Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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OK. I've simplified it to 2 basic rule changes, plus 2 changes that apply to martial classes only.
(1) During combat, if you take the Search action or bonus action on your turn, for a Perception check, whatever you roll+modifiers results in, that result becomes your passive perception score until the start of your next turn.
(2) During combat, if you do NOT take the Search action on your turn, your Passive Perception is 10+modifiers with a -5/disadvantage penalty for Battlefield Uncertainty until the start of your next turn. (note: this disadvantage cancels any advantage from things like Sentinel Shield to your passive perception score)
(3) Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, Rangers, Rogues: at level 5, these classes can Search as a Bonus Action. (i.e. to avoid the Battlefield Uncertainty penalty, use bonus action to Search)
(4) Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, Rangers, Rogues: at level 10 these classes do not suffer the Battlefield Uncertainty penalty (no -5/disadvantage). (i.e. Sentinel Shield advantage is no longer canceled by battlefield uncertainty disadvantage, so Sentinel Shield applies +5(advantage) to passive perception).
Having spent a lifetime training in the art of war, martial classes are eventually able to overcome the Battlefield Uncertainty penalty.
Note: All active rolls for perception, etc, are unaffected by Battlefield Uncertainty.
I'd say concentration on a spell is a flat -5 (not disadvantage, just -5) penalty to perception (both active and passive), but that's another conversation
What is the benefit of this?
Your passive percpetion is 10+mods. which is the average result of an active perception check.
when you are taking the attack action, your passive percption is 10+mods. When you are juggling 6 handgrenades, its 10+mods. When you do nothing, its 10+mods. When you stare into the void, its 10+mods. When you focus every fiber of yoru being into searching, its 10+mods.
In the middle of combat, if you're not actually taking the Search Action, your perception shouldn't be as good, on average, as if you HAD taken the Search action.
Not to mention that if you take the Search Action and roll a perception check, half the time, you will roll worse than your passive percption, so you're probably better off doing nothing and relying on your passive perception score which never waivers. Which is why basically no one takes the Search action during combat. Passive is reliably good.
These rules attempt to fix the above issues, without making things too complicated. Basically, its adding a possible disadvantage penalty, which is the simplest solution I could come up with. And adding a feature to martial classes that reflect builds that overcome this penalty.
Looks like the main idea is to just bring a bit of realism into the game. Although I would a rogue would get rid of the Uncertainty before level 10 as they get Reliable Talent at level 7 and whole "thing" of rogues is to be perceptive to exploit opportunities.
But as to a benefit, this would also make it easier for a creature to take the Hide action (did 5.5e use a flat DC for hilding instead of opponent's passive perception? I'm playing 5e so I don't remember by heart).
5.5 rules say to Hide you roll Stealth check DC 15.
But it also says you are hidden until a creature finds you, which some take to mean the dc of your stealth check is 15 or passive perceptiin of enemy, whichever is highest
An alternative is to completely get rid of passive perception skill and have a
Perception Saving Throw
Skill checks are supposed to be for when you actively do a thing like search. Saving throws are supposed to be for when someone else does a thing to you, like throw a fireball at you.
Saving Throws are pretty basic. But there are already some odd standouts, such as Concentration saving throws. There could be a perception saving throw.
Someone tries to hide and folks make a saving throw too find out of they see the person trying to hide.
War caster gives advantage on concentratiin saves.
Eldritch Mind gives you peoficiency in concentrstion saves.
There could be features and feats specifically for perception(wis) saving throws.
One person hides, a bunch of people roll to save to see if they see them, which means its going to be hard to hide. So rogue access to wxpertise.helps balance things out.
In many cases your perception would INCREASE in a combat situation as your adrenalin, stress, and combat training kicks in. Not in every situation of course.
There is some ambiguity in whether passive perception is always on or not. And if its always on, there are several weird side effects that emerge from assigning passive perception a valie equal to the average result someone woulf get taking an action to do the Search Action for a active perception check.
Weird effects include:
(1) not actively searching and spending your time doing something will produce, on average, thr same level of perception as spending every turn taking the Search Action.
(2) if you actively take the Search Action during combat, half the time, you will roll worse than if you had done something else and relied on your passive perception.
(3) a result of 1 and 2 is players almost never take the Search Action during combat.
The question of whether pp is always on effects how the Hide action works.
One interpretation is pp is only on when the dm wants it on, and maybe the d.m doesnt want it on for hiding. so the rogue trying to hide has to beat a 15 dc on their stealth check if the dm decides its off. In that case, the weird outcome is that if the rogues check beats a 15, they are hidden and invisible until an enemy takes the Search action and rolls better than the rogues stealth check. Even out in the open, there is no passive perception by dm's fiat, so the rogue rrmains hidden
The other issue with this is the effectiveness of rogues and finding rogues is entirely down to dm choices that arent neccessarily going to get articulated to thr players.
If pp is always on, then thr rogues stealth check has to beat 15 or the highest passive perception of any enemy in the area. But then that produces the 3 weird effects already enumerated
Thie homebrew fixes most of the problems by clarifyig its always on, but applying a -5 / disadvantage penalty during combat
No. Under stress, people experience tunnel vision.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-forensic-view/202202/how-we-process-under-pressure-tunnel-vision
They lose situational awareness
https://www.faasafety.gov/files/events/SO/SO15/2024/SO15134204/Situational_awareness,_understanding_what_is_happening_in_order_to_act.pdf
Military training attempts to desensitize personel to the sight and sounds of combat, and train them over and over to do their job so if they do panic, they can revert to training. Exposure might be an exercisr where people are crawling under barb wire with machine guns firing over their heads and explosions going off around them. Training might have trainees practice over and over thr process of clearing a room, or clear their weapon if it jams, or render first aid if someone is injured.
Untrained civilians will tend to just panic and freeze up or run away.
Thats why first aid courses teach things like ABC=Airway, Breathing, Circulation. In a panic, you might only remembr abc, and from there unpack what it means and what to do.