Between Adventures
In Epic Path, it is always possible for any character to work on retraining and self-improvement. The wizard can cloister himself in a high tower and study the arcane mysteries. The druid can meditate at length upon the glory and might of the Nascent Seed. The fighter can go to the Pugilarium and have a training montage of rapid-fire smash-cuts set to 80's rock-metal. There is always stuff to do, ways to make yourself better, and that's just fun.
Also see Timescales for more information.
These rules offer three different categories of character development that you can perform during downtime: reselection, self-improvement and single-use boons.
- Reselection is the adjusting of one aspect of your character to another (usually to fix a perceived mistake you made during a prior level-up).
- Self-improvement is the building of additional abilities, increasing the power of your character beyond what is normal for its level.
- Single-use boons provide one-time bonuses to a single die roll, allowing you to dramatically impact the outcome of that roll in one of several ways.
Retraining uses up one or more full days. If you spend more than 1 hour doing anything else during a retraining day (except meals and short rest breaks) besides retraining, that day cannot be counted towards your progress. However, the full days you spend retraining do not need to be concurrent. You can spend a few days retraining, spend a few days adventuring, then resume retraining, with no penalty.
The first step of retraining is determining what you would like to retrain. Many options exist, but you can only work on one at a time. If you change your mind mid-way through one retraining to start a different one, all progress towards the incomplete goal is lost. This is the case even if you are merely changing the focus of the retraining, while staying inside a specific category. For example, if you are retraining to convert Sense Motive to a Natural Talent skill, and then you decide you would rather have Diplomacy as a Natural Talent skill instead, not only is the progress towards Sense Motive not applicable to making Diplomacy a Natural Talent skill, but it will be lost if you begin to focus on Diplomacy, or any other kind of retraining.
Once selected, you next make a single Bailiwick skill check (Divinity, Naturalism, Reason, Spellcraft, Spycraft or Warfare) against a DC based on your own current level to determine how many days are required to complete the retraining. You must make this roll, even if you don't want to. The skill check is made at the end of the first full day of retraining. However, players who hate their result and want to 'start over' must wait half the maximum time of the chosen retraining before they can attempt that specific retraining again. This applies even to different versions of the same retraining (For example, you want to retrain into a Natural Talent for Diplomacy, and get a terrible result on your check. You cannot attempt to retrain ANY skill until half the maximum retraining time for gaining a new Natural Talent has elapsed.) You may attempt a different retraining during the intervening days, if you wish.
A roll of a natural 1 on this check is resolved as a "Failure", unless the character has some ability which alters the way a natural 1 works on a skill check. A result of a natural 20 on the skill check is resolved as a critical result as normal (typically, this adds +5 to the total result, in addition to the 20 you already rolled, though some feats and abilities may modify this amount).
If you have access to spells, feats, or abilities which can temporarily improve your bailiwick skill, or somehow alter the result of a skill check, such a spell, feat, or ability may only be used if it has a duration of at least a day (i.e. until the next full-night's rest). If the spell, feat, or ability has a duration of less than a day, you may not apply it to your bailiwick skill check when retraining. Furthermore, you may not use a spell, feat, or ability of an ally to modify your own bailiwick skill check, unless that ally is willing to spend the full day doing nothing other than assisting you (this is true even if the buff requires a single casting for the full day). An assisting ally may not spend this time performing their own retraining.
A player may not use the retraining rules to swap out a skill, ability or feat taken at an earlier level for a skill, feat, or ability that they only qualify for now, but wouldn't have qualified for when they originally took the skill, feat, or ability. For example, upon reaching 21st level, a character gains access to Epic feats, but may not use retraining to swap out an earlier non-epic feat for an epic feat. Similarly, a high-level rogue may never retrain to have fewer than 4 basic rogue talents, even after they qualify for advanced or epic rogue talents.
If you train out of a skill, ability or feat which is a prerequisite for another ability, you lose the use of the other ability until you can once more meet its requirements. "Backing down" out of a feat tree can be done via retraining, but takes several retraining actions.
GMs may (optionally) dictate that any retraining requires an appropriate place to train, be it a library, a peaceful grove, a quiet meditation temple, a shrine, a gymnasium, a patch of howling wilderness, a deep, dark sewer, courts of intrigue, or whatever is applicable to the aspect of your character being trained. Once the GM adjudicates there is an appropriate location, progress may begin.
