82 points

“Give me a perception check.”

“Fourteen total.”

“You don’t notice anything different .”

“I get out my shovel.”

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49 points

DM quietly raises encounter difficulty in response to metagaming

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loudly smacks DM with the shovel

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10 points

DM should have rolled for the player secretly if they didn’t want to call attention.

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8 points

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.

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7 points

Sometimes I ask for perception checks when there is nothing to notice out of the ordinary just to see them squirm.

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6 points
*

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.

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9 points

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.

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30 points

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.

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16 points

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.

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7 points

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

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4 points

You can summon Scratch?!

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8 points
*

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.

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10 points

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…

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5 points
*

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.

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1 point

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

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2 points

I’ve summoned Scratch in the underworld and he died due to a mushroom exploding :(

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8 points

You can just summon him again though? I’ve had scratch die, but he can still be resummoned.

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5 points

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.

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13 points

This is how you get to the underdark as a dwarf.

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9 points

Scratch is such a good dog. I do enjoy watching him run around camp.

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9 points

Anytime I see Survival Check Failed, I have shovel hotkeyed to 3 and get it out to start digging.

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Baldur's Gate 3

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All things BG3!

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)

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