Covering your tracks

lgburton · Jul 19, 2005

it came up recently in a game i was a payer in that some members of the party, without access to trackless step or pass without trace, wished to cover their tracks. i was wondering if there has been any official (wotc) or ogl work on this idea?

Lord Pendragon · Jul 19, 2005

srd said:
TRACK [GENERAL]
Benefit: To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Survival check. You must make another Survival check every time the tracks become difficult to follow.
You move at half your normal speed (or at your normal speed with a –5 penalty on the check, or at up to twice your normal speed with a –20 penalty on the check). The DC depends on the surface and the prevailing conditions, as given on the table below:

Surface Survival DC Surface Survival DC
Very soft ground 5 Firm ground 15
Soft ground 10 Hard ground 20

Very Soft Ground: Any surface (fresh snow, thick dust, wet mud) that holds deep, clear impressions of footprints.
Soft Ground: Any surface soft enough to yield to pressure, but firmer than wet mud or fresh snow, in which a creature leaves frequent but shallow footprints.
Firm Ground: Most normal outdoor surfaces (such as lawns, fields, woods, and the like) or exceptionally soft or dirty indoor surfaces (thick rugs and very dirty or dusty floors). The creature might leave some traces (broken branches or tufts of hair), but it leaves only occasional or partial footprints.
Hard Ground: Any surface that doesn’t hold footprints at all, such as bare rock or an indoor floor. Most streambeds fall into this category, since any footprints left behind are obscured or washed away. The creature leaves only traces (scuff marks or displaced pebbles).
Several modifiers may apply to the Survival check, as given on the table below.

Condition Survival DC Modifier

<snip>

Tracked party hides trail (and moves at half speed) +5

A party can hide its tracks if it moves at half speed, which adds 5 to the DC to follow their trail. Aside from moving at half-speed, they could choose to move over harder terrain to add further to the tracking DC to follow them.

Vraister · Jul 19, 2005

We have a little nifty houserule for this.
If the character who covers the trail has ranks in survival/wilderness lore he gets a +2 bonus for every 5 ranks he has.

Vraister

irdeggman · Jul 19, 2005

Vraister said:
We have a little nifty houserule for this.
If the character who covers the trail has ranks in survival/wilderness lore he gets a +2 bonus for every 5 ranks he has.

Vraister

Bonus to what?

There is no skill specified for hiding/covering your tracks.

Survival is the skill used to find/follow tracks (in 3.5).

Also Knowledge (Nature) gives a bonus due to synergy to survival checks if the character has 5 or more ranks (again 3.5 rules).

Vraister · Jul 19, 2005

He gets a bonus for the covering of the tracks.
With >=5 ranks in survival and half speed the DC is increased by 7
with >=10 ranks DC +9, etc

We think that a character who knows a hell of a lot about tracking should be harder to track than average Joe.

Lord Pendragon · Jul 19, 2005

Vraister said:
He gets a bonus for the covering of the tracks.
With >=5 ranks in survival and half speed the DC is increased by 7
with >=10 ranks DC +9, etc

We think that a character who knows a hell of a lot about tracking should be harder to track than average Joe.

This is a nice House Rule.

*YOINK!*

lgburton · Jul 20, 2005

thanks for the replies folks =). i was looking at that house rule and thinking something silmilar myself, though much more complicated. this saves me the time! anyhow, thanks!