Reselection, self-improvement, and single-use boons have no cost, other than time. However, you may wish to maintain a Lifestyle to keep your quality of living at some reasonable level, for extremely long periods of retraining. Note that very low levels of lifestyle introduce some risk of disease and starvation, so you may want to pay at least a LITTLE attention to this.
Reselection Options
Reassign Skill Ranks
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Failure | 1 rank in 5 days |
| Easy | 1 rank in 4 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Average | 1 rank in 3 days |
| Challenging | 1 rank in 2 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Hard | 1 rank in 1 day |
| Impossible | 2 ranks in 1 day |
It is possible to move a skill rank from one skill to another skill after you have placed the skill rank at level-up. We have all made a choice of a skill point that we've later found questionable, and this allows your character to realistically grow and change as time passes, as you get better at some things and lose some proficiency in other things.
A character cannot assign more skill ranks to a skill than their current character level. A character cannot put ranks into a bailiwick skill that is not normally available to their character class, unless they have specifically gained access to it via some other means (such as multi-classing).
Swap a Feat
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Failure | 7 days |
| Easy | 6 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Average | 5 days |
| Challenging | 4 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Hard | 3 days |
| Impossible | 2 days |
You can swap out a feat you have for a different feat for which you are qualified. Note that you must meet all prerequisites for the new feat before you can retrain into it. Furthermore, if the feat you trade out is a prerequisite for another ability, you lose the use of the other ability until you can once more meet its requirements. Backing down a feat tree can be done via retraining, but takes several re-training actions.
Reselect a Class Feature, Racial Trait, or Natural Talent
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Failure | 10 days |
| Easy | 8 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Average | 7 days |
| Challenging | 5 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Hard | 4 days |
| Impossible | 2 days |
Sometimes you choose a class feature, racial trait, or natural talent that you later decide isn't what you wanted at all. This re-selection allows you to trade out an existing class feature, racial trait, or natural talent for a different one you could have selected at the same level as the class ability you wish to trade out.
- For class features, this re-selection can only be used on features where a choice was offered, such as rogue talents, fighter tactics, or alchemist discoveries. It can also be used to replace spells that were selected at level up with a different spell of the same spell level.
- For natural talents, this re-selection can either be used to switch the ability score being used for a particular skill, or to change the skill to which the natural talent is applied.
A player may not use the retraining rules to swap out an ability taken at an earlier level for an ability that they only qualify for now, but wouldn't have qualified for when they originally took the ability. That is, you cannot replace an earlier class feature with one that was available at higher levels than the class feature being swapped out.
You can also use this re-selection to change some core aspect of your class -- for example, a brutal rogue could use this re-selection to become a clever rogue. Such changes can be complicated to implement, however, since you will often wish to change your ability scores around, and perhaps even alter your feats to make use of a different weapon. In cases where players want to completely overhaul their character like this, they should work with their GMs to decide a reasonable amount of downtime to complete the whole transition. GM's may also allow players to just overhaul their characters with no downtime, as a one-time change once per campaign, if such a change will make the player happier with their character. However, allowing such changes multiple times can be very disruptive and even game-breaking. This re-selection option is not intended to allow players to completely re-tool their characters to min-max the next segment of the campaign; it is intended to make it easier for players to fine-tune their characters to suit their desired play style, and not force them to stick with a decision they have come to regret.
Reallocate Ability Points
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Failure | 10 days |
| Easy | 9 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Average | 7 days |
| Challenging | 6 days |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Hard | 4 days |
| Impossible | 3 days |
In extreme cases, you may wish to completely change how your ability scores are allocated. Perhaps you've discovered you need a 13 Intelligence to qualify for a feat you want, or you have decided you want to mainly use ranged weapons instead of melee. Such changes of direction usually require fundamental changes to your core ability scores. This retraining allows you to redo your ability point allocation, using the Ability Score Calculator, with a number of points based on your Campaign Power Level (though 28 points is the default), to suit your new needs.
Remember that ability point increases at 4th, 8th, 12th, etc. levels, as well as bonuses from magic items, class abilities, or feats, should be excluded from your calculations, and then re-added when you are done. You may also change how your racial ability score bonuses were allocated at this time. You must still follow the restrictions that existed at 1st level during the point-buy – namely that you cannot have a starting ability score above 20 after racial adjustments, an ability score below a 7 after racial adjustments.
Pay careful attention to your existing feats and abilities when you do this, as some of these have minimum ability score requirements. If you alter your ability scores in such a way that you no longer qualify for a feat or other ability, you may no longer use that ability. (You can then, if you wish, retrain that feat or ability away as a separate retraining endeavor.)
