Contributor
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I have a question about using the Perception skill when detection is possible using multiple senses. For example, a person could potentially detect that an object is on fire by seeing the flame, smelling smoke, hearing the crackling and burning, or feeling the heat. (I guess a person could taste the smoke, too, but I think they'd be more likely to smell it...anyway.)
My question is basically, in those instances, do I require players to roll a check for every possible mode of detection or do they make a single roll, which gets modified and applied to a relevant DC for each applicable sense?
I think the latter makes more sense, but I'm curious to know (a) what's the "official" intent and (b) what others are doing.
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Contributor
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I agree with that, but also would describe what the character detects with his/her other senses based on the same roll. Using my example above, detecting the presence of a small, burning object from 20 feet away could have different Perception check DCs depending on the senses used:
Sight: DC 0 - Assuming the flame is bright and unobstructed...maybe a bad example, here.
Sound: DC 17 - A small fire would make only a whisper of noise; +2 for being 20 feet away.
Smell: DC 2 - Smoke from 20 feet away; possibly higher depending on other factors.
Touch: DC 22 - Estimate a DC 20 for feeling the heat from a very small fire, +2 for being 20 feet away.
So, nearly everyone would be able to see the flame and smell smoke, but an elf would be able to hear the fire with a roll of 15 before racial modifiers. Similarly, a gnome might be able to feel the heat, if he rolled high enough.
Maybe this is a silly distinction, but I'm trying to get a sense of what characters would actually detect with Perception and how I would describe it.
I won't bother with taste.