Tracking over rock. Is it too easy?

[Tom McCafferty]

Hi there

Yet again my party of adventurers have got me.

The big baddy slips out through a door into a well used stone floored corridoor full of doors and then through one of them. The party chasing him then have to choose which one.

No problem, for they have a tracker.

The PHB states the base chance of tracking someone over rock is 20. As the baddy was the last one through the corridor only minutes before and it can't rain inside, then a skill check of 20 is what is needed.

This is dead easy for a group of 10th level characters.

Is this rule broken?

Tom

 

[Darklone]

Rock or crafted stonefloor is still a difference IMHO.

 

[hong]

The PHB states the base chance of tracking someone over rock is 20. As the baddy was the last one through the corridor only minutes before and it can't rain inside, then a skill check of 20 is what is needed.

This is dead easy for a group of 10th level characters.

Is this rule broken?

No, the rule is not broken. However, your conceptualisation of 10th level characters may be slightly off. Such characters are epic, in the plain-English sense of the term: a 10th level cleric can raise people from the dead, a 10th level wizard can teleport to the other side of the planet, a 10th level fighter can slaughter a battalion of orcs, etc. Following someone down a corridor should be pretty straightforward for someone at that level of competence.

 

[shilsen]

What Hong said.

 

[the Jester]

Right... you know that scene in Two Towers where Aragorn just glances at the ground and reads exactly how the fight between Merri and Pippin and the orcs went? High-level trackers should be able to do stuff like that. Tracking across rock floors is a piece of cake for a high-level pc.

 

[Scion]

The amount of travel that happens across said floor doesnt provide some sort of modifier?

Aragorn got to look at ground that had only been gone over once in a very long time really. Lots of modifiers from the orcs and other things.

Tracking across bare stone that has traffic often and repeatidly and has for years with the person who just went over it dropping nothing useful should be nearly impossible.

10th level may be high, but far from epic really. In the world of D&D this character is no where near his full potential (ie level 20, I dont go above 20 myself). DC 20 is the base, and then circumstance modifiers are applied. I'd have to say that with the traffic, plus nothing to give any mild hints (like tapestries, passing one while hurrying would make it sway slightly, that sort of thing) and without the ability to make a good guess for a starting point (the baddy got through there far enough ahead of the heros so that they didnt hear another door close) would easily be 30+. It should still be possible, if the tracker is skilled enough, but it is definately something that a 1st level character who barely even knows how to track at all should not be able to do without some incredibly mitigating circumstances.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Right... you know that scene in Two Towers where Aragorn just glances at the ground and reads exactly how the fight between Merri and Pippin and the orcs went? High-level trackers should be able to do stuff like that. Tracking across rock floors is a piece of cake for a high-level pc.

I actually found that scene kinda cheesy and silly. Tracking is a skill, not a psychic ability.

That said, I don't think dc 20 cuts it. If the hall is well used, there's no dust, and there are a LOT of tracks, many of them prolly from the same guy they are "tracking" if they are in his haunts. For some reason the base rules don't have modifiers for unrelated traffic in the area being tracked in, but I see no problem with applying them. I mean, under the description of hard ground, it says "The creature leaves only traces (scuff marks or displaced pebbles)." Sure there's scuff marks. Lots of scuff marks! As many potential scuffs as people have passed through since the last time the floor was washed.

Now, "he runs into the hall and you hear a door out there slam" is kinda a cheesy bit as well, in terms of getting a pet villan away, so it wouldn't neccassarily be the best time to make additional modifiers an issue if they hadn't been before. But I see no reason to allow a normal sized humaniod to be tracked across a non dusty, smooth floor well used by other normal sized humanoids. This is a job for those other amazing abilities, like magic, scent, or moving fast to bash down all the neccassary doors before he can get much farther.

(ps, scion got in ahead while I was editing... the moral of the story is, dont edit. )

Kahuna Burger

 

[MerakSpielman]

Such a scenario can be tracked, but not easily or quickly.

Which scuff marks are most recent? You can tell, sometimes, by overlapping and whatnot. These ones were left by somebody running, because they appear further apart...

I thought track checks could easily take an hour to make, and that sounds about right to me.

 

[Otterscrubber]

I think it is perfectly ok, that is what track does. The character has chosen either a class or a feat with a neat ability. Be careful not to begrudge a player for using their abilities.

 

[Christian]

Time frame is something to bear in mind as well. It doesn't specifically say how long it takes to make a Track check in the book, but for indoor tracking, you can't retry for ten minutes. It would be reasonable to (The 3.5 PH says that it's a full round action, or possibly longer 'at the DM's discretion', but that's not strictly relevant here.) It wouldn't be at all unreasonable to insist on several minutes of searching in this situation, IMO. Another way to enforce this is with the rule about 'crossing paths' requiring another Survival roll. If the hallway is really heavily used, the tracker would have to make a new check in every square, or at least at every intersection or door. This may not prevent the tracking attempt, especially if the tracker's skill is high enough for an auto-success at DC20, but it will, again, slow them down. This would leave plenty of time for the villain to escape-they may be able to figure out which way he went, but by the time they get there, he's long gone.