Self-Improvement
Gain a Hit Point
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Failure | 5 days+++ |
| Easy | 4 days+++ |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Average | 4 days++ |
| Challenging | 3 days++ |
| Result | Days to Complete |
|---|---|
| Hard | 2 days++ |
| Impossible | 1 day+ |
- +++ +3 days per 100 hit points you possess, dropping fractions.
- ++ +2 days per 100 hit points you possess, dropping fractions.
- + +1 day per 100 hit points you possess, dropping fractions.
It is possible to train up your hit points, if they are less than the maximum possible for someone of your class, level and CON modifier. Note that the base time to perform this self-improvement retraining increases for each full 100 hit points you possess, dropping fractions. That is, if you have 99 or fewer hit points, you use the base times listed above, unmodified. If you have 100 to 199 hit points, you increase the base time by the amount listed in the notes section (depending on your bailiwick skill check result). If you have 200 to 299 hit points, you increase the base time by double the amount listed in the notes section, etc. Therefore, if you have 350 hit points, and want to retrain this self-improvement to get to 351 (you studly beast), and you roll a challenging result on your bailiwick check, the total time required is 9 days (3 base days, +6 for having over 300 hit points but fewer than 400).
Additional Skill Rank
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 10 days Average 8 days Hard 6 days Easy 9 days Challenging 7 days Impossible 5 days
It is possible to earn a skill rank without leveling up, through intense training, study, and practice. This self-improvement can be performed a maximum number of times equal to your current level (i.e. a maximum of 1 extra skill point per level).
You must declare which skill you intend to improve at the start of the retraining, which helps to guide the environment appropriate to the retraining.
Even with self-improvement, your total ranks in any skill may never exceed your current level.
Improve Language to Native Fluency
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 18 days Average 15 days Hard 12 days Easy 16 days Challenging 13 days Impossible 10 days
You can improve your fluency with a language you already know, from the Fluent level of fluency, up to Native level of fluency. You must have access to a native speaker of the language while training, who may have some cost associated with that service (finding a tutor for Sphinx or Therien is not easy). If you can find a native speaker willing to teach you for free, more power to you!
Gain Natural Talent in a Skill
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 110 days Average 90 days Hard 75 days Easy 100 days Challenging 85 days Impossible 65 days
It is possible to gain Natural Talent in a skill. This allows you to change the ability modifier that a single skill of your choosing is based upon, IE, re-map the skill to a different ability. It is possible to re-map your Acrobatics skill, for example, to be based upon your Intelligence, or your Perception Skill to be based upon your Constitution. This is exactly like having an additional Natural Talent skill.
To re-map any skill, making it into a Natural Talent skill, it must be a skill you qualify for: You may not, for example, make a bailiwick skill you do not otherwise qualify for into a Natural Talent skill.
You may re-map more than one skill, but you must complete each change before you begin the next. You may choose to re-map a skill again: You may change your Diplomacy to work off your Dexterity, and then later re-map it again to work off your Constitution. You must expend the full amount of time and money each time. Obviously, you can only remap each skill to a single stat. Even as you intensely train, study, and practice that skill to make it second nature, you still cannot map a single skill to two stats and gain the modifiers for both.
Additional Non-Epic Feat
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 150 days Average 130 days Hard 110 days Easy 140 days Challenging 120 days Impossible 100 days
It is possible to gain the use of a new non-epic feat, once in a character's career. You choose the feat you wish to gain at the beginning of the self-improvement process. You do not have to have all the prerequisites for a feat to begin earning it. You must satisfy all prerequisites for the feat at the time you complete the self-improvement, or you may not use the feat until you satisfy all said prerequisites. If you have a feat you cannot use (for whatever reason) you may swap it for another feat via the normal process laid out above.
Additional Epic Feat
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 300 days Average 260 days Hard 220 days Easy 280 days Challenging 240 days Impossible 200 days
It is possible to gain the use of a new epic feat, once in a character's career if you are at least level 21. You choose the feat you wish to gain at the beginning of the self-improvement process. You do not have to have all the prerequisites for a feat to begin earning it. You must satisfy all prerequisites for the feat at the time you complete the self-improvement, or you may not use the feat until you satisfy all said prerequisites. If you have a feat you cannot use (for whatever reason) you may swap it for another feat via the normal process laid out above.
