Survival

Description

Ability Score Used:	Wisdom
Usable Untrained?	Yes
Armor Check Penalty Applies?	No

You are skilled at surviving in inclement conditions and settings. Massive storms in a dark forest, lava falls in the City of Brass, sandstorms scouring through cave systems, hard-living on the mean, muddy streets, whiteout conditions atop an iceberg, color storms in the Plane of Shadow, all these and many more are the sort of inclement conditions that Survival lets you deal with. This includes surviving in the wild, navigating in the wilderness with or without landmarks, and surviving in any hostile environments such as unforgiving cityscapes, cave complexes, vast sewer systems, ancient buried temples, vast universes of crates, other Planes, etc. You also excel at following trails and tracks left by others in any and all such environments.

Avoid Getting Lost/Avoid Natural Hazards

You can use the Survival skill to avoid getting lost or avoid natural hazards. This includes avoiding minor hazards ("don't touch those leaves!"), as well as the gathering of foraged foods, refilling canteens at water sources, maintaining the health of the party and any pack animals or mounts, and scouting out a good trail. This check does not cover the avoidance of major hazards, such as dangerous storms, unstable ground, fire geysers, etc. These sorts of things are usually resolved as traps or encounters, rather than a simple survival check.
Action Required:	1 day per check
DC of Check:	15
Modifiers to Check	Familiar Territory: +5 to the roll. Your homeland: +10 to the roll. Inside a city, temperate forest, verdant jungle, or otherwise resource-rich territory: +5 to the roll Unusual or rare terrain: Atop a fresh lava flow, inside a titanic beast, the Unterwelt, etc. +10 to the DC Stormy Conditions: Rain and wind, rain and lightning, similar inclement conditions such as a dust storm, +5 to the DC Violent Conditions: A tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic eruption, riding an avalanche,etc. +10 to the DC Massive Hail: Massive hail or similar, rains of gravel, outbursts of clotted blood, spiders and toads, etc. +10 to the DC Unable to Sense: Being effectively Blind to a major sense, such as total darkness, whiteout, loud sound, overwhelming stench, etc. +5 to DC. On a different but similar plane of existence: The Ether, the Plane of Shadow, The First World, etc. +20 to the DC On a different but non-hostile plane of existence: The Plane of Air, Elysium, The Silver Fields, etc. +30 to the DC On a wildly different plane of Existence: The Azure Sea, The Plane of Earth, the Plane of Water, etc. +40 to the DC On a wildly different and hostile plane of existence: The Plane of Fire, the Nine Hells, the Abyss, etc +50 to the DC Very Bad Places: The Sunward Reaches, The Infinite Well, Temperest, Hellcore, Lavarna, etc. +60 to the DC The Edge of Reality: Apocolyptica, The Outer Dark, The Fount of Reality, The Nascent Seed, etc. +75 to the DC
Take 10? / Take 20?	You can take 10 (outside of combat), but you cannot take 20.
Allows Assists?	Yes (up to 5 allies).
Results of Success	You retain your bearings and know where you are and how to get to where you want to go. You also successfully avoid harmful and deleterious effects from your surroundings and generally maintain your current state of well-being.
Consequences of Failure	If you fail by 4 or less, you get lost and no longer know where you are or how to get to where you want to go. If you fail by 5 or more, in addition to being lost, you are also unable to forage successfully for food and water during your journey. You must rely on any supplies you brought with you for sustenance, or else suffer potential starvation and thirst (if this goes on long enough).
Retry Allowed?	You can try to reorient yourself every 24 hours.
Provokes AOO?	No

