Ridley's Cohort
First Post
Scion said:Of course a level one noob can succeed pretty easily. 3 checks (20 minutes roughly, the first check and then 10 minutes between the next two) and he is up to 75% chance of success almost. First level. What was this heroic or epic stuff? This guy just walked out of training, is practically made of green.
3rd level is so far from epic levels it isnt even funny. These sort of characters have been useing their abilities, but are exceedingly far from their potential.
Some things should be very hard. This is not to say that 'it should always be hard for any character', nor is that what I have said in previous posts.
If the 1st level noob who barely succeeds at not drooling on himself can track just about anyone just about anywhere there is something wrong. If people here cannot see the problem.. well.. I dont know.
A real "noob" would have a skill of +1. He can usually hit that DC 20 within 5 or 6 tries. If 4 ranks makes for a noob in your book, I pity anyone who dares attempt tying his shoes cross class.
Let's look at a few DC 20 accomplishments:
--balance on a <2" beam
--climb an uneven surface with narrow holds
--cast a spell during an earthquake
--craft a superior lock
--make a Hostile person Unfriendly
--escape from Entangle
--jump 20' with a running start
--hear a cat stalking 15' feet away
--make a Great Performance that earns 3d10sp per day
--mount a warhorse as a free action
--get a hunch about a social situation
--pickpocket a small object
--swim in stormy water
--track a single person travelling on hard ground
That list looks reasonable to me. All of them plausible accomplishments that a real newbie will likely fail at over and over again -- although there is a faint hope he could succeed. Is there something special about the last item on the list that makes it deserve special scrutiny?
Same sort of thing as I said earlier. It is the same as the fighter vs an opponent, all opponents AC's are naked:10, leather:15, and metal:20. No other modifiers. This is effectively exactly the same as what is going on here. Now do you see the problem?
You do have the option of obscuring tracks for a +5 DC mod. Intelligent quarry certainly could make creative efforts to confuse the direction of travel and presumably force more skill checks. Those efforts take time and it is really not necessary to create rules for them. There are an enormous number of magical options that can help foil tracking short of making it impossible. For example: Jump to reach the ceiling and double back with Spider Climb. I am sure I could come up with more.
The only reason this is a "problem" is because most villains do not plan for tracking as a tactic. Boo hoo. That is not a sound rationale for rewriting a skill. Maybe the villains in a magic rich world should consider spending 300 gp or 750 gp on a potion?