[RPG] How tonvestigation be used passively? (as with the Observant feat)

dnd-5eskills

I understand how Insight and Perception can be used passively: for the DM to determine if an enemy Deception or Stealth attempt is successful without alerting the players that someone is deceiving or sneaking.

But the Observant feat in the Player's Handbook states:

[…] You have a +5 bonus to your passive Wisdom (Perception) and passive Intelligence (Investigation) scores.

So in what situation would a DM be rolling something against the player's Investigation without letting them know?

Best Answer

Passive Investigation could be a way to determine whether to feed players information that their character might pick up on, but the player might not think to explicitly ask. Note that a passive check can be against a DC, rather than an opposed roll. Some examples:

  • From the angle of the body, it looks like the Mayor didn't fall... She was pushed!
  • That pouch looks awfully light to be containing 300 gp.
  • Isn't it odd that the Kobold only steps on every third white tile?

How are these things not Perception? Because what you are noticing isn't remarkable unless you compare it to your expectation of how things should be. It's a test of reasoning rather than of, well, perception. I keep wanting to say "think Sherlock Holmes", but he's also rocking Perception, so that's actually a terrible example. So... Rain Man, maybe?

PHB suggests passive checks (p 175) where the GM doesn't want the players to know they've succeeded or (more typically) failed at something.

A passive check is a special kind of ability check that doesn't involve any die rolls. Such a check can represent the average result for a task done repeatedly, such as searching for secret doors over and over again, or can be used when the DM wants to secretly determine whether the characters succeed at something without rolling dice, such as noticing a hidden monster....

Hidden checks are fun:

  • Arcana to see whether you realize the mystic sigils on the amulet you're buying are all inverted
  • Animal Handling to determine whether the donkey will kick you as soon as it sees an opening
  • Deception for whether an unseen observer notices you slip out of your false identity when you think no one is noticing

A paranoid player might call for a check for all of these things, but if they don't think to, they won't know they failed until you start giggling.