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As a new GM, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around retrying some skill checks.

The official rules say you can retry a perception check and disable device checks for as many times as you want. Do people actually allow this?

This makes no sense to me.

For example, lets say a character is trying to hear noise from inside a room behind a closed door. The DC to hear this noise is 20. The character tries it, and rolls a 12. If he keeps standing there rolling, he will eventually get a 20.
Let's assume the noise level remains EXACTLY the same inside that room for the entire duration.

Why should he be able to retry it over and over, if his character WAS NOT able to hear this the first time?

Another example is traps. Assuming the PC CAN reach the target DC with a good roll, why should he be able to keep rerolling until he gets it?
Not detecting the trap the first time, as I see it, should mean his character CANNOT detect it and therefore not allow him any more tries.

If the trap's DC is reachable for him, whats the point of even rolling at all. He can just roll until he gets a 20, and that way, either discover the trap or verify for certain there is no trap he can identify.

Why would a player not sit there rolling for hours until he can get the highest possible roll ? Otherwise he can't be certain he didnt miss something.

Any new light on this would be appreciated :) Thanks!

Amazingly thourough and helpful answer. MUCH appreciated! :)

Thanks a lot!

So...in this case, how do you manage movement during the non-combat phases of exploring a dungeon ?

Are players supposed to take turns and move at their speed one by one even when out of combat?

We play on a VTT and my players just move their tokens around without any structure or order while exploring, so it is hard for me to keep up during an example like the one where the Rogue only sees the trap when he gets to a specific square in a specific distance etc.

Any tips?

Also, another question. Your explanation basically assumes the Rogue is checking for traps every time he moves another square. For example, if he stands 30ft away and fails to reach 23 DC he doesnt spot the trap. So I say to him "You dont notice any traps from here". Then, he gets closer, but according to you he does not need to make another check. I just tell him he notices the trap when he gets close enough to reach the appropriate DC (based on his one roll made before).

So, how long does this check "last" until he needs to make a new one?
Does it last forever as long as he is inside the area he was percieving when he made that one check ?

Thanks

Hi,

As a new GM, I'm having a hard time handling trap finding perception checks by my Rogue player.

Let's say he is actively searching for traps. What area\radius\distance does his perception check apply to?
There is no mention of this in the rules that I can find...

Also, let's say the rogue wants to check a corridor of 30ft for Traps.
Does he need to make only one perception check, because that is his movement speed per turn? if he fails, does he activate the trap because he "walked" into it while trying to spot traps?

Any extra general help on how this is handled would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who answered! Very detailed explanations! Appreciated.

Hey,

Sorry for the noobish question, but can someone explain to me the difference between Pathfinder books (campaign settings and adventure paths) that have (OGL) and (PFRPG) after their titles?

What is the difference between books for OGL and books for PFRPG ?

Can I use both for Pathfinder?

Thanks!