So in the context of RPing and using the DDB character sheet, what is the purpose of Passive Insight and Passive Investigation when the PHB only mentions use of Passive Perception?
These are basically the numbers for a character's ability to notice something without trying.
If an NPC is lying or hiding something, you can have it roll against a PC's passive insight, without alerting the players that there is something to be discovered. If the NPC rolls under the passive, you can just tell the player "you get the feeling he isn't telling the truth."
Passive investigation would be a character's ability to solve something at a glance. Any illusion spell that says it can be seen through with an investigation check, a high passive investigation character would not need to use an action.
All skills can have a passive score (10+mod) if you can think of a way to apply them.
Think of passive investigation like that moment in a movie where a skilled detective (Batman, Sherlock Holmes etc) sees something that everyone else is just ignoring and realises the importance of it - without purposefully trying to investigate something, they have deduced that there is more going on than everyone else realises.
You may find it useful to check out this podcast which has an interview with Jeremy Crawford, discussing the use of passive skills (from around 22/23 minutes into the podcast):
I think passive skills are used a little differently by every DM, particularly passive Insight and Investigation - some DMs don't use them at all! Though Jeremy Crawford has said to use them as a 'floor', I very much dislike that personally. When there's no pressure on perceiving something, I use passive perception. If you need to quickly locate something or hear something, it's active. Same goes for passive insight and investigation.
For me, I use Passive Insight as your first sense of a person. You meet someone, and depending on the level of your passive insight you may be able to glean a bit of their personality. I have one member of the party I DM for with a 20 passive insight. I use that to mean that when they meet a new NPC, they might be immediately struck by how they seem to be putting on airs (perhaps someone who is pretending to be something/someone they're not); how they're fidgeting (nervous about something); how they hold themselves with pride (perhaps too prideful to catch onto deception)-- essentially I let the high insight learn something that could be useful in a social encounter with that character.
I do not use passive Insight for insight rolls made while in a social encounter. When you're trying to detect if something that was just said is a lie, or something of that ilk, you don't have the time to carefully gather your insights on the person. So it's more of an active thing (takes 6 seconds or less, an 'action')-- whereas passive is where you have more than 6 seconds to gather a bead on someone.
For passive investigation, I treat investigation as a bit of a deduction skill. Passive investigation can grant you putting clues together quickly. You notice x and y, which leads you to deduce z. Again I have one of these in my group-- Our Rogue has a 17 passive investigation. They might find a spray of blood, and she might be able to passively deduce that it was caused by a claw attack. Passive investigation also helps see past illusions.
So in the context of RPing and using the DDB character sheet, what is the purpose of Passive Insight and Passive Investigation when the PHB only mentions use of Passive Perception?
These are basically the numbers for a character's ability to notice something without trying.
If an NPC is lying or hiding something, you can have it roll against a PC's passive insight, without alerting the players that there is something to be discovered. If the NPC rolls under the passive, you can just tell the player "you get the feeling he isn't telling the truth."
Passive investigation would be a character's ability to solve something at a glance. Any illusion spell that says it can be seen through with an investigation check, a high passive investigation character would not need to use an action.
All skills can have a passive score (10+mod) if you can think of a way to apply them.
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D&D Beyond FoundersThink of passive investigation like that moment in a movie where a skilled detective (Batman, Sherlock Holmes etc) sees something that everyone else is just ignoring and realises the importance of it - without purposefully trying to investigate something, they have deduced that there is more going on than everyone else realises.
You may find it useful to check out this podcast which has an interview with Jeremy Crawford, discussing the use of passive skills (from around 22/23 minutes into the podcast):
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/james-haeck-dd-writing
There's also this tweet from Jeremy:
Jeremy mentions in several other places that the intent was always that the passive score should also be used sort of like a minimum value for rolls.
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I think passive skills are used a little differently by every DM, particularly passive Insight and Investigation - some DMs don't use them at all! Though Jeremy Crawford has said to use them as a 'floor', I very much dislike that personally. When there's no pressure on perceiving something, I use passive perception. If you need to quickly locate something or hear something, it's active. Same goes for passive insight and investigation.
For me, I use Passive Insight as your first sense of a person. You meet someone, and depending on the level of your passive insight you may be able to glean a bit of their personality. I have one member of the party I DM for with a 20 passive insight. I use that to mean that when they meet a new NPC, they might be immediately struck by how they seem to be putting on airs (perhaps someone who is pretending to be something/someone they're not); how they're fidgeting (nervous about something); how they hold themselves with pride (perhaps too prideful to catch onto deception)-- essentially I let the high insight learn something that could be useful in a social encounter with that character.
I do not use passive Insight for insight rolls made while in a social encounter. When you're trying to detect if something that was just said is a lie, or something of that ilk, you don't have the time to carefully gather your insights on the person. So it's more of an active thing (takes 6 seconds or less, an 'action')-- whereas passive is where you have more than 6 seconds to gather a bead on someone.
For passive investigation, I treat investigation as a bit of a deduction skill. Passive investigation can grant you putting clues together quickly. You notice x and y, which leads you to deduce z. Again I have one of these in my group-- Our Rogue has a 17 passive investigation. They might find a spray of blood, and she might be able to passively deduce that it was caused by a claw attack. Passive investigation also helps see past illusions.
Thank you guys so much! It had come up in a westmarch style server with 1-on-1 rping.