Passive Perception - Ultimate Guide for Dungeons & Dragons 

Thank you! This was a very clear precise explanation! Instant sub for not being someone that takes 45 minutes to explain something that takes less than 10 minutes.

Sometimes when I’m running a dungeon or horror encounter, I’ll tell the player with the highest passive perception that they hear something; the sound of bones clattering against stone in the distant, footsteps down a hall, breathing, barely audible whispers Helps to foreshadow stuff, seeing the shadow before the whole monster

I remember a reddit post about the passive skills and a user worded it wonderfully. The passive checks are a tool for the DM, not the players. They let the character know that something is off and if their skill is not the best, it allows the player to tell an other player to check x out. It lets the players know that NPC MeGee who would rather die than leave home without their magical scarf is suddenly not wearing it. It lets the players know that a trail is near by but very hidden. It allows them to take notice that there is a huge crowd in the town square. But to find out the why, they need to roll their dice to see how well they faired.

As a DM. I have a guy in the party trying to use passive perception on everything. (He has a 24) but in the best of battle as a Druid he’s trying to use it. I only use Passive score when the characters are in their “common” state. No stress, no adrenaline, no worries.

Only recently got back into D&D and was curious about the passive skill checks. Thanks for answering the questions I had and confirming some of my thoughts about them. I also received my first mystery dice bag. It was awesome.

I noticed you didn’t mention the sage advice from Jeremy Crawford with regards to passive perception being a minimum floor to rolled results.

Oh yeah! Thanks man I love this channel. Whoooo!!! It's like a drug running through my veins and lighting my brain explode with understanding and ideas!

If you play irl as a Dm, you could ask your players for their sheet. They wont know what you are looking for, so they dont know what is up.

Great video! Another amazing explanation of the rules.

I would like to see your take on Investigation vs Perception. The passive rules for me are considered something you can do easily or not so easily, or simply a common sense rule. This helps people who are proficient accomplishing tasks without the need of rules so that way someone who isn't proficient just happens to roll higher won't take the other players light off of them when its something should do effortlessly.

Sooo i have a pokemon mystery dungeon themed DnD campaign going atm. And used the passive perception is a pretty interesting way. Sooo The party got split up and 2 of them were currently adventuring in the mountain area around sinnoh and found (what they thought) was a village of Abomasnow in the middle of a blizzard. Luckily they were fire types so the blizzard didnt really effect them much.. They go to village and everything seemed fine for a long time. The abomasnow did talk about recent attacks on their village from Zoroarks. One of the Abomasnow who had claimed to had been attacked and survived offered for the two travelers to stay with them. It was at that moment i asked for a perception check from the 2. I had been using their passive against Zoroark's Illusion ability. One of them broke out of it and noticed the village was FULL of them. Only a few Abomasnow left and they couldn't even tell. Infact the Blizzard was even fake. The one who broke the illusion (A Combusken named Sriracha) had to pretend to play along even tho now they couldnt see the Illusions anymore. The other player had fun being clueless. TLDR : Pokemon DND, Ambomasnow village attacked by zoroark, one player broke perception and had to play along really well.

I've always considered 10 to be too high. I feel like something like an 8 would be more appropriate. Seeing as a 10 would represent an average roll, your passive should be somewhat below that. It also gives a little more power back to rogues reliable talent as you could give them a base of 10.

I still require some active involvement from my players if they want to utilize their passive scores. If their character is walking along with their head in a book like Belle from Beauty and the Beast then I'm not going to factor in their passive score. Or say a guard who is sitting in a corner whittling away at a stick rather than paying attention to his surroundings cause he's bored. If there are no obvious or stated distractions or just minor ones like having a conversation with a fellow traveler then I'll factor it in.

Thanks so much!!!!! 🙏

How do you deal with hidden doors? One of my pcs has passive perception of 20, so would he detect automatically any hidden doors that have a perception DC of 20 or lower? That seems wrong to me.

Is it really an optional rule? Why does every stat block mentioning it? And why do the surprise rules say you should compare it to other creatures stealth rolls?

So, I have a Wood Elf Druid with Perception, Observant and Alert. He also has a Sentinel shield, bringing his Passive Perception to 28. How would you describe that if you had to describe it? Godlike? Exceptionally observant? Tuned In? I can bring that up to a 32 if I get expertise (dip into rogue or pickup the skill expert feat.)

Does bard expertise work with passive perception? I’ve always wondered and the players handbook doesn’t say anything on it

The observant feat doesn't make sense. Why doesn't it add to active perception checks as well?? I always homebrew that you always have advantage on perception checks, because if you had advantage on perception you would get a +5 on passive perception.

Could you please tell me when i get advantage or disadvantage on one of these checks? It only says add oder substract 5 if you have advantage or disadvantage. But how do i even get advantage in the first place? Sadly i can’t rly find any informations about it.. Are there any specific abilities or does the DM decide? Thank you :)

don't you think a check to make money has a penalty or consequence for failure? I'd rule you can't take 10 because if the check fails you might not be able to eat or something. And it does sound to me strange that you say such a bard would need a lot of checks, wasn't a Perform check to make money on an evening just one check> or am I thinking about third edition? I haven't played fifth

I use passive as long as they're proficient in that skill.

A question for you Patrick: do you as a GM ever roll your players Passive perception? I mean instead of just consulting their character sheets. And oh ouch that's never a good thing when your GM screen falls apart. Thanks for Informing all of us about this. I had no idea that it could be used for other skills as well. 🤠

99% of Dms never use it or inspiration