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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7231790" data-attributes="member: 6778044">I don't agree with what I've bolded, although it certainly doesn't mean you have to agree with me...I think passive Perception is always active. Don't forget that certain circumstances would provide advantage on that passive Perception as well.So I don't think you'd need to be heavily obscured or concealed, but your chance of success would be very, very low without something to assist you.Like throwing a rock in the other direction. That can create a distraction to sneak past in the open. I would make that against their passive Perception since they aren't attempting to detect you, they are trying to detect whatever made that noise "over there."Also, while your Perception score doesn't apply to a group check when foraging, etc. I'd say that by yourself that activity would give you disadvantage on your Perception check. Yes, you are always alert in combat, but to me that measure of alertness is your passive Perception.Part of what passive Perception reflects to me is that people are inherently distractible. That a guard isn't just standing their scanning for intruders. They're talking to the other guards, dozing off, checking the time (the sun...), daydreaming, whatever. When you are attempting to sneak past in the open, you're looking for an opening when you can do so. It will be tough. Much tougher than if there was a wall between you. But daily life and numerous scientific studies show that it is possible.So instead of just saying you fail, I think that in most cases it's about figuring out how difficult it is. Granting advantage to their passive Perception, and disadvantage to your Stealth check bumps up the difficulty pretty high. Or you can just go by the example of the ranger's Hide In Plain Sight ability, and assign a -10 penalty to the Stealth check, or a +10 bonus to the passive Perception.In the end, it's not that different - it's a near guaranteed failure. And frankly, I'm OK with some things being outright impossible. But I do like to engage the rules to get there when making that sort of adjudication, and it would start with the passive Perception score. It would probably be a very quick calculation in my head, then, "Well, you can certainly attempt it, but you aren't detecting any sort of pattern to the guard's behavior. You'd probably need to find a way to conceal yourself, or ensure that the guard will be occupied for more than a few seconds" and leave it up to the players to find that sort of solution (like throwing the rock).</blockquote>

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