Do your players have epic perception scores? Rolls of 35+
When a player walks into a room, does he/she demand a perception check upon entry to see everything in the room?
"What do you mean there is an invisible monster standing in the room, my 35 perception roll should have made me fully aware of the monster. I want to attack the monster's square."
Personally I am of the opinion that if there is some sort of invisible creature, the players simply don't get a perception roll until the monster has done something.
Sure if the monster is moving around, doing some sort of activity they should get a roll, but not if the monster is just standing still in the room waiting to attack the players.
Anyone else agree with this or am I being too harsh?
If they aren't moving, they get at the minimum a +40 to spot. This is not including any skill or racial bonuses, or a skill roll.
If they feel due a perception check, give them one, and if they succeed, give them the 'hackles raise on your neck, but you don't know why' schtick. If they wanna start acting obvious to figure out what it is and creep people out that are otherwise blissfully oblivious, then let them.
Skill checks are not supposed to derail your story, but help them play in it.
IMHO.
This reminds me of Amber Diceless, when people would claim Benedict's high Warfare stat made him strategically anticipate even just the possibility of there being an invisible assassin lurking in the room and made him utterly incapable of being surprised.
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One thing I like to emphasize to my players: Perception means you notice things, not that you take notice of them. Your brain spends a lot of time filtering "unimportant" data to keep you from being overloaded processing stimuli (if it didn't, you'd effectively be autistic).
This means they may very well "notice" everything in the room, but unless they have a reason to be suspicious of the fact that the cutting board has cuts on it, you're not going to mention it (even with successful perception) as their character would not take notice of it.
That said, if the player asks for a very specific detail (such as whether there are cuts on the cutting board), you should totally tell them (assuming a successful perception check, of course). Also, if they later realize the significance of something, it might come rushing back (though unlikely, as the brain tends not to remember filtered-out information, so this is best used as a story device rather than a rule).
Now, in the OP's case, they probably wouldn't notice the monster as it is invisible and unmoving (as others have said, that's a +40 mod without skill or ability score), so even with +35 perception the chance of success is near 0. Inform them that you're aware of their perception modifier and will notify them when it is appropriate to make a roll. If they ask for one anyway, have them spend an action on it (move action, to be exact) as their character is not reflexively noticing and is instead actively searching.
TL;DR - If they couldn't have succeeded, there is no point in calling for a reflexive check. Since the reflexive option is out, they have to spend a move action to notice. That will fail too, but at least they can take their roll (and show the other characters their paranoia).
EDIT: It may be worthwhile to write down everyone's perception modifier, then write down the maximum perception result any one character can receive (20 + modifier). If the DC or stealth roll is higher than this number, there is no point in asking for a roll. Inform the players you are doing this so that they know you aren't just denying checks for fun.
How do your players have such atmospheric perception abilities? (high level? Certain classes? items? Races?)
New to pathfinder, and want to make sure I see this coming if players at my table start to take steps to get where your players are...
They min-maxed their characters, took appropriate traits, have items, and have high wisdom scores.
The next time they get Perception happy I'll start saying fun stuff.
-You notice that the cobblestones in the room are slightly uneven.
-You notice gouges in the cutting board.
-You notice that your companions smell particularly rank today......
Oh wow............
Punish players for not bathing regularly.....punish their characters too.
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My level 12 monk has a base perception bonus of 23+dice
Ranks= 12
Wisdom bonus= 6
Class Skill= 3
Alertness= 2
I could have added Skill Focus: Perception for an additional +10 to bring me up to 33+ dice.
When GM'ing I try to get all the perception bonuses for all the characters like Stabbittydoom says above, but I also make sure that I note the results on a roll of 1 to know what they may auto sense.
In my character example, I would auto notice anything that has a DC of 24 or less (my minimum result), I would expect the GM to let me know if anything was out of the ordinary that had a DC of 24 or less. This would cover stuff like a creature hiding badly, or an active, invisible creature (since that has a base DC of 20). I may not know the exact square, but I would know something I could not see was in there.
this may be fine and all, but what if the character is a Sherlock esque type of character. the cuts in the cutting board could be very recent, which helps the player know someone is probably still there. or that the cobble stone in one area seem to be misaligned hence a half inch gap more between those stones and others... maybe someone moved them after burying something.
its not only easier, but might be better to just tell the player a quick glance of what they see. if they want the perception check don't punish them for it instead you can give basic info or tell them "nothing really stands it to you... except maybe...." The except maybe part can be for the high scores as you mentioned for those players who got like a 50 on the check, using you're numbers of 35 with a roll of 15, to see the differences in some thing. these little changes can reveal more details to them, then their ever day perception checks.
Happler: btw, your score would be 25, not 23, because alertness provides a +2 bonus, and then another +2, for +4 when you have 10 our more ranks in the skill. so your alertness bonus is +4, since you have 12 ranks in it.