Warfare
Description
Ability Score Used: Choose One Usable Untrained? No (Bailiwick) Armor Check Penalty Applies? No
Only Brawlers, Fighters, and Warlords may learn this bailiwick skill. No other class may place ranks in it unless they have an ability which specifically states they may put ranks into a bailiwick skill not normally offered by their class. A bailiwick skill is a skill that represents the core competency of a style of adventure, and has many useful applications.
The Warfare skill is an expression of your practical knowledge of all things related to conflict. Warfare is a muscular, 'get things done' skill. For each rank a character places in Warfare, the character receives a free rank in Knowledge (Engineering). Note that no character may ever have more ranks in a skill than his character level. Furthermore, this skill may be used in any circumstance where a Profession (Siege Engineer) skill is required, in place of those skills.
Warfare is used to simulate your ability at being a martially-oriented person. Warfare isn't a thing of book learning, Warfare is that feeling you get in your gut, that solid certainty that 'this way' is right and 'that way' is wrong. With Warfare, you can anticipate combat maneuvers, get the jump on fights, handle siege weapons, engineer and assess fortifications and defenses, assault fortifications and defenses, and make magic items.
At the time the player places her first ranks in this skill, she must select one of her ability modifiers, and use that ability modifier as the key ability modifier for this skill. Once selected, this ability modifier may not be changed, except through the Character Retraining rules.
Regardless of which ability modifier is used, Bailiwick skills never suffer an armor check penalty.
As with all skills, the uses below are merely suggestions, and by no means the full gamut of possible ways a skill can be used. Players and GM's are encouraged to find additional ways to use each skill.
| Task | Warfare DC |
|---|---|
| Identify a combat maneuver or Extraordinary monster power being used in combat | 10 + CR of creature using the maneuver |
| Size Up (out of combat) | 10 + CR of creature assessed |
| Size Up (in Combat) | 15 + CR of creature assessed |
| Identify Enemy Leader | 10 + CR of encounter |
| Besiege (see below) | 10 + double the settlement's CR + settlement's size |
| Generalship (see below) | 15 + campaign's CR |
| Identify the properties of a magic item | 10 + double item's Caster level |
| Craft a magic item with the Creator feat | Varies by item |
Identify a Combat Maneuver or Monster Power
| Identifying a combat maneuver or Monster Power as it is being used requires no action, but you must be able to clearly see the maneuver or power as it is being used, and this incurs the same penalties as a Perception skill check due to distance, poor conditions, and other factors. If used against an Extraordinary monster power, the player may read the entry from the Monster write-up of that power only. | |||||||||||||
| Action Required: |
Free Action in Combat | ||||||||||||
| DC of Check: |
10 + CR of creature or object being evaluated | ||||||||||||
| Modifiers to Check |
| ||||||||||||
| Take 10? / Take 20? |
No in combat, may take 10 or 20 out of combat | ||||||||||||
| Allows Assists? |
Yes, up to 5 allies | ||||||||||||
| Results of Success |
You identify the combat maneuver or monster power and may read the description of the power to know exactly what it does and how it may be mitigated. | ||||||||||||
| Consequences of Failure |
You gain no useful information about the ability in question. | ||||||||||||
| Retry Allowed? |
Yes, if that maneuver or power is used again where you can sense it. | ||||||||||||
| Provokes AOO? |
No | ||||||||||||
Size Up Out of Combat
| You can use the Warfare skill to assess to general skill, power, and ability of foes. Used out of combat, this takes a few seconds and a hard, penetrating look., and the only information you can get is the CR of the creature. | |||||||||||||
| Action Required: |
Full Round Action, non-combat only. | ||||||||||||
| DC of Check: |
The target number is 10+ the CR of the creature you're looking at. | ||||||||||||
| Modifiers to Check |
| ||||||||||||
| Take 10? / Take 20? |
No. | ||||||||||||
| Allows Assists? |
Yes, up to 5 allies. | ||||||||||||
| Results of Success |
Out of combat, you get a general sense of the ability of the creature you are examining. You learn the exact CR of the creature. | ||||||||||||
| Consequences of Failure |
If you fail by 4 or less, you learn nothing. If you fail by 5 or more, you think the creature's CR is a number that is wrong. This is generally higher or lower by 1 CR per point you missed the roll by more than 5. The GM determines randomly if you're high or low. This can lead to tragedy and comedy in equal measure, so approach with caution. | ||||||||||||
