outer shell). This could be resolved through the PC describing their action, or it could require a sleight of hand check, a thieves tools check, an acrobatics check, a performance check, a stealth check, or whatever else makes sense to bypass or disable the trap.</p><p></p><p>I try to make sure my traps are varied so that some of them require only one roll (you can avoid it easily once noticed, it might be hard to actually disable an obvious and simple trap, etc...), some two (hard to spot, hard to figure out but trivial to disable; obvious to spot but a nightmare to figure out how to disable and then very technically challenging to disable; etc...), and some three. The more checks you need to make, the lower the average DC of those checks should be. </p><p></p><p>I've actually been using this idea for about 20 years, although how I implement it has changed with each edition. It really works.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 6943230, member: 2629"] I look at it this way: There are three parts to a trap/danger: IDENTIFY IT, INVESTIGATE IT, DEFEAT IT. Basically, you need to realize it exists, then you need to figure out how to beat it, then you need to successfully perform those steps. Not all traps/dangers will involve difficulty in all three areas. First, you need to identify a trap exists. Sometimes the traps are hidden. In these cases, you need perception to see the thing that looks out of place. However, some traps or dangers might be quite obviously out of place and will not require a perception check to notice that there is trouble afoot. Once you realize there is something of concern, you need to figure out what to do about it. This is often an investigation check, but it could be arcana, nature, medicine, survival, or something else. The DM should ask the PC to make a check that makes sense for the trap and the skills of the PC. If this succeeds, they know what their options are regarding the trap / danger. Once they know what to do, they need to do it. This may be easy (set fire to it), or it could be complex (sabotage the inner mechanism without disrupting the outer shell). This could be resolved through the PC describing their action, or it could require a sleight of hand check, a thieves tools check, an acrobatics check, a performance check, a stealth check, or whatever else makes sense to bypass or disable the trap. I try to make sure my traps are varied so that some of them require only one roll (you can avoid it easily once noticed, it might be hard to actually disable an obvious and simple trap, etc...), some two (hard to spot, hard to figure out but trivial to disable; obvious to spot but a nightmare to figure out how to disable and then very technically challenging to disable; etc...), and some three. The more checks you need to make, the lower the average DC of those checks should be. I've actually been using this idea for about 20 years, although how I implement it has changed with each edition. It really works. [/QUOTE]
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