Additional Minor Racial Trait
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 110 days Average 95 days Hard 85 days Easy 100 days Challenging 90 days Impossible 75 days
It is possible to gain the use of a new minor racial trait, once in a character's career. The minor racial trait you gain must be legal for your character in all particulars. For example, you must choose a minor racial ability from your current race. If you somehow change races, you must change this additional minor racial trait to match your new race.
You choose the minor trait you wish to gain at the beginning of the self-improvement process. You may not change the minor trait you are working toward in the middle without losing all your progress.
Additional Major Racial Trait
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 425 days Average 375 days Hard 325 days Easy 400 days Challenging 350 days Impossible 300 days
It is possible to gain the use of a new major racial trait, once in a character's career. The major racial trait you gain must be legal for your character in all particulars. For example, you must choose a major racial trait from your current race. If you somehow change races, you must change this additional major racial trait to match your new race.
You choose the major trait you wish to gain at the beginning of the self-improvement process. You may not change the major trait you are working toward in the middle without losing all your progress.
Permanent +1 to an Ability Score
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 265 days Average 235 days Hard 205 days Easy 250 days Challenging 220 days Impossible 185 days
It is possible to gain a permanent +1 to a single ability score of your choice. This may be done up to two times per ability score during a character's career.
Spell Research
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 13 days Average 10 days Hard 8 days Easy 12 days Challenging 9 days Impossible 7 days
Through study, experimentation, and a bit of luck, you can create a new version of a spell you already know that incorporates a metamagic feat you also know, allowing you to cast that spell as though the metamagic feat is applied, but at a reduced spell slot or spell level. You must be able to cast the selected spell with the metamagic feat applied (at the adjusted spell level) in order to attempt this retraining. Each time the retraining is performed, you can reduce the spell level adjustment of the selected metamagic feat when applied to a specified spell by one spell level.
For example, you may choose to perform spell research on a Quickened Fireball. The Quicken Spell (Feat) is a +4 spell level adjustment, and Fireball (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell) is a 3rd level spell, for a net spell level of 7. You must have the ability to cast a 7th level spell to attempt Spell Research on this combination, as well as know both the Fireball spell, and possess the Quicken metamagic feat. If you meet these criteria, you can make your bailiwick skill check to determine how long it will take to perform the research (at the end of the first full day of research), and, upon completion, when you cast Quickened Fireball in the future, it only requires a 6th level spell slot. This process can be repeated as many times as you wish, up to the point where the metamagic feat being applied to the spell is no longer applying a spell level adjustment. That is, you could repeat this process four times for Quickened Fireball, to the point where it requires only a 3rd level spell slot to cast. You can never reduce the base spell level of the spell.
This process can be used to create custom spells that are above spell level 9. For example, a caster can apply the Widen Spell (Feat) and the Quicken Spell (Feat) to the ninth level spell Chaos Engine (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), making it 16th level. This can then be researched down to level 13, and memorized in any spell slot from 13th to 17th levels. However, no spell may ever be created with a total, unmodified spell level above 17th level. That is, the base spell level plus all metamagic level adjustments prior to spell research can never exceed 17. As a result, you cannot research a quickened, widened Chaos Engine spell down to 11th caster level and then tack on the Perfect Spell metamagic feat (a +6 level adjustment, to bring this abomination up to a total unmodified spell level of 23). Just... no.
The final result of this research is a scroll containing the new spell. Players are encouraged to come up with new and unique names for their spells. The scroll should probably be inscribed into the character's spellbook as soon as possible, given all the work that's been put into it.
Spell research can also be used to create or modify True Dweomers, but follows the rules for those powerful magics, not these.
Each time spell research is performed, you must state which spell and which metamagic feat (or combination of metamagic feats, if you know multiple feats) you are researching. Time permitting, you can do this for any spell you know, with any combination of metamagic feats you know.
Single-Use Boons
Action Point
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 7 days Average 6 days Hard 4 days Easy 6 days Challenging 5 days Impossible 3 days
It is possible to gain the use of an additional action point through intense study, training, and meditation. This action point is exactly like the action point that is usually gained at the beginning of any real-time combat, and can be used for any legal use of action points in your campaign. Note that it is possible to earn action points through the re-training system if your Game Master is not awarding action points in each combat, if the Game Master allows re-training. You may select this retraining as many times as you wish, though you can never keep more than one action point earned from retraining at a time. Note that you can never spend more than one action point in a single combat round.
Combat Bonus
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 5 days Average 4 days Hard 2 days Easy 4 days Challenging 3 days Impossible 1 day
It is possible to gain the use of a combat bonus through intense study, training, and meditation. A combat bonus is similar to an action point, in that they may only be used during real-time combat (i.e. while an initiative order is underway).