Avoid Encounters

Survival can also be used to make it harder for random encounters to find you. The DC of this check is 10 + double the CR of the encounter. However, if you fail the check by 5 or less the random encounter notices you. You are still able to evade it if you wish by using the terrain against your pursuers. You are assumed to be moving at full speed (double moves) while performing this action. Taking actions which draw attention to yourself can inflict a circumstance penalty to the check to move unnoticed (at GM discretion, generally between -2 and -10), but not to the base evade pursuit check. Namely, you can wander around playing a brass horn and shooting fireballs to get a +6 to the roll for the monster to notice you, and still evade them as if you were not doing such foolish things. This allows players to 'draw out' monsters in an area, for example.
Action Required:	Part of Overland Movement
DC of Check:	10 + 2x CR of the encounter, campaign, or area
Modifiers to Check	Familiar Territory: +5 to the roll.
Take 10? / Take 20?	No.
Allows Assists?	Yes, up to 5 allies.
Results of Success	You avoid one encounter during a period of Overland Movement. You do not interact with the creatures, do not see the creatures, and gain no knowledge about the creatures.
Consequences of Failure	If you fail the Survival check by 5 or less, you still avoid the encounter, but the monsters in the area see you and become aware that you and your companions, if any, are in the area. This may lead to further modifiers and consequences as set by the GM. If you fail the Survival roll by more than 5, even if you were not going to have an encounter, well, now you are. Roll for surprise!
Retry Allowed?	You may only try this check once on a given interval of overland movement. You may try again if you make another interval of overland movement.
Provokes AOO?	No.

Conceal Campsite

Survival can be used to make a campsite which is more difficult to discover by random encounters. You make a survival check when you set up your campsite, and any random encounters must make a perception check against this DC discover it. (This is an opposed check.) Setting up an obscured campsite takes an additional hour of preparation.
Action Required:	Part of the activity involved in setting up a campsite. Generally requires about an hour of work, which may be divided between all allies who attempt to assist in the Conceal Campsite roll.
DC of Check:	Opposed by the Perception rolls of the random encounter, if any.
Modifiers to Check	Familiar Territory: +5 to the roll.
Take 10? / Take 20?	Yes, although taking 20 will involve twenty hours of work. This may be divided among all allies who assist the roll, if desired.
Allows Assists?	Yes, up to five allies.
Results of Success	You successfully conceal your campsite against Perception Spot checks up to the number you rolled on the Survival check. Note that any result on this roll that is not a failure against an Average check for the CR of the campaign or area will hide the campsoight well enough that it is not possible to see it with passive perception, as Stealth.
Consequences of Failure	While you may think your campsite is well hidden, it is not. Enemy creatures may attack you while you are camped.
Retry Allowed?	Varies. Generally speaking, you can't try this Survival check again without witnessing proof of the original check's failure. If you try to conceal the same campsite without moving, you take a cumulative -5 on the roll for each attempt after the first.
Provokes AOO?	No.

Provoke Encounters

Survival can also be used to make it easier for random encounters to find you, if your party is feeling particularly pugnacious. The DC of this check is 10 + double the CR of the encounter you wish to provoke. You are assumed to be moving at full speed (double moves) while performing this action. Taking actions which draw attention to yourself can inflict a circumstance bonus to the check to provoke encounters (at GM discretion, generally between +2 and +10). If you fail by one to five, you fail to provoke an encounter at all. If you fail by five or more, you provoke an encounter which is one CR higher than the one you were looking for. Ooops....
Action Required:	None, usually this is rolled as part of an overland movement interval.
DC of Check:	10 + 2x CR of the encounter you wish to provoke, must be within a narrow range (GM decides) of the region or campaign.
Modifiers to Check	Familiar Territory: +5 to the roll.
Take 10? / Take 20?	No. This is inherently risky.
Allows Assists?	Yes, up to five allies may assist.
Results of Success	You provoke an encounter, at some point, during your interval of overland movement. Note that this does not give you any advantages against surprise! It is possible you were looking to draw out a tribe of orcs, and you were so busy provoking them you stumble straight into a nest of crocodiles. Whoops! Such is life.
Consequences of Failure	If you fail the roll by less than 4, you do not provoke an encounter. If you fail the roll by 5 or more, you may provoke an encounter of +1 CR to the one you were looking for...or maybe even higher. GM's are encouraged to be fair, but keep it merciless.
Retry Allowed?	Varies. Generally speaking, you can't try this Survival check again without witnessing proof of the original check's failure. You also need to expend another interval of overland travel, taking the normal time, although this may be spent to go back over the same territory you just crossed. If you troll long enough, eventually you'll start SOMETHING.
Provokes AOO?	Almost by definition, although this is a non-combat action only.

