“Give me a perception check.”
“Fourteen total.”
“You don’t notice anything different .”
“I get out my shovel.”
DM quietly raises encounter difficulty in response to metagaming
loudly smacks DM with the shovel
DM should have rolled for the player secretly if they didn’t want to call attention.
It depends on your table, but I disagree.
If I ask the party for a perception check and they all fail the party should be aware of their choices (in this case, perception is important). If I then surprise them with an enemy they are clear why that happened.
Alternatively in this case it’s to locate something, maybe they want to spend a luck point, flash of genius, or other similar ability.
Sometimes I ask for perception checks when there is nothing to notice out of the ordinary just to see them squirm.
My old DM would do this.
He would also sometimes hand players little notes: often full of info that their character would know but had to be kept secret from other players.
But sometimes, the note would be empty aside from a request for the player to not say anything.
The level of tension when the DM hands out a note to everyone but you is… something.
Better still, use passive scores since this is what they’re for. If you want your players to make active checks, give them a narrative reason.
But I’m also of the opinion that the more you run your D&D like you’d run anything Powered by the Apocalypse, the better it becomes.
One of the reasons why, as a DM, I like the Passive Perception mechanic in 5e. It takes some of the thrill of a roll away from the players, but it gives me the tools to resolve these sorts of situations without tempting the players to metagame.
You can also summon scratch and he will find it for you. Apparently he even finds chests that don’t have a visible survival check. But I can’t confirm that because I never have him summoned.
That’s the only reason I tried the shovel. I started using Scratch more and figured there had to be a way to reveal what he’s pointing at if you fail.
It was nice until he would still sniff out ones I’ve already dug or worse get himself caught in an encounter and then blasted to bits
You can summon Scratch?!
Yup, it’s an ability called “Find Familiar: Scratch” You need to have had a few interactions with him in the camp before the ability appears. I think it can be found in the “Common” section of your spellbook once you have it.
You also don’t need to worry about him dying. You can always resummon him. But he is fairly useless in combat and other familiars are better.
Scratch is a good boy. He brings me gifts in camp. Last night he gave me a potion of speak with Animals…wonder if he is telling me he has something he wants to tell me…
He always brings me rope, I worry for what he’s trying to tell me with that lol
I’ve used Karlach to talk to him a few times. Usually just thanks me for saving him.
You can also summon the owlbear cub, Mayrina’s husband Connor, Us the brain creature from the nautiloid, 4 ghouls from the Necronomicon of Thay, a fairy from the broken moonlantern, the quasit Shovel. I think that’s all of them.
My owlbear disappeared randomly after 2 times he was in camp (and I interacted with him). I think between Act 1 going to Act 2
I’ve summoned Scratch in the underworld and he died due to a mushroom exploding :(
You can just summon him again though? I’ve had scratch die, but he can still be resummoned.
There is a bug where he gets stuck either in blighted village or in your camp behind target dummies near blighted village. Then the summon spell is greyed out. To fix it I had to go back to blighted village and then I could cast the spell.
Thank you for the hint!
This is how you get to the underdark as a dwarf.
Scratch is such a good dog. I do enjoy watching him run around camp.
Anytime I see Survival Check Failed, I have shovel hotkeyed to 3 and get it out to start digging.
But can you wield it like an axe yet? I’m not buying it at full price if I can’t play an undertaker-turned-fighter.
That gives me an idea for a necromancer who has a “staff” that is really a shovel for unearthing his servitors.
I used a chair against a draugr’s back if that counts; the draugr went prone so I moved to crush him.
What the hell?! I didn’t know about this either! I guess it makes sense from a realism standpoint, but damn, that’s good to know that its possible in game as well.
Today I learned Thanks, I’m deep in Act 3.
Can shovel(the quazit) dig or find chests? I’m curious “beefy”.
No. Shovel is only interested in murderizing, and I love her for it.
What’s the TTP on that thing?
