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Message: <blockquote data-quote="abirdcall" data-source="post: 6598278" data-attributes="member: 6748898">A couple weeks ago someone in my group asked about passive checks. This was my answer. What do you think, did I get anything wrong? Would you do things differently?"Do you forgo your passive perception value when you do a generalized active spot/search?"Passive Checks - Used to represent the average result of a repetitive check, such as searching for secret doors over and over again or for determining the result of a check in secret so as not to alert the players.So, here is the long answer. 5e is what you want it to be. It's a blend of 1e-4e. It is reasonable for the DM to say that your passive investigation is what you get for saying "I search the room" and it takes saying "I look under the carpet to get the auto-success. That is more 1e style with some ease of use. He could also go more 3.x and say that it just takes time.Personally I would be most inclined to have the group describe what they are doing and how they are doing it. Then make one roll. If the roll sucks they can spend extra time to use their passive score but they can't get above it. This represents missing details because you have already gone over them and missed the secret whatever the first time so you don't think to check it again."If so, then wouldn't it make sense to let your passive do all the work, because you only have a 45% chance of beating the always-on passive with an active roll?"Rolls should only come into play when there is a consequence for failure. That is built into the system and makes sense. I would allow a passive climb until something surprising happened like the wall crumbled and gave way. Then make a check, see what you are able to do."Does the active search value change (auto-success, etc) when you specially call out locations - ie, "I look under the rug and in the cupboards."5e is rulings not rules. So up to the DM which way they want to take it. There are good and bad parts of this. One of the pillars of the game is exploration. Reducing it to a die roll misses a lot of fun. It can get tedious to say that you search absolutely everything. There is a middle ground."Can you get around this rule by having everyone under the highest passive take an active search, hoping to beat it with a roll?"I prefer either having the whole group make 1 roll or having all members of the group make rolls with the aim of half of them beating the DC."Or if active roll doesn't cancel out passive value, then effectively the floor of your search chance is your passive value."I think this is reasonable if you have time and are not pressured in some way.</blockquote>

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