Follow Tracks

To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Survival check. The DC of this check is the Maneuver Defense of the lowest CR creature in the group you are attempting to follow. Higher level creatures are just better and scarier in general, and if you can't follow them, you probably don't want to catch them, either. You must also make another Survival check every time the tracks become difficult to follow, such as a change of terrain (soft ground to stone, for example) or if the pursued group makes deliberate moves to throw you off (such as wading into a river for a mile or two). If you are not trained in this skill, you can make untrained checks to find tracks, but you can follow them only if the DC for the task is 10 or lower. You can use the Perception skill to find a footprint or similar sign of a creature's passage using the same DCs, but you can't use Perception to follow tracks, even if someone else has already found them. You move at half your normal speed while following tracks (or at your normal speed with a -5 penalty on the check, or at up to twice your normal speed with a -20 penalty on the check). The DC depends on the surface and the prevailing conditions, as given on table.
Action Required:	A Survival check made to find tracks is at least a full-round action, and it may take even longer.
DC of Check:	Maneuver Defense of the lowest CR creature being followed, that could conceivably leave tracks. CR1 slaves trussed up by CR 12 Aranea leave no tracks, so you must defeat the monsters Maneuver Defense.
Modifiers to Check	Track at full speed: +5 to the DC. Track at double speed: +20 to the DC. Very Soft Ground: Any surface (fresh snow, thick dust, loose marrow, wet mud) that holds deep, clear impressions of footprints. -5 to the DC. Soft Ground: Any surface soft enough to yield to pressure, but firmer than wet mud or fresh snow, in which a creature leaves frequent but shallow footprints. -2 to the DC. Firm Ground: Most normal outdoor surfaces (such as lawns, fields, woods, and the like) or exceptionally soft or dirty indoor surfaces (thick rugs and very dirty or dusty floors). The creature might leave some traces (broken branches or tufts of hair), but it leaves only occasional or partial footprints. 0 to the DC. Hard Ground: Any surface that doesn't hold footprints at all, such as bare rock or an indoor floor. Most streambeds fall into this category, since any footprints left behind are obscured or washed away. The creature leaves only traces (scuff marks or displaced pebbles). +5 to the DC. Familiar Territory: -5 to the DC Your homeland: -10 to the DC Tracked creature deliberately leaves signs: -5 to the DC Dense Territory: Inside a city, temperate forest, verdant jungle, etc. +5 to the DC Unusual or rare terrain: Atop a fresh lava flow, inside a titanic beast, the Unterwelt, etc. +5 to the DC Stormy Conditions: Rain and wind, rain and lightning, similar inclement conditions such as a dust storm, +5 to the DC Violent Conditions: A tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic eruption, riding an avalanche,etc. +10 to the DC Massive Hail: Massive hail or similar, rains of gravel, outbursts of clotted blood, spiders and toads, etc. +10 to the DC Unable to Sense: Being effectively Blind to a major sense, such as total darkness, whiteout, loud sound, overwhelming stench, etc. +5 to DC. Condition Survival DC Modifier Each creature above 1 in the group being tracked -1 to DC Size of creature or creatures being tracked:1 Fine +8 to DC Diminutive +4 to DC Tiny +2 to DC Small +1 to DC Medium +0 to DC Large -1 to DC Huge -2 to DC Gargantuan -4 to DC Colossal -8 to DC Titanic -12 to DC Titanic Plus -4 more to DC for each Plus Every 24 hours since the trail was made +1 Every hour of rain or equivalent since the trail was made +1 Fresh snow, dust storm, etc, since the trail was made +5 Poor visibility:2 Overcast or moonless night +3 Moonlight +2 Fog, dust, whiteout, colors, etc +3 Tracked party hides trail (and moves at half speed) +5 1 For a group of mixed sizes, apply only the modifier for the largest size category. 2 Apply only the largest modifier from this category.
Take 10? / Take 20?	No. Tracking is inherently time sensitive and stressful, and you cannot take 10 or 20 without some external ability that allows such.
Allows Assists?	Yes, up to 5 allies.
Results of Success	You maintain firm contact with the trail of the creature(s) being followed, and may or may not close the distance upon them.
Consequences of Failure	You lose the trail of the creature(s) being followed. You no longer know where they went, and cannot continue to follow them.
Retry Allowed?	For finding tracks, you can retry a failed check after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes (indoors) of searching. While actively tracking, you may re-roll any failed roll you missed by 5 or less immediately. If you fail the re-roll, you lose the tracks and must spend another hour or ten minutes to find them again (see above.) If you fail any tracking roll by more than five, you have lost the trail and cannot recover it.
Provokes AOO?	Yes. If you try to find or follow tracks during combat, it absorbs all of your attention and provokes. Out of combat, this also makes you unable to make Spot checks to avoid surprise: All your attention is focused upon your (difficult) task.

