Did I do this right? Perception check situation

[Phil Tucker]

My PC's are heading through light rain toward two guards and two dogs who are chilling by a campfire. I ran with the following in trying to determine who notices who first.

I arbitrarily figured that at 60 feet everybody could make perception checks.

For the PC's, I went with a base DC of 5 (spotting a fire up ahead), +6 to the DC for the 60 feet, +2 for the rain for a total DC of 13.

For the guards, I went with a base DC of 10 (hearing someone walking), +6 for the distance, +2 for the rain for a total DC of 18

The dogs are asleep, adding 10 to their DC, for a total of 28.

Does that all seem right?

[Koshimo]

Phil Tucker wrote:

My PC's are heading through light rain toward two guards and two dogs who are chilling by a campfire. I ran with the following in trying to determine who notices who first.

I arbitrarily figured that at 60 feet everybody could make perception checks.

For the PC's, I went with a base DC of 5 (spotting a fire up ahead), +6 to the DC for the 60 feet, +2 for the rain for a total DC of 13.

For the guards, I went with a base DC of 10 (hearing someone walking), +6 for the distance, +2 for the rain for a total DC of 18

The dogs are asleep, adding 10 to their DC, for a total of 28.

Does that all seem right?

One question I would have is was the group moving quietly/stealthily and carefully with the idea that they could be coming up on enemies at any point, or were they moving along normally.

Second since the guards are trying to hear them what type of surface are they on, because wet grass/mud would dull the noise more than pavement or stone would.

Finally none of this takes into account the armor, and possible check penalties the party has so if you have the paladin or fighter in full plate on pavement it would be much easier than a group entirely in light armor, and wet grass for the guards to hear them.

Edit, also how close of attention are the guards paying are the dutifully on watch or are they chatting it up not paying attention to their surroundings

[DM Livgin]

My only question is: is DC 5 right for spotting a camp fire. The DC to notice a visible non-hiding creature is 0, so maybe the base DC to spot a fire in the night will be between -2 and -5. All up to interpretation on how big and how hid the fire is.

Still you applied the DCs, therefor ran your world, in a logical consistent manner, and that is the highest achievement of a DM.

If you are looking for other methods to run that encounter, I've had success with having everyone take tens behind the curtain for these situations where neither party is aware. Then while taking tens you back calculate at what range your most perceptive member of each group spots the other group.

For the example above, let's give your perceptive PC a perception of +7,the guard a perception of +4 and the dog a perception of +8. So removing the range modifiers we have DCs of 7, 12 and 22 respectively. So the PC has a take ten result of 17 against 7, the ten point difference means they first spot the fire at 100ft (which you may decide is impossible in the rain, and then they will spot the fire as soon as physically possible). The guard has a take a ten perception of 14 against the DC of 12, so he will hear the group at 20 ft (this is a good time to include that -6 armor check penalty to hearing someone walk). The dogs perception result is below the DC, so they 'could' walk right past the dog without it noticing, except for the scent ability. At 30ft the dogs may be awoken my the strange smell of the PCs.