Design Delve - Dealing with High Passive Perception in D&D 5e
Every once in awhile, the same post comes up. "I have a player with 24 passive perception, how do I deal with that?" "I have a player with an AC of 22 and no magical armor yet, how should I handle this?"
The answer to these questions, at least on a surface level, is pretty simple. Reward your player for investing effort into making their character good at something. If a player invests effort into making a character with high AC, they want to feel hard to hit. If a player invests in a high passive perception, they want to play an unusually perceptive character.
The way to navigate these kinds of characters is not by giving monsters better attack bonuses or increasing the DC of perception checks. You should lean into the niches your players define for their characters in way that enhances the table's experience. Today, I'm going to look at a few ways you can do just that.
What Is A High "Passive Perception?" in D&D 5e?
First, let's define what a "high" passive perception is. In DnD 5e, the "assassin" monster has a stealth score of +9, putting their average stealth role at about a 19-20. I'd say a character with "high" passive perception could probably suss out an assassin, so let's say any character with a passive perception over 20 by or before level 8 (the CR of the assassin monster) has a "high" passive perception.
It is somewhat important to caveat this by noting that 5e is something of an outlier because it actually utilizes perception as an active stat (meaning players can just straight-up roll a "perception check" without any caveats). In many Powered by the Apocalypse (PBTA)-style games that rely more on narrative, the GM decides what the player characters see based on what makes fictional sense given the setting, the characters, their abilities, etc.
More mechanically heavy systems, such as Pathfinder 2e, also often utilize perception differently. For example, if a player wants to spot a trap or sense the motives of another creature in Pathfinder 2e, the GM makes a secret roll using the character's perception against a set DC, and then decides what information the player receives based on that roll.
I bring this up because many other newer systems - perhaps in response to 5e - have relegated perception to a stat that the GM or system has almost complete control over, or made it entirely narrative. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is somewhat unique in the sense that perception is a skill players can just choose to roll. As a result, the system encourages characters with high Wisdom to focus on pumping up their perception score and then seeking ways to utilize said high perception score.
And why wouldn't they? Having a high passive perception feels good. It gives players a sense of security, an assurance that if an ambush is coming they'll see it, if something goes bump in the night, they'll hear it. The fact that perception is almost ubiquitously useful in games, in combination with the power of Wisdom as a mental stat and feats such as Observant, make investing in a high passive perception a low-risk, high-reward option for players.
Moritat
Understanding Why Players Like High Passive Perception
I feel as though it's important to pause here and highlight that 'perception' is hardly a game-breaking stat. Nobody is making a cofeelock with infinitely replenishing spell slots that don't need to sleep using perception. You can't build a polearm master using, darkness-wielding hexblade with perception.
Players don't build for high perception because they break the game. They generally build for high perception because (at least in my eyes) they want more agency over their character. They want to see the traps coming. They want to notice the details in a crime scene. They want to spot the assassin hiding in the shadows.
None of these are ridiculous things to want for a character. In fact, if you lean into it, a high passive perception can be just as useful as a GM as it is for a character. Do not fear the power of perception, my GMs - embrace it. Let's talk about some ways you can do that.
Use Perception to Highlight Mundane & Meaningful Bits of Information
It's good to remember that characters with a high passive perception stat are kind of always aware of what's going on around them to a unique degree. Don't only show off their passive perception when a trap or ambush is around the corner of a dungeon - make it an inherent part of their character.
The first part of this is giving them unique tidbits of rather mundane information. Maybe they notice that a barkeep always slides every coin twice between their thumb and pointer finger before pocketing them. Maybe they instantly get a sense the bar isn't cleaned often because they notice old stains on a washcloth or two. Pointing out these small details can help enhance the verisimilitude of a character being uniquely perceptive - just be careful not to overdo it.
More important is using a high passive perception to point out meaningful tidbits that could help the party achieve their goals. For example, maybe the character with high passive perception notes that the bartender could be a cultist of Baphomet because they trace a pentagram on the table with their finger every time they get a big tip. Maybe they note unique scuff marks that could indicate the presence of a mimic posing as a cabinet, or runes that could belie an illusory wall.
Utilizing a high passive perception score to help the party make meaningful discoveries does mean designing various encounters with passive perception in mind, and... that's okay. As a GM, you're always walking a tightrope with encounter design - what could pose a fun challenge to the party given their resources, and what would make sense given the narrative? Your job is to find the overlap between the two. You need to take the spells your party can cast into account when designing encounters, and the same should apply to other facets of their capabilities, such as a character with high passive perception.
Now that we've covered that...
Vargasni
Just Because They Know Something's There, Doesn't Mean They Know What
Having a high passive perception just means that a character notices the details. Going back to our earlier example, they may see runes on the floor indicating the presence of an illusory wall- but that doesn't mean they know how to deactivate the illusion, what lies behind it, or whether their assumption is even correct. They just know there are runes on the floor, and that something fucky could be afoot as a result.
Maybe the runes are in a different language another party member speaks. Maybe it's the cleric or druid with 20 WIS who spots them, but only the wizard can actually deactivate them. Maybe there's a trap beyond, and only the rogue can disarm it.
Point being, you should strive to use a character with high passive perception to create meaningful opportunities for the whole party (when possible). Too many GMs run high passive perception as though it instantly allows a character to solve a mystery - it doesn't, it just lets them know there's something to investigate in the first place.
When designing meaningful details for characters with a high passive perception to pick up on, always think about how you can then bring the other party members into that event. Of course, sometimes your high perception character can have a spotlight moment where solving a problem is as easy as noticing it exists - but bringing everyone else into it consistently will ensure the spotlight gets passed around fairly.
High Passive Perception As a Worldbuilding Tool
Last but certainly not least, I want to bring up utilizing high passive perception to deliver exposition about your world to the party effectively. Maybe it's noticing that the townsfolk in a village seem to use a different currency than the standard. Maybe it's that all the building appear to have new walls and windows built on much older foundations, as though the village has been burnt down and rebuilt recently. Maybe it's that the same strange religious or occult symbol keeps showing up in the rafters of prominent buildings.
Using a character with high passive perception to deliver details about your world achieves two goals:
It makes the players participants, not bystanders. I monologue exposition a lot, and know full-well that it can be boring for a lot of groups (we all have habits that could use working on). Using a character's passive perception to key them into details about your world draws at least one character into the scene and makes the players participants, not bystanders (or perhaps more aptly, hostages) in your world.
It allows the players to determine what they find important. You can utilize a character with high passive perception to drop hints and clues about the world without fully explaining how that part of the world works. This, in turn, allows the party to follow up on leads that the characters (and their players) find interesting. It also enables you to understand their likes and dislikes, helping you build experiences everyone will find fun. That's a win-win in my book.
Of course, there will be times when you'll need to deliver exposition as a good ol' fashioned monologue, even if it's something the players aren't awfully enamored by. But using a high passive perception as a worldbuilding tool can certainly be a helpful way to go about building the world for (and around) your players.
Livia Prime
High Passive Perception Is Fun
Perhaps the crux of it all is that a character with a high passive perception isn't anything to be afraid of. It won't break a game. What it will do, is challenge you as a GM to design encounters differently - and that's hardly a bad thing. Hopefully, the suggestions provided in this article can help you utilize passive perception in a way that everyone - players and GM alike - finds fun.
Stay tuned for part 2 on handling characters with a high Armor Class (AC), coming at you tomorrow!