Using a combat bonus adds 2d6 to the roll which is being boosted. A combat bonus may be used to boost a single to-hit roll, critical confirmation roll, Maneuver Offense skill roll, or damage roll.
- If used to boost a to-hit roll, use of a combat bonus may raise a d20 roll to a 20 or even higher, but it is not considered a 'natural' result, and as a consequence, may not threaten a critical strike unless the d20 itself naturally rolls a critical threat.
- If used to boost any weapon damage roll, the 2d6 rolled are treated as additional base weapon damage of the same type as the weapon being used, and thus increase upon critical hits and are further multiplied by the level of the wielder at each experience tier above courageous (i.e. at 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th, and 31st levels).
A combat bonus is NOT an action point, and may be used at any time during combat, even in the same round as an action point, and even during an action granted by an action point.
You may buy as many combat bonuses as you wish, with the important caveat that you cannot ever have more than one combat bonus "banked' at one time.
Fortune's Favor
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 9 days Average 7 days Hard 5 days Easy 8 days Challenging 6 days Impossible 4 days
It is possible to gain fortune's favor through intense prayer, training, and meditation. Every character gains fortune's favor in different ways. A paladin may gain it by intense prayer in a shrine, a brawler may get it by pouring out a ritual libation to Lady Luck with every round they drink, a barbarian may get it by howling to the wild, open sky, etc. Fortune's favor is different from an action point or a combat bonus, in that it may used at any time.
When you expend fortune's favor, you succeed at a single D20 roll without rolling any dice. Thus, this must be expended before the die roll. This success is absolute, and occurs regardless of the target DC. However, it is only a success, not a maximum result or any other quantifiable number. This means that if fortune's favor is used to succeed at a roll where higher results would yield greater benefits, the fortune's favor only provides the minimum amount to be considered 'successful', not the amount to get the best results possible.
A great example is a Sunder attempt against a stone wall. The wall may have a sunder DC of 65, and a durability of 25. Using fortune's favor would yield a sunder result of 65, granting a single success, and inflicting 1 point of siege damage against the wall's durability. Fortune's favor would not give a result of 190, despite that being the DC at which the wall would be penetrated (since every 5 by which you exceed a Sunder DC inflicts an additional point of siege damage).
You may buy as many fortune's favors as you wish over the lifetime of a character, with the important caveat that you cannot ever have more than one fortune's favor "banked' at one time.
Libraries
Libraries can be used to grant one-time bonuses to a single skill check. After a single full day of research, characters can make a roll on a skill of their choice and add a +4 circumstance bonus to the roll. Note that you cannot 'take 20' or 'take 10' on this roll, you must roll the die. This roll may be repeated after another full day of research on the same topic, though the bonuses are not cumulative. Knowledge, Bailiwick, and Profession skills are the most frequently boosted skills in a Library, but any other skill could potentially be boosted with GM approval. Finding a brightly illustrated scroll of leverage techniques could lend a bonus to a Might check, for example. The circumstance bonus, once acquired, can be rolled immediately, or saved until the next time a skill check for the designated skill is made (even if that is several days after the research is performed). Research is a useful method of retrying a failed knowledge check (which is normally not permitted).
Libraries are also repositories for unusual, rare, or obscure information. For example, planar travel using either Plane Shift or Gate spells is very difficult, because you need a material component sourced from the Plane you wish to reach, or a remnant dropped by an extra-planar creature of the appropriate Plane. If you don't have ready access to such things, a Library can be used to figure out where such materials can be found, or if you are lucky, the Library might actually have suitable objects.
Similarly, using a Teleport spell can be fraught with peril if you are trying to 'jump blind'. Days spent in research at a Library can move you 'down' on the Familiarity chart, at the GM's discretion. As a rule of thumb, one day of research can move you 'down' one row, three days of research can move you down two rows, six days moves you three rows, and ten days of research moves you down four rows. The GM adjudicates all results, and may rule that libraries in larger settlements may be required to gain any benefit at all.
- Settlement Size: As a general rule, no settlement smaller than a Small Town will have a library, and the Circumstance bonus for a Small Town Library is reduced to a +2 circumstance bonus. A Library in a Large Town, or settlement size greater than a Large Town, gets the full +4 circumstance bonus for research, as described above.
