Situation was a player was in combat and wanted to move to what he thought was a more advantageous position before attacking. He also thought that perhaps the new position may be trapped or unstable. He wanted to.. 1) Perception check the area he was currently in for signs of danger, then 2) Perception check the desired new area for traps and stability, then 3) Jump to the new location (it was across a small moat of water), then, once there, 4) Attack with his bow.
Making a check is not listed specifically as one of the available actions during combat, but "Search" is. The player argued that he was not searching for anything specific, just making sure the area he was in was safe to leave and the area he was going to was safe to travel to. So I ask you all your opinion. Would doing the checks consume his action? Thus disallowing his attack?
Perception checks generally consume a player's action. If they want to notice things without using their action, you'd use their Passive Perception and see what they can notice with that. It's up to the DM, however, and a lot of DMs allow players to make perception checks for free.
That's the rub, isn't it? One of the primary perks of some abilities, spells, and features is that it requires someone to use their action* to search for you, thereby making them unable to do other things on that turn they might otherwise use their action for.
Agreed, it's an action. Note that he can check what's around generally (i.e. is there a big monster across the moat?) without needing to make a check, but to actually search for danger (i.e. is there an ambush or trap across the moat?) requires an action.
I'd rephrase this back to what the character is doing, and then the DM can make the call as to whether what the character is doing requires an action or requires a check.
Is the character just glancing over at the new position to determine if it's safe, before running over there? Sure, the character can do that quickly, far less than the few seconds it takes them for their round. The DM may or may not require a perception check to see whether the character notices anything is amiss there. Maybe there is something wrong, but seeing it on a quick glance is impossible. Or very hard (high DC).
If a character is spending their action to scout out the new location they want to move to, then they probably get a very good idea of whether it's safe. Maybe no check at all is needed because if they take the time, they'll clearly see whatever it is there to see.
The PHB gives the specific example of the "search" action (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/phb/combat#Search ) which is basically that - spending the action to devote attention to finding something. It's clearly something that's needed when there's something that opposes the players, like an enemy that's hiding that they need to find. It's DM's call whether a player spending their entire round on this action is needed to see an environmental hazard.
I'd definitely allow the player to take a quick glance at the land on the other side of the moat before leaping, and potentially ask them to make a check to see how well they do it. I'd make it clear to the player that this is representing a quick glance, and probably wouldn't be able to see anything that's been deliberately hidden such as a trap, but it might be enough to see something like how stable the footing is on the other side or something like that.
This isn't a question of rules or game mechanics but rather a question of how to use a tool. Assuming you are referring to the discord bot Avrae you will want to join their discord support server linked on their site https://avrae.io/ and ask there.
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Situation was a player was in combat and wanted to move to what he thought was a more advantageous position before attacking. He also thought that perhaps the new position may be trapped or unstable. He wanted to.. 1) Perception check the area he was currently in for signs of danger, then 2) Perception check the desired new area for traps and stability, then 3) Jump to the new location (it was across a small moat of water), then, once there, 4) Attack with his bow.
Making a check is not listed specifically as one of the available actions during combat, but "Search" is. The player argued that he was not searching for anything specific, just making sure the area he was in was safe to leave and the area he was going to was safe to travel to. So I ask you all your opinion. Would doing the checks consume his action? Thus disallowing his attack?
Thanks in advance.
Perception checks generally consume a player's action. If they want to notice things without using their action, you'd use their Passive Perception and see what they can notice with that. It's up to the DM, however, and a lot of DMs allow players to make perception checks for free.
RAW, technically it requires an action unless the character has some feature that allows them to do it as bonus action.
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That's the rub, isn't it? One of the primary perks of some abilities, spells, and features is that it requires someone to use their action* to search for you, thereby making them unable to do other things on that turn they might otherwise use their action for.
* bonus action perception checks excepted
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Agreed, it's an action. Note that he can check what's around generally (i.e. is there a big monster across the moat?) without needing to make a check, but to actually search for danger (i.e. is there an ambush or trap across the moat?) requires an action.
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I'd rephrase this back to what the character is doing, and then the DM can make the call as to whether what the character is doing requires an action or requires a check.
Is the character just glancing over at the new position to determine if it's safe, before running over there? Sure, the character can do that quickly, far less than the few seconds it takes them for their round. The DM may or may not require a perception check to see whether the character notices anything is amiss there. Maybe there is something wrong, but seeing it on a quick glance is impossible. Or very hard (high DC).
If a character is spending their action to scout out the new location they want to move to, then they probably get a very good idea of whether it's safe. Maybe no check at all is needed because if they take the time, they'll clearly see whatever it is there to see.
The PHB gives the specific example of the "search" action (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/phb/combat#Search ) which is basically that - spending the action to devote attention to finding something. It's clearly something that's needed when there's something that opposes the players, like an enemy that's hiding that they need to find. It's DM's call whether a player spending their entire round on this action is needed to see an environmental hazard.
I'd definitely allow the player to take a quick glance at the land on the other side of the moat before leaping, and potentially ask them to make a check to see how well they do it. I'd make it clear to the player that this is representing a quick glance, and probably wouldn't be able to see anything that's been deliberately hidden such as a trap, but it might be enough to see something like how stable the footing is on the other side or something like that.
How do you do a perception check on another player character with the discord bot?
This isn't a question of rules or game mechanics but rather a question of how to use a tool. Assuming you are referring to the discord bot Avrae you will want to join their discord support server linked on their site https://avrae.io/ and ask there.