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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 2381139" data-attributes="member: 9410">Cool!  Nice to know that we agree!   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> The problem with adding new Knowledge skills, as I see it, is that they require skill points (usually 2/rank), and you have too few, already.  Therefore, I see adding new ones as a bad thing.  This is exascerbated by the "You can't know anything above DC:10 without one (full) rank in the skill" rule, and the fact that most classes get few (Rogue) if any (Fighter) Knowledge skills...Knowledge (Earth) for Geology/Mining would seem to fit into either Knowledge (Nature), and/or Knowledge (Dungeoneering), as well as (for the latter, at least) Profession (Miner), which any class but the poor Fighter has access to.  Knowledge (Water) is an aspect of the overly-broad-but-generally-useless Knowledge (Nature) skill.  Then again, I'm sure that you've noticed that I'm not writing the book.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Tracking very rarely involves following footprints AT ALL.  It is all about following SIGNS.  Sign is more usually where a boot hits the ground, depressing something.  Even when a bootprint is not visible, it is often possible to tell that something passede across an area.  Consider, for instance, a stand of tall grass...  Even if you can't see any tracks, because the grass is too springy, it is easy enough to tell when something has passed through the grass, because it will all be bent over in the same way, while all the grass around it stands relatively straight...Passing across rock (and urban terrain) still disturbs anything that is there, on the rock (or road).  Also, as you travel through an area, you tend to pick up things, which get deposited farther along.  Mud or dirt falls from the cracks in the tread of your boots, dust from the trail comes off, you step in a puddle, or a pile of dead leaves or other litter, and your foot crushes them...  All of these leave sign, which a tracker can follow.  By taking a good look at one of the (relatively rare) bootprints, when it appears, and sketching what it looks like, the tracker can know it when he sees it, again.  The rest of the way, he will be using his tracking pole.By observing where a creature steps, and moving a band or piece of string along his pole, a tracker can get the distance from heel to toe on one foot, and from the toe of one foot to the heel of the next.  Using that, (s)he can determine approximately where the next print would be, and know where to look for sign.The main signs to look for are flattening, regularity (which doesn't exist in nature, such as when the gravel is depressed in 18" ovals about three feet apart along a certain line, but nowhere else, for instance), color changes (a fallen leaf vs. one that has been stepped on, or fresh, loose dirt vs. compressed earth), and disturbance (rocks, in nature, tend to be weathered, and lighter on one side.  If a rock is found splintered, and darker-side-up, it generally means that something has stepped on it, and flipped it over).  These are the types of signs that a real-world tracker is going to follow...  Tracks are actually rather rare, outside of mud, snow, and heavy ash/dust!So no, tracking across asphalt isn't impossible, especially in the hotter months, when the tar is nice and melty.  Kearney, in the quoted text, was not keeping the illegal in sight.  He was tracking him, through downtown El Cahon, CA...Heh!  I don't recall if 3.5 and 3e had the same rule on that, or not...   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Anyhow, nice to know that they're being revamped...  One of the ones in the book gives the same bonuses as the (new in 3.5e) Stealthy Feat!  Compared to the +6 gifts (which no longer exist), that wasn't too balanced, either.So, what changes to the Shapechange gift?  I have about a buzillion questions I could pester you with, about that one...   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Anyhow, keep up the good work, guys!  Ifya want feedback (I keep hearing someone lamenting "How did we get ourselves into this?"), I'll letcha know what I think...  Just keep yer salt-shakers handy!  (Opinionated?  Who?  ME?!?)   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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