- Great Libraries: A Great Library is a library which holds a diverse and plentiful collection of books, scrolls, knowledge crystals, and other bodies of knowledge. While not necessarily magical in nature, they are rare and awesome places nonetheless. Great Libraries are often found in the tower of powerful wizards, the castle of an erudite king, or the hidden bowels of a secret college. They are usually not open to the public, and often only to members of an exclusive group, caste, or kin, though sometimes access can be purchased for favors, feats of heroism, or a reward for some great deed. Great Libraries in a Small City provide an additional +1 circumstance bonus over and above the normal bonus (total bonus +3). A Great Library in a Large City gains an additional +2 (total bonus +6). A Great Library in a Metropolis gains an additional +3 (total circumstance bonus +7), a Great Library in a Megalopolis gains an additional +4 (total bonus +8), and a Great Library in a Dimensional Nexus gains an additional circumstance bonus of +5 or even more, depending upon the GMs ruling, for a total circumstance bonus of +9 or even greater. Gaining access to a Great Library is a Big Deal!
- Cost of Library Research: Some libraries are free for all to use, and they are wonderful things indeed. Other libraries, unfortunately, are not so generous. Libraries in schools and scolams often charge for research time, and religious libraries can be very expensive indeed. A shining paladin who needs to do research in the Library of the Church of Invincible Evil is rarely going to get in without a steep price, paid in one way or another. A rule of thumb is that each full day of research costs the CR squared x 100 gold pieces, based on the CR of the topic being researched. This price is CR squared x 1,000 gp (per day) for research in a Great Library. It should be noted that these prices are highly variable, and GMs are encouraged to be creative in how this is applied. ("BRING ME A...SHRUBBERY.")
- Magical and Wondrous Libraries: At the GMs discretion, it is possible to find Libraries in many shapes and sizes and types out in the world. Players might stumble upon a gypsy's wagon with a wise old crone who always seems to have the right book for any topic, for example. An alchemical automaton that will lecture on any topic for the price of a small gem, a magnifying glass that finds small print on any subject you wish on a normal book you already own, a magic book that you put under your pillow at night, and even that old reliable mystical fish that shows up in a stream and will answer any question, all can be seen as magical and wondrous libraries, of as temporary or as permanent a nature as the GM desires. The size of the circumstance bonus such libraries grant is determined by the GM, as is any monetary expense or other price they may require. It is strongly recommended that GMs follow the guidelines for bonuses as laid out for settlement libraries, above. Magical and wondrous libraries can often provide answers to specific questions immediately, or in significantly less time than normal research.
- Limits on Topics: Some libraries might not be capable of granting a research bonus to some skills (for example, a library in a city where magic is outlawed would not grant any research bonuses for Spellcraft or Knowledge (Arcana) skills). The Library of the Church of Infinite Evil is unlikely to have materials on how to improve healing spells, for example.
- Language Textbooks: Any full library (granting a +4 Circumstance bonus or greater) usually has materials available to learn new non-secret languages with sufficient time, generally a week or more per language. Players wishing to acquire a new language must have an available language 'slot' from their ranks in Linguistics before they begin studying. No Library, ever, will have textbooks available to the public for secret languages.
Skill Uses That Require Downtime
Quite a few of the skills in Epic Path offer skill uses which require one or more full days to perform. The following section lists some of these uses (though, as always, skill uses are meant to be examples of how a skill can be used, not an exhaustive list of the only ways the skill can be used, so more possibilities exist). Refer to the actual skill use of the relevant skills to learn all of the details. This section will just summarize the uses to provide a more complete idea of things characters can do during downtime, when it is available.
Also note that, unlike other options on this page, each of these skill uses requires a skill check of the skill in question, not a Bailiwick skill check, to determine just how long it takes to perform the specified action.
Shopping
- Relevant Skill: Knowledge (Local)
Result Items Purchasable Per Day Result Items Purchasable Per Day Result Items Purchasable Per Day Failure 2 items Average 4 items Hard 6 items Easy 3 items Challenging 5 items Impossible 7 items
Shopping takes a full day, whether you buy a single item, or multiple, and you can only buy so many items per day, just because of the logistics of having to travel between shops, finding the right shop that carries the merchandise you're looking for, haggling with the vendor to get a price that doesn't make you want to choke puppies, navigating through the crowds on the street, getting lost, breaking up a bar fight, stopping a pickpocket before they can take your purse, and jumping out of the way of that grumpy carriage drover who seems to enjoy whipping the crowd as much as whipping their draft lizard. By making a good Knowledge (Local) check, you know which shops are more likely to carry what you are looking for, which alleyways you can cut through to avoid the worst traffic (and which alleyways you should avoid at all costs!), and which tavern has the best mugs of stout when you need something to put you back in that shopping spirit.
