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Passive perception in #dnd works on traps
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Apr 9, 2025
Passive perception in #dnd works on traps just like rolling Perception would. Passive Investigation is only a thing according to the DnDBeyond character sheet and I have no idea why they added it. #dnd5e #2024dnd #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons
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passive perception and traps that's a
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fun one uh so this commenter they they
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meant investigation not interrogation
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autocomplete what can you do the 5e
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rules have done a really bad job
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explaining the difference between
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perception and
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investigation but the 2024 Dungeon
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Masters Guide on page 35 does actually
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have a pretty good explanation and it
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only took them 10 years to actually
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explain the difference so perception is
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for finding and noticing things that are
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hidden hidden doors hidden creatures
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traps etc investigation is for
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understanding things understanding how
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they work understanding what they are so
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use investigation with the study action
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while you use perception with the search
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action and that should kind of give you
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an idea of what they're intended to do
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now how does perception work with traps
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specifically basically if a tra like a
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trap will have essentially a perception
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DC to find it if your characters have a
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per a passive perception that is higher
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than the perception DC for the trap they
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notice the trap that's it
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uh if their passive perception is lower
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than the perception DC for the trap
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they'll need to get an impression that
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there's a trap somewhere or just guess
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essentially and then they can make an
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active perception check and hope that
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they roll above a 10 and then maybe they
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find the trap now this does create a
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really frustrating situation where
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characters who are sufficiently
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observant maybe they they have expertise
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maybe they just have really good wisdom
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I don't know but those characters can be
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so good at perception that it is
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effectively impossible to surprise them
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with traps and for that reason those
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classic dungeon crawls Tomb of Horrors
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etc That style of gaming essentially no
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longer exists in 5e because it is simply
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too easy to find traps now a lot of
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people are perfectly fine with that um
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like those old school dungeons they have
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a place they were a lot of fun i love
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that style of gameplay personally but
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there are a lot of players who really
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just don't like they they feel like
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being stabbed by a needle in a doornob
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or whatever is a cheap trick so they're
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perfectly fine with those things being
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handled by passive perception if you do
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want that kind of old school dungeon
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crawl feel where traps still feel
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surprising and dangerous consider just
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doing away with passive perception
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entirely
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