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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Pendragon" data-source="post: 1356478" data-attributes="member: 707">You can't simply write off opportunity cost because a skill has multiple uses.  Might as well write off Survival itself, since it can be used to forage in the wild, and a tracker is going to want to sustain himself while he's out in the wilderness.  Opportunity cost is opportunity cost, regardless of what other uses there are for Survival or Search.Skilled in what?  He didn't do anything to obscure his trail.  He isn't automatically hard to track just because he has character levels, unless those levels happen to be in druid.So you're unhappy because the DMG hasn't spelled out the circumstance modifiers for you?Yes.  Closing the door behind him doesn't warrant a circumstance penalty.  He's done nothing to hide his trail.  The entirety of his actions was "run down the corridor and go through a door."  DC20 is just fine.The standard DC is assuming there are other prints and trails.  It's not "track over stone that has been undisturbed and has a thick layer of dust to make footprints"--it's "track across stone."  That includes normal use.If every possible circumstance to every use of every skill were in the PH and DMG, the things would weigh about 50lbs. each.  The DCs put the DM in the ballpark, a circumstance bonus/penalty here and there brings it home.If consistency is your goal, then simply write down your rulings and look them up next time you need to rule.  The only thing adding to the RAW would do is try and make my game consistant with yours, and we've already seen that we have very different ideas on what an appropriate DC is to track a fleeing baddie down a corridor and through a door.Doesn't matter?  Time is everything when you're tracking somebody.  Again, we seem to have a significant difference of opinion here.  You make light of the time, focusing on the fact that a low-level character can succeed eventually.  I am not bothered by that eventual success, because by the time the PCs arrive, the BBEG will have informed the constabulary that some brigands are following him, downed a satchel full of healing potions, and taken the ferry across the river.I disagree with most of those reasons.  But that's an entirely different thread.In the end, I think we're going to just have to agree to disagree.  I wish you luck in finding a DC you are comfortable with, my friend.  Good gaming.</blockquote>

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