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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sekhmet" data-source="post: 5841146" data-attributes="member: 97602">Survival checks turn you into Bear Grylls.Any other questions?Take a look at the checks it allows.[sblock=Survival]10    Get along in the wild. Move up to one-half your overland speed while hunting and foraging (no food or water supplies needed). You can provide food and water for one other person for every 2 points by which your check result exceeds 10.15    Gain a +2 bonus on all Fortitude saves against severe weather while moving up to one-half your overland speed, or gain a +4 bonus if you remain stationary. You may grant the same bonus to one other character for every 1 point by which your Survival check result exceeds 15.15    Keep from getting lost or avoid natural hazards, such as quicksand.15    Predict the weather up to 24 hours in advance. For every 5 points by which your Survival check result exceeds 15, you can predict the weather for one additional day in advance.40    Get along in the wild while moving at full speed. The character can provide food and water for one other person for every 2 points by which the check result exceeds 40.60    Automatically succeed on all Fortitude saves against severe weather. The character can extend this benefit to one other character for every 2 points by which the check result exceeds 60.60    Ignore overland movement penalties of terrain. The character and his or her mount can move at full overland speed regardless of terrain. The character can extend this benefit to one other character for every 5 points by which the check result exceeds 60.60    Identify race/kind of creature(s) by tracks. (with the Track feat)[/sblock]So basically, anything pertaining to surviving in a hostile environment with no outside source of food, shelter, water, or assistance falls under the Survival category.Tracking is as much about what you know as it is your powers of observation. You can take the most astute scientist into the wilderness and ask him to track a black bear through a forest, and he won't know the first place to start, much less the more subtle hints of a trail. Knowledge: Nature/Geography is general, scientific or otherwise "book" knowledge about what goes on in those areas, but not any real experience with the skills involved. You'll notice that both Nature/Geography give a +2 to Survival checks as their synergy, though. An example might be that a scientist will know all of the properties of quicksand - how it forms, it's consistency, possibly even how to get out of it. What they won't be able to do is see the warning signs, notice the slight change in hardness under their feet, or react calmly and rationally if they happen to fall into it.  They might know that a brown bear is ~1,800 pounds and up to 9' tall, or that they eat mostly meat, but they won't know how to lose it in the woods, or how to fashion a trap out of the available materials to snare it. Gathering food is a dangerous task in the forest. You don't know what is poisonous, you don't know how to skin and prepare a catch, you don't know how to trap or hunt. These are finely honed skills, not general knowledge. Survivalists are an impressive people. When I lived in North Idaho, I had the pleasure of meeting a few, and the things they know, do, and experience can only be touched upon in books. It is very much a hands-on, learn-by-doing skill.</blockquote>

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