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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6575925" data-attributes="member: 20323">Actually, I use Perception and Investigation differently than you do. From my perspective, you're jumbling active Perception checks, passive Perception score, and Investigation checks. Here's how I'd handle your examples...Passive Perception: If the PC has no reason to be alarmed, is walking along, and you want to see if they notice enemies lying in ambush or not. Compare to the enemy's Stealth check.Active Perception: If the PC has a reason to be alarmed and the player asks to make a Perception check to notice something in particular; asking if they are being followed or if there are signs of snipers in the trees could both be used as lead-ins by the DM to reveal the shadows of hidden creatures in the forest ahead.No use for Investigation is indicated in this example.I'd say spotting the tripwire while walking is probably a passive Perception situation, because the DM to determines wants to secretly determine if the PC notices, and calling for a check reveals that there's something to discover. Stopping to look for traps is an active Perception check. As DM I'd report direct observable phenomenon with as few inferences as I can manage. "One flagstone depresses slightly when pressed, and a faint whirring sound like a spinning whetstone or blade comes from the long narrow holes cut thru the ceiling that you assumed were murder holes."Investigation would enter the picture if the PC tries to figure out how the trap functions, clues about how they might disable it, or clues about who made it and for what purpose. For example: "Lifting the flagstone up slightly with help from your friends you find the bottom is bolted to a chain which seems to jog to the right under the floor. Moving aside some crumbling stones, you peep thru a crack in the wall to reveal a chain and an anchor block. When the flagstone is depressed, the chain slackens, freeing the anchor block which you suspect is the fulcrum causing the blades hidden in the ceiling to swing down. Judging by the size and estimated weight of the anchor block, you'd guess whatever blades are hidden in the ceiling couldn't be longer than 5 or 6 feet. Meaning that crawling should avoid them in the 9-ft tall passage."</blockquote>

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