Forage

You can keep yourself and others safe and fed in the wild. This ties into the 'roughing it' Lifestyle as well. A character who spends 6 hours hunting, tending to his campsite and generally carving out an existence for himself can make a survival check versus an Easy DC for their level, to successfully rough it for a day. For every 5 that the check exceeds an Easy DC, the character can support one additional character who can't fend for themselves, or they can store provisions for the next day. If a check is failed, the character goes without food for the day and gains the Fatigued condition the following morning. This fatigued condition cannot be removed except by getting a good meal and a full day of rest, either from a successful hunt or by some other means. If a character fails his survival check three days in a row, he gains the Exhausted condition, which can only be removed by getting a good meal, at which point, it reverts to fatigued. If an exhausted character fails three checks after becoming exhausted, he dies. So don't do that. See Table: Survival DCs by Task for DCs for various tasks that require Survival checks.
Action Required:	Varies. A single Survival check may represent activity over the course of hours or a full day.
DC of Check:	An Easy DC for the level of the character making the Survival check.
Modifiers to Check	Familiar Territory: +5 to the roll. Your homeland: +10 to the roll. Inside a city, temperate forest, verdant jungle, or otherwise resource-rich territory: +5 to the roll Unusual or rare terrain: Atop a fresh lava flow, inside a titanic beast, the Unterwelt, etc. +5 to the DC Stormy Conditions: Rain and wind, rain and lightning, similar inclement conditions such as a dust storm, +2 to the DC Violent Conditions: A tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic eruption, riding an avalanche,etc. +5 to the DC Massive Hail: Massive hail or similar, rains of gravel, outbursts of clotted blood, spiders and toads, etc. +5 to the DC Unable to Sense: Being effectively Blind to a major sense, such as total darkness, whiteout, loud sound, overwhelming stench, etc. +5 to DC. On a different but similar plane of existence: The Ether, the Plane of Shadow, The First World, etc. +10 to the DC On a different but non-hostile plane of existence: The Plane of Air, Elysium, The Silver Fields, etc. +15 to the DC On a wildly different plane of Existence: The Azure Sea, The Plane of Earth, the Plane of Water, etc. +20 to the DC On a wildly different and hostile plane of existence: The Plane of Fire, the Nine Hells, the Abyss, etc +25 to the DC Very Bad Places: The Sunward Reaches, The Infinite Well, Temperest, Hellcore, Lavarna, etc. +30 to the DC The Edge of Reality: Apocolyptica, The Outer Dark, The Fount of Reality, The Nascent Seed, etc. +35 to the DC
Take 10? / Take 20?	You may take 10. You may not take 20 without some ability that allows you to do so, as the time required grows far too long (120 hours).
Allows Assists?	Yes, up to five allies may assist your roll.
Results of Success	If you succeed, you feed, house, and sustain yourself in the hostile environment, do not suffer any harm or conditions, and maintain your state of well-being.
Consequences of Failure	If you fail, you suffer all deleterious effects for the hostile environment.
Retry Allowed?	You make a Survival check once every 24 hours. The result of that check applies until the next check is made.
Provokes AOO?	This is a non-combat activity, so no. In addition, this does not cause you to be susceptible to Surprise: You are allowed to make Perception Spot checks as normal.