Note that buying multiple copies of the same item, assuming the shop carries multiple copies of the item, counts as only one item for purposes of how many things you can shop for in a single day. Furthermore, buying consumables (such as potions) that all come from the same shop, even if they are different from each other, also count as a single item for purposes of how many things you can shop for in a single day. Thus, you can go into an apothecary and purchase 10 cure light wounds potions, 5 cure moderate wounds potions, a remove disease potion, and a neutralize poison potion, and the entire purchase counts as only one item from your daily purchase limit. However, if the shop doesn't carry scrolls or alchemical items, you would have to go elsewhere to get those, and that purchase would require another item from your daily purchase limit.
Characters who excel at Barter, who are used to being the party's middleman for purchases, will find that they need to spend several days accommodating the various crazy needs of the party, and likely another day for their own needs. Of course, nothing says you can't spend more than one day shopping, and your desperately poor fighter (who spent all their money on a really nice shield) will find something to do while you're off being all materialistic, I'm sure.
Inscribe Spells Into A Spellbook
- Relevant Skill: Spellcraft or Reason
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 'spell level of spell' days Average 'spell level of spell' days - 3 days Hard 1 day for spell levels < 6, 2 days for spell levels < 9, 3 days for spell levels 9+ Easy 'spell level of spell' days - 1 day Challenging 'spell level of spell' days - 4 days Impossible 1 day for spell levels < 10, 2 days for spell levels 10+
Wizards who find a scroll or spellbook containing spells they don't already know can inscribe these spells into their spellbooks, learning the spell. Once inscribed, it is available to be memorized whenever they wish to cast the spell. Inscribing a spell into a spellbook takes, at most, a number of days equal to the spell level of the spell, depending on the Spellcraft check result. The number of days required can never be reduced to less than a single day per spell to be inscribed. You must roll a separate Spellcraft check for each spell being transcribed.
Develop a Contact
- Relevant Skill: Profession or Diplomacy
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 7 days Average 5 days Hard 3 days Easy 6 days Challenging 4 days Impossible 2 days
You can befriend or make professional acquaintances with an NPC you meet by spending a few days getting to know them. This result can also be achieved, with GM approval, via a single session of good, solid role-playing, completely bypassing the need for a several-days-long montage of dinners, moonlit walks, business meetings, and other engagements. Or, you can do it the hard way, wining and dining the NPC until they decide they can trust you enough to do business with you in the future without having their people talk to your people about setting up an appointment to schedule a meeting first.
Having an NPC as a contact means you can interact with that NPC directly, without hassle, whenever you have business to perform with them. Furthermore, that NPC will be willing to share rumors and news with you if they are in a position to know or care about such things. You also are treated as having minimally succeeded on any Barter roll you make that is opposed by the NPC contact, assuming your actual Barter check wasn't better than a minimal success. This means that if you sell items to an NPC contact (whose business includes buying such things), that contact will always pay at least 55% of the items' value (or more, if your Barter check would result in more; see Bargaining for details), and buying things from that NPC contact (whose business includes selling such things) will never cost more than 95% of their listed value (or less, if your Barter check would result in less).
Contacts are not the same as trusted employees (see Profession) in that they are still motivated by their own goals, which may only partially align with your own (or not align at all). Contacts will do business with you, but only if their own interests are also fairly represented. They are capable of betraying you, but won't go out of their way to do so (generally, only if given something worth the loss of a useful business contact such as yourself).
You must run in the same social circles as a contact you wish to develop, or have a lifestyle equal to or greater than their normal clientele. If you have a lifestyle that is one category lower than their expected lifestyle, you suffer a -4 penalty to the skill check. If you have a lifestyle more than one step lower, or no lifestyle at all, you cannot develop this contact.
Create a Good
- Relevant Skill: Profession
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 7 days Average 5 days Hard 3 days Easy 6 days Challenging 4 days Impossible 2 days
Creating a good takes 1 or more full days. Characters with high skills can attempt to make multiple copies of a good in a single day, if they prefer. See Creating a Good for details.
