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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Pendragon" data-source="post: 1356345" data-attributes="member: 707">No...that's not what I meant.  My comment wasn't to indicate the trackee would be flying by 5th-level...  Let me rephrase:If a wizard can fly at 5th-level, I think it's perfectly reasonable for a 2nd-level tracker to follow someone down a corridor immediately after that someone has passed, and have a 45% chance of succeeding.That synergy is being purchased by at least 10 skill ranks.  If a character spends 15 ranks on a single ability, they are supposed to be darned good at it.  He's given up being good at other things to specialize.  As far as the item is concerned, I don't remember seeing any +1 skill items in the DMG, and I certainly wouldn't allow them in my game, any more than I allow +1 ability items.Here is where our thoughts are diverging.  To me, the DC20 is difficult to low-level people.  The fact that a highly-focused track-monkey can accomplish it without failing does not disprove this.A reasonable thought.  And if tracking showed up a lot in my game, I might consider introducing an opposed roll.  Survival vs. Survival, or perhaps Survival vs. Hide.  But even with such a mechanic, the scenario you outlined is not a matter of "other people having skills too."  The BBEG just ran down a hallway and shut the door behind him.  He wasn't doing anything to obscure the trail, wasn't using a skill he'd spent ranks in to be good at.  He simply ran down the hall, and for that DC20 works for me.IMO, the basic DC is for regular traffic.  So the PCs follow a guy into the corridor, and because they can identify his tracks before he enters the corridor, they can then follow those same tracks through the corridor, even if other normal traffic has been there.  Naturally, if the BBEG passed by, then 100 people ran into the room and stamped around to obscure the tracks, the trail would be destroyed, but then that's more than the standard DC assumes, IMO.I just don't see a problem.</blockquote>

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