Trailblazer (Epic Use)

You intuitively know how to get to any non-unique destination you can uniquely visualize. This can take you to the nearest spring, for example, but not to the villain's bedroom. The nearest spring is not a unique location, because there are lots of springs in the world, but the villains bedroom is unique, because there's only one villain. This is frequently useful to do things like find a hidden dungeon nearby which is long-lost to the world at large. A dungeon isn't unique, so youc can use Trailblazer with a survival roll to 'noodle out' where the dungeon is. Note that this is not a knowledge skill. You yourself don't know where the destination is in advance, so you can't write down how to find it until you have personally walked the path to get there yourself. of course, you can being your fiends, if they are tough enough for the rigors of the journey. Note that all uses of this skill are subject to DM approval, to stop players from doing such clever things as trying to find a path to all the treasure. Nope! You cannot use Trailblazer to find the lair of a monster, because that's following tracks. You can't use trailblazer to draw a map for other people, because you have to go yourself to find the right way.
Action Required:	None. This roll is usually combined with one or more instances of Overland Movement.
DC of Check:	15
Modifiers to Check	Familiar Destination: +5 to the roll. Very Familiar Destination: +10 to the roll. Inside a city, temperate forest, verdant jungle, or otherwise resource-rich territory: +5 to the roll Never seen but carefully studied destination: +5 to the DC Casually seen or somewhat known of destination: +10 to the DC Seen once or scryed destination: +15 to DC Only described to you destination: +20 to DC Never seen, no available information, destination: +30 to DC Unusual or rare terrain: Atop a fresh lava flow, inside a titanic beast, the Unterwelt, etc. +10 to the DC Stormy Conditions: Rain and wind, rain and lightning, similar inclement conditions such as a dust storm, +5 to the DC Violent Conditions: A tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic eruption, riding an avalanche,etc. +10 to the DC Massive Hail: Massive hail or similar, rains of gravel, outbursts of clotted blood, spiders and toads, etc. +10 to the DC Unable to Sense: Being effectively Blind to a major sense, such as total darkness, whiteout, loud sound, overwhelming stench, etc. +5 to DC. On a different but similar plane of existence: The Ether, the Plane of Shadow, The First World, etc. +20 to the DC On a different but non-hostile plane of existence: The Plane of Air, Elysium, The Silver Fields, etc. +30 to the DC On a wildly different plane of Existence: The Azure Sea, The Plane of Earth, the Plane of Water, etc. +40 to the DC On a wildly different and hostile plane of existence: The Plane of Fire, the Nine Hells, the Abyss, etc +50 to the DC Very Bad Places: The Sunward Reaches, The Infinite Well, Temperest, Hellcore, Lavarna, etc. +60 to the DC The Edge of Reality: Apocolyptica, The Outer Dark, The Fount of Reality, The Nascent Seed, etc. +75 to the DC
Take 10? / Take 20?	No.
Allows Assists?	No. No matter how many of your friends are along for the trip with you, you are following your own instincts, and yours alone. You will succeed or fail on your own skill alone.
Results of Success	You find a way to the destination you wished. The path may be long and fraught with peril, but it does exist. Once found, you can now map it out and travel back and forth.
Consequences of Failure	You do not find your way to the place you wanted. You usually find yourself in quite a spot by the time you figure out you missed the roll, and at the DM's discretion there may be a few unpleasant surprises waiting for you, such as an ambush or several by monsters of the appropriate CR or even at +1 CR.
Retry Allowed?	No. If you cannot find the way to lost Shangri-la, then you will never be able to.
Provokes AOO?	Not usable in combat, and the amount of concentration upon your surroundings and the 'feel' of the proper way consumes so much of your attention, you may not make active Perception rolls against surprise. Better have some friends along!