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Perception vs Investigation
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6576964" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>I think this just goes to show the designers' inconsistency on the matter. A passive check resolves uncertainty in the outcome of a task that a character is performing again and again such as looking for secret doors. That is the character <em>actively</em> doing a thing. The <em>check</em> is the thing that is passive in that there is no roll.</p><p></p><p>So why then is the DC for finding the door here any different? The task is basically the same - searching for secret doors - only in one case the character is searching over and over again and in the other case the character is searching once. In the former, the player is trading time for an average result on the die. In the latter, the player is trading nothing and taking a shot at potentially rolling lower or higher. If the player wants to trade 10x the amount of time it normally takes to find a secret door, then the character may automatically succeed (DMG pg. 237).</p><p></p><p>The designers are really all over the place on this one and it's causing some confusion. However, I still think it's not critical to get it exactly right in the grand scheme of things.</p><p></p><p>Edit: As an aside, this is why you sometimes want time to be a limited resource for the PCs. The easiest way is to create a countdown to Bad Stuff or use wandering monster checks. It's fun and challenging to have to make these trade-offs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 6576964, member: 97077"] I think this just goes to show the designers' inconsistency on the matter. A passive check resolves uncertainty in the outcome of a task that a character is performing again and again such as looking for secret doors. That is the character [I]actively[/I] doing a thing. The [I]check[/I] is the thing that is passive in that there is no roll. So why then is the DC for finding the door here any different? The task is basically the same - searching for secret doors - only in one case the character is searching over and over again and in the other case the character is searching once. In the former, the player is trading time for an average result on the die. In the latter, the player is trading nothing and taking a shot at potentially rolling lower or higher. If the player wants to trade 10x the amount of time it normally takes to find a secret door, then the character may automatically succeed (DMG pg. 237). The designers are really all over the place on this one and it's causing some confusion. However, I still think it's not critical to get it exactly right in the grand scheme of things. Edit: As an aside, this is why you sometimes want time to be a limited resource for the PCs. The easiest way is to create a countdown to Bad Stuff or use wandering monster checks. It's fun and challenging to have to make these trade-offs. [/QUOTE]
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