Skills: Difference between revisions

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GM's are cautioned, as with any skill check, to consider what happens if the entire party fails the check.  Making a group roll a group skill check to hold their breath while swimming through an underground cave, with no idea where the next air pocket is, is fine, but what happens if everyone fails?  Just having everyone drown means the campaign is over because of a single skill check — no one is going to be happy about this.  Instead, maybe the party loses consciousness, and wakes up on a darkened shore with only 1 hit point each, only to find that several days have passed while they recuperated.  Worse yet, maybe they were "rescued" by a group of sahaugin, waking up in a cell somewhere in the Unterweldt, where they will soon be magically enslaved to an aboleth unless they can escape.  Keep things fun, and have a backup plan if the dice don't favor the players.
GM's are cautioned, as with any skill check, to consider what happens if the entire party fails the check.  Making a group roll a group skill check to hold their breath while swimming through an underground cave, with no idea where the next air pocket is, is fine, but what happens if everyone fails?  Just having everyone drown means the campaign is over because of a single skill check — no one is going to be happy about this.  Instead, maybe the party loses consciousness, and wakes up on a darkened shore with only 1 hit point each, only to find that several days have passed while they recuperated.  Worse yet, maybe they were "rescued" by a group of sahaugin, waking up in a cell somewhere in the Unterweldt, where they will soon be magically enslaved to an aboleth unless they can escape.  Keep things fun, and have a backup plan if the dice don't favor the players.


==Libraries==
{{:Libraries}}
Libraries can be used to grant one-time bonuses to a single skill check. 
 
 
* '''Base Library Bonus''': After 1d4 hours of research, characters can make a roll on a skill of their choice and add a +4 circumstance bonus to the roll.  This roll may be repeated after another 1d4 hours 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.
* '''Settlement size and Libraries''': As a rule of thumb, no [[Money_and_Merchants#Settlement_Sizes|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 gets the Base library Bonus described above. 
* '''Great Libraries''': Most libraries in larger settlements will also grant the above bonus, unless the GM rules there is a Great Library in the settlement.  A Great Library in a Small City gains an additional +1 circumstance bonus, a Great Library in a  Large City gains an additional +2, 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 GM's 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''': Many 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 four hours of research costs 100 gold pieces per CR of the topic being examined in a normal library, and ten times as much in a Great Library.  It should be noted that these prices are highly variable, and GM's are encouraged to be creative in how this is applied. ("BRING ME A...SHRUBBERY.")
* '''Magical and Wondrous Libraries''': At the GM's discretion, it is possible to find Libraries in many shapes and sizes and types out in the world.  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 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 DM 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 GM's follow the guidelines for bonuses as laid out for settlement libraries, above.
* '''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 see above, is unlikely to have materials on how to create 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.  No Library, ever, will have textbooks available to the public for secret languages.


{{:Assist}}
{{:Assist}}

Revision as of 19:18, 31 May 2018

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