By the end, the party should all be level 14 and 15, and then the DC's to find a hidden door are like a 12. Why bother? Passive perception for most Level 14 characters will be above this, is it just for narrative purposes, as I can tell the characters after much searching you find an unused passageway, as opposed to there is a neon sign saying Entrance Here, but the effect is the same? There are lots of examples like this, the traps in Xonthal's tower, the secret doors, all below the average passive perception of a level 3 party.
modules often require a fair amount of work. just adjust the DC's. even at lvl 4 nothing is below 14 at my table. 14 is the easiest it can be. there is also "taking 10" but who cares about that.
modules often require a fair amount of work. just adjust the DC's. even at lvl 4 nothing is below 14 at my table. 14 is the easiest it can be. there is also "taking 10" but who cares about that.
There is no “taking 10” in 5e, that was replaced by the Passive Ability checks system.
By the end, the party should all be level 14 and 15, and then the DC's to find a hidden door are like a 12. Why bother? Passive perception for most Level 14 characters will be above this
The odds are there's at least one person in a level 1 party with a passive score above 12, and a 20 is pretty likely at level 14. Honestly, 5e seems to have decided that secret doors and traps should be irrelevant.
By the end, the party should all be level 14 and 15, and then the DC's to find a hidden door are like a 12. Why bother? Passive perception for most Level 14 characters will be above this,
They still need need to thoroughly search for secret doors in order to utilize the passive perception.
Sure they could say "in every single room and corridor we search for secret doors" but that would pretty cheesy and unrealistic.
having a passive doesn't mean you automatically see and find everything. a passive is just a general pass of the area. so they might pick up on a draft of wind or something general that stands out. they do not automatically find the hidden secret passage. an active roll is still needed to find out what is actually going on and where does that draft lead too. the use of passive vs active is highly miss used by many.
A 12 is still a find every time for a group of Level 15 characters. The secret door in this case is to access the caldera, and given that there are multiple accesses, its reasonable for their scouts to say something as simple as, we spend our time completing a thorough search for available entrances to the caldera. I can deny them the opportunity to roll a 12, or I can hope they roll an 18 or 20 and say they found it. (While apparently the cultists, never managed to despite working in the area for months).
In Xonthal's tower (when they are only 12th level), there is a trap where the check is a DC 10 Dex save. I don't think of 12th level characters as low level characters. At least in Dragon Heist when they were 4th level, the trap in one of the rooms needed a DC 12 Wisdom save, some of the characters got caught by that one.
The odds are there's at least one person in a level 1 party with a passive score above 12, and a 20 is pretty likely at level 14. Honestly, 5e seems to have decided that secret doors and traps should be irrelevant.
Secret doors and traps that are never found are indeed irrelevant to at least 80% of the people around the table.
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By the end, the party should all be level 14 and 15, and then the DC's to find a hidden door are like a 12. Why bother? Passive perception for most Level 14 characters will be above this, is it just for narrative purposes, as I can tell the characters after much searching you find an unused passageway, as opposed to there is a neon sign saying Entrance Here, but the effect is the same? There are lots of examples like this, the traps in Xonthal's tower, the secret doors, all below the average passive perception of a level 3 party.
modules often require a fair amount of work. just adjust the DC's. even at lvl 4 nothing is below 14 at my table. 14 is the easiest it can be. there is also "taking 10" but who cares about that.
There is no “taking 10” in 5e, that was replaced by the Passive Ability checks system.
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The odds are there's at least one person in a level 1 party with a passive score above 12, and a 20 is pretty likely at level 14. Honestly, 5e seems to have decided that secret doors and traps should be irrelevant.
They still need need to thoroughly search for secret doors in order to utilize the passive perception.
Sure they could say "in every single room and corridor we search for secret doors" but that would pretty cheesy and unrealistic.
having a passive doesn't mean you automatically see and find everything. a passive is just a general pass of the area. so they might pick up on a draft of wind or something general that stands out. they do not automatically find the hidden secret passage. an active roll is still needed to find out what is actually going on and where does that draft lead too. the use of passive vs active is highly miss used by many.
A 12 is still a find every time for a group of Level 15 characters. The secret door in this case is to access the caldera, and given that there are multiple accesses, its reasonable for their scouts to say something as simple as, we spend our time completing a thorough search for available entrances to the caldera. I can deny them the opportunity to roll a 12, or I can hope they roll an 18 or 20 and say they found it. (While apparently the cultists, never managed to despite working in the area for months).
In Xonthal's tower (when they are only 12th level), there is a trap where the check is a DC 10 Dex save. I don't think of 12th level characters as low level characters. At least in Dragon Heist when they were 4th level, the trap in one of the rooms needed a DC 12 Wisdom save, some of the characters got caught by that one.
Secret doors and traps that are never found are indeed irrelevant to at least 80% of the people around the table.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.