| Retry Allowed? |
No. | ||||||||||||
| Provokes AOO? |
No. | ||||||||||||
Size Up In Combat
| You can use the Warfare skill to assess the skill, powers, and ability of foes you are facing in battle. | |||||||||||||
| Action Required: |
Standard Action, or, Swift Action | ||||||||||||
| DC of Check: |
For a Standard Action, DC is 15 + CR of the creature. For a Swift Action, DC is 20 + CR of the creature. | ||||||||||||
| Modifiers to Check |
| ||||||||||||
| Take 10? / Take 20? |
No | ||||||||||||
| Allows Assists? |
No | ||||||||||||
| Results of Success |
If successful, you know the creature's CR and the DM will read the "Offense", "Defense", and "Combat Tactics" sections of the creature's blueprint to you, or allow you to read them for yourself, to represent your knowledge of its abilities. You may NOT read the "Special Abilities" section. | ||||||||||||
| Consequences of Failure |
You gain no useful information, but mercifully, even if you fail by a huge margin, you don't get any misleading information. | ||||||||||||
| Retry Allowed? |
No | ||||||||||||
| Provokes AOO? |
No | ||||||||||||
Identify Enemy Leader
Warfare can be used to identify the leader in a group of enemies. This is a swift action, and has a target DC of 10 + the CR of the encounter.
Recalling Warfare-Specific Information
Calling upon your intuition in battle does not require an action. Note that this skill may be used in place of Knowledge (Engineering) checks, as well as Profession (Siege Engineer).
Crafting Magic Items
Warfare is one of the skills which, when combined with the Creator feat, may be used to create new magic items.
Beseige
You can use Warfare to assess the defenses of a place. This takes 1d4 hours per level of the Settlement Size chart in the Merchants page. The DC varies, but will generally be 10 + twice the CR of the settlement plus the size level of the settlement, though exceeding this DC by 5 or more can lead to better information. This can be used on either the offense or the defense side of a siege. The GM is left to determine the exact effects of this ability, but it will generally lead to more or fewer sunders being inflicted in a day of siege-work.
Generalship
Warfare can be used to improve how well you lead a combat unit of NPC's. This takes a few minutes to deliver a rousing speech to (or simply loom competently before) the troops, after which the check is made. If successful, NPC troops under your command can take twice as much damage/casualties before they are required to make any sort of rout/morale checks. At the GM's discretion, this may have other effects as well.
Determine Properties of Magic Item
Attempting to ascertain the properties of a magic item takes 3 rounds per item to be identified and you must be able to thoroughly examine the object. Note that this skill may be used to assist another party member's attempt at determining the properties of a magic item, even if the other party member is using a different skill to make the check.
Try Again
Identifying a Combat Maneuver or Extraordinary monster power
You cannot retry an attempt to identify a combat maneuver or Monster power being used in combat.
Recalling Warfare-Specific Information
No. The check represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn't let you know something that you never learned in the first place.
Size Up
Out of combat, Yes, but only after 24 hours have passed. In combat, No.
Identify Enemy Leader
No. If the check fails, it cannot be used until the next encounter.
Crafting Magic Items
Yes, but resources used in the creation of the item are often expended and must be repurchased. Additionally, the process of the item's creation must be restarted from the beginning.
Beseige
Yes, but you must spend an additional week working through the process again.
Generalship
No, you cannot retry this check during this battle. Hopefully, there will be a next battle, when you can try again.
Determine Properties of Magic Item
When attempting to learn the properties of magic items, you can only attempt to ascertain the properties of an individual item once per day. Additional attempts that day reveal the same results.
Epic Skill Uses
Note: All uses below require a minimum of 21 Ranks in the skill to use.
Inspire Troops
(DC 40 +CR of troops/creatures affected) - troops will never rout or fail a morale check.
Hardened Supply Lines
(DC 80) - troops can hustle every other day of march without fatigue.
Break Ambush
(DC 10 + double encounter's CR) - If you are surprised, you may make a Warfare roll before the surprise round is initiated as a free action. If you make this roll successfully, it completely eliminates the surprise round from the combat. Just skip over to round 1 with no one surprised.