Craft a Magic Item
- Relevant Skill: Bailiwick (Divinity, Naturalism, Reason, Spellcraft, Spycraft, Warfare)
Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Result Days to Complete Failure 'creator level' days + 4 days Average 'creator level' days + 2 days Hard 'creator level' days Easy 'creator level' days + 3 days Challenging 'creator level' days + 1 day Impossible 'creator level' days - 1 day
If you have the Creator feat (or the Epic Creator feat, if creating an item with a creator level of 21 or higher), you can make magic items, or improve an existing magic item. The time required is the creator level of the item plus or minus a number of days depending on your bailiwick skill check result. If you are improving an existing magic item, the time required is a number of days equal to the difference between the current creator level of the item and the new creator level after the improvement, plus or minus some days based on your check result.
See Magic Item Crafting Rules for details.
Build a Business
- Relevant Skill: Profession
- Time Required: 7 days
Anyone with ranks in profession can start a business relevant to their profession skill. Doing so requires 7 days in the location you wish for the business to be established (usually a settlement of some kind). See Build a Business for details.
Attract a Patron
- Relevant Skill: Perform
- Time Required: 7 days
Anyone with ranks in perform can attract a patron who supports their artistic endeavors. Doing so requires 7 days in a populated area where a patron might be present. See Impress a Patron for details.
Teach an Animal a Trick
- Relevant Skill: Handle Animal
- Time Required: 7 days
Anyone with ranks in handle animal can attempt to teach a trick to any creature, as long as they can spend 7 days with that creature (and not die). See Teach a Trick for details.
Train to a Purpose
- Relevant Skill: Handle Animal
- Time Required: 7 days per trick included in the purpose
Purposes are combinations of tricks. The most common 'purpose' is combat training, allowing an animal to behave as directed during stressful situations, such as being in the midst of melee combat. However, a number of other purposes exist, each with their own combination of tricks. A purpose takes a number of weeks (7 days) equal to the number of tricks included in the purpose. See Train an Animal to a Purpose for details.
Rear a Wild Animal
- Relevant Skill: Handle Animal
- Time Required: 180 days
Anyone with ranks in handle animal can attempt to rear a creature from its infancy to maturity by spending 180 days with that creature. See Rear a Wild Animal for details.
Long Term Care
- Relevant Skill: Heal
- Time Required: 1 or more days
Ranks in the Heal skill can be used to tend the lingering ailments of a patient more intensely than the normal triage-level uses of Heal. Such long-term care requires one or more full days to perform, as well as a safe, preferably clean location where the patient can rest and be tended to. See Long-Term Care for details.
Become Fluent in a Language
- Relevant Skill: Linguistics
- Time Required: 1 day
Each time you put a rank into Linguistics you can spend 1 full day of studying to choose a language from among the basic starting languages or advanced starting languages, and gain "fluent" familiarity with both the spoken and written forms of that language. You may instead choose a language from the encountered languages list, but only if you have actually heard a conversation or read a document in that language at some point in the past. If you haven't been exposed to a language from the encountered languages list, you may not select it. You may NOT choose a language from the secret languages list, unless you find someone who is willing to teach it to you. (In most cases, teaching a secret language to someone outside of the group in which it is meant to be known is punishable by death. As they say, two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.) You can never learn a secret language by overhearing it, or even translating a sample of its text, due to its deliberately complex nature
See Learn a Language for details. See also Improve a Language to Native Fluency above.
Create / Compose a Work of Art
- Relevant Skill: Perform
- Time Required: 3 days + 3 days per 10 of the DC of the work
You can compose or create a new work of artistic value, which can be performed by you or anyone else with the same perform specialty as yours. This takes 3 full days + another 3 days per 10 of the DC of the perform skill required to perform the new composition or work. See Create / Compose for details.
Learn a Secret Language (Epic)
- Relevant Skill: Reason
- Time Required: 20 days
Characters with the Reason bailiwick skill can teach themselves a secret language if they have access to a sufficient sample of that language. See Learn a Secret Language for details.
Unforgeable Signature (Epic)
- Relevant Skill: Spycraft
- Time Required: 7 days
Characters with the Spycraft bailiwick skill can practice a signature which cannot be forged by anyone attempting to do so. See Unforgeable Signature for details.
Foraging
- Relevant Skill: Survival
- Time Required: 1 or more days
Survival can be used to provide the bare necessities of food, clothing and shelter, granting a Roughing It lifestyle to those who feel a need to do so. Characters skilled in survival can provide these necessities to multiple creatures in a single day of foraging. See Foraging for details.
Besiege
- Relevant Skill: Warfare
- Time Required: 1 to 10 days, depending on settlement size
Characters with the Warfare bailiwick skill can attempt to besiege a settlement. See Besiege for details.