Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Insight, Investigation, Perception

Skills are mostly used actively, when players or the DM ask for a check, where you roll a d20 and add or subtract the skill's modifier.. Most skills can also be used passively, which is just 10 (the average roll of a d20) plus or minus the skill's modifier, and if it exceeds the DC to spot something, the DM should inform the player in question.

Passive Perception rolls have been seen in gameplay videos, but I want to know about related things.

• Will we have a way to do Active perception checks?
• When looking for traps and such, will passive Investigations happen automatically? Can we also choose to do active investigations?
• How will Insight work in dialogue? Will passive Insight allow us to see when someone is lying? Or it could also be good to know if they're being honest.
• Can we do active insight checks in dialogue if we don't believe something someone says is on the level?

Anyone else wondering how that'll be handled.

There seem to be skill checks being automatically rolled while you explore. Those allow for spotting hidden objects, possibly traps as well.
https://youtu.be/B9hU6UJX_pc?t=1644
Time stamp: 27:25

There are of course manual rolls in conversations, but there also seems to be automatic ones. See this Intelect Devourer video, and you should be able to spot couple rolls being made (it's indicated in dialogue text, but the same icon as in the exploration example above appears in top left corner (timestamp 0:20):
https://youtu.be/rTxU5Yfpvqc?t=20

I've seen it debated/discussed elsewhere about allowing for the ability to have visual dice checks/rolls on passives such as perception checks.....for that at least, I'm kind of split. I fully support the option being put into the game for that and usually feel more options are better than less as a general rule. That said, I'd try to avoid using it unless I've had ample replay several times through first, just to avoid the temptation from a save/reload perspective. I assume at least if I fail a passive perception check on finding something, I would get no visual cue of that if its purely passive and I don't see a dice check pop up...in which case, I still have no clue something is there to be found. Whereas if I get a visual cue but fail the check roll, my curiosity may eventually get the better of me.

I am of the opinion that in general, failed passive rolls should not be announced, to avoid failing a perception check and then sending the rest of the party by to see if they spot it.

EDIT: Maybe an exception might be made for Insight, as being officially told that you can't get a read on a person might be interesting.