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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6750031" data-attributes="member: 97077">I'm going to suggest a different way of looking at this issue:Traps don't have a DC to find them.A Perception check isn't what's used to find traps.Rather, traps can be found by players describing what they want to do and the DM narrating the result of the adventurers' actions. When the result of is uncertain, the DM sets a DC according to his or her estimation of the difficulty based on the player's stated goal and approach and asks for an appropriate ability check.Thus, you cannot even set a DC for a Perception check (passive or otherwise) until you've described the environment and heard what the player wants to do. So setting them beforehand isn't advisable because it does not take into account the player's goal and approach.Further, consider that passive Perception isn't "always-on radar." It's just a mechanic used to resolve uncertainty when the character is performing a task repeatedly. So if a player has established his or her character as "keeping an eye out for hidden dangers" while traveling through the dungeon, the DM can use the PP score to determine an outcome if it is uncertain. If the character is doing anything else that is at least as distracting as navigating, tracking, foraging, or map-making, the character fails to detect the trap and passive Perception doesn't apply. The character must also be in the fictional position to notice the trap to at least have a chance of success. For example, if the party is traveling shoulder to shoulder and the trap is on the left side and the PC is on the far right, the DM may say that the character has no chance of detecting the trap.Consider also that detecting or not detecting the trap is not the challenge. It's just the beginning of the challenge and if you've telegraphed the existence of the trap by including a clue when you describe the environment, you encourage players to meaningfully engage with the environment and thus the exploration pillar. This also removes the perception that the trap was a "gotcha," since it wasn't just a matter of comparing a DC to a passive Perception score before narrating the result. The opportunity to meaningfully change the PCs' fate was offered to them and they just didn't take it.</blockquote>

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