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- Tactics (Mental 1 or Physical 1, Observation -1) — The character who
learns the Tactics skill gains a +1 bonus on attack rolls or gains
a -5 bonus to initiative (if the initiative roll is a one or less
the character attacks one phase faster, but loses initiative)
in any given combat by taking a round to study his opponent’s
movements. During the round of study the character may only take
defensive actions.
- Defensive actions which are allowed include parrying, consuming
healing herbs, utilizing purely defensive magical items, and using
defensive granted powers or innate abilities. Casting of spells,
using psionic abilities or initiating an attack requires too much
concentration; the character’s attention must be focused on divining
the intent of his enemy or enemies.
- A character who devotes at least 75 skill points to Tactics may
chose to specialize in the study of the combat tendencies of a
particular race, monster, kingdom or warrior school. For example,
a character could specialize in the study of the tactics of the
Knights of Erus or of Veka-kri orcs. A specialist gains a +2 bonus
to attack or a one phase bonus in combat when fighting opponents
he has studied in this way. Alternatively, the character may chose
to split the bonus and take a +1 bonus to attack rolls and a +5
bonus to initiative (as above).
- For every 25 skill points above a skill score of 75%, the character
can specialize in tactical study of another race, monster, kingdom
or warrior school, but the maximum bonus is +2 or a one phase
bonus in combat.
- Tracking (Mental 1, Physical 1, Observation) — Characters with Tracking
skill are able to follow the trail of creatures and characters
across most types of terrain. A character who is not a ranger
rolls a skill check with a -30% penalty to his skill score. Rangers
have no automatic penalty to their skill scores and receive the
Tracking skill as a bonus skill at the outset of their careers,
expending no skill points. A ranger automatically receives a +5%
bonus to his skill score for every three experience levels earned.
- An expert tracker relies on his keen senses and thorough understanding
of animal behavior to follow his quarry. He reads an impression
in the mud or a bend in a twig like words on a printed page. He
can determine the identity of his quarry and how fast it was traveling
by the depth of a footprint. He can tell the size of a slug from
the trail of slime it left behind. He can track an orc in the
darkest forest, a rabbit through the thickest jungle, an escaped
convict across the most desolate mountain range. The tracker’s
skill applies to characters as well as creatures, and to underground
and interior settings as well as all types of outdoor environments.
- A tracker cannot just track anything. In order to track a particular
quarry, the following conditions must be met
- The quarry must be capable of leaving a physical trail. Elements
of a trail may include footprints, bent twigs, waste matter or
any other physical signs that a tracker can follow. Certain categories
of creatures — including swimming and flying creatures, small
insects, ghosts and other noncorporeal creatures — seldom leave
physical evidence of their passage. In most cases, such creatures
can’t be tracked. However, since tracking involves all the senses,
not just sight, it’s possible that the aroma of burning metal
might linger after the passage of a particular spectre or a ghost
might reveal itself by its eerie voice, heard faintly in the distance.
Still, only the most skilled trackers are capable of following
trails devoid of physical evidence (90%+ skill score) and the
DM should allow such tracking in only the rarest of circumstances.
- The tracker must be able to find the trail. If the trail is outdoors,
the tracker must actually see the creature (he spots a fox darting
into the brush), notice obvious signs of his quarry (such as footprints
or droppings), or hear reliable reports of the quarry’s whereabouts
(“Looking for that old silver dragon? She likes to drink from
the pond by the twin oak trees.”)
If the trail is indoors, the tracker himself must have seen the
quarry within the last 30 minutes and begin tracking from the
location where the quarry was last seen. As always, the DM is
the final arbiter as to whether the tracker has enough evidence
to enable him to track the quarry.
- Tracking check: If the above conditions are met, the tracker can attempt to trail
the quarry by making a Tracking skill check (always required).
The base Tracking score is modified by the terrain, situational
and environmental modifiers listed on Table 5.6.02-5.6.04. In
nonnatural surroundings, the chance to track is decreased by -40%.
Table 5.6.02: Terrain tracking modifiers
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Terrain (use only one)
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Modifier
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Fresh snow (clearly outlined footprints)
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+30%
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Soft or muddy ground, loose dirt floor (good impressions of prints,
but not as defined as fresh snow)
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+20%
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Thick brush, dense jungle (broken branches, crushed
underbrush)
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+15%
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Forests, fields, dusty indoor area (occasional marks
of passage)
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+10%
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Normal ground, wood floor, plains with sparse vegetation (infrequent
marks of passage)
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0
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Desert, dry sand
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-10%
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Swamp (spongy surface but little mud for prints, much vegetation)
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-25%
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Rocky terrain, solid ice, stone floors, shallow water (prohibits
all but the most minute signs of passage)
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-50%
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Table 5.6.03: Illumination modifiers
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Illumination (use only one)
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Modifier
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Good illumination, sunny day; continual light or equivalent indoors
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0
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Twilight, light fog, snow, single torch in dark interior of building
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-15%
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Night with full moon, day with moderate fog
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-30%
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Overcast night with no moon, dense fog, blizzard, blowing sand
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-50%
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Table 5.6.04: Special tracking modifiers
Situation (use all applicable)
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Modifier
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Every two creatures in group being tracked
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+5%
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Each additional tracker assisting tracker (use best score)
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+5%
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Ranger’s animal follower assists in tracking*
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+5%
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Trail is in specialized ranger’s primary terrain
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+10%
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Every 12 hours since trail was made
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-10%
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Every hour of rain, snow or sleet since trail was made
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-25%
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Creature being tracked attempts to hide trail
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-25%
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Specialized ranger being tracked in his primary terrain attempts
to hide trail
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-10%
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*The animal follower does not count as an additional tracker for
purposes of the previous bonus.
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- The modifiers in Table 5.6.04 are cumulative — total the modifiers
for all conditions that apply and combine that with the tracker’s
skill score to calculate the modified chance to track. For example,
if Thule’s skill score is 80% and he is trying to track through
mud (+20%), at night (-30%), during a sleet storm (-25%), his
chance to track is 45% (80+20-30-25). (Thule is a ranger so he
does not suffer the -30% penalty for non-rangers tracking.) If
the modified Tracking score is zero or less, the character is
unable to track the quarry in question.
- Interrupted tracking: Once a tracker has found the trail, he may track the quarry
indefinitely until any of the following situations occur:
Table 5.6.05: Movement while tracking
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Modified tracking score
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Movement rate limit
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0-30%
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1/4 normal
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31%-70%
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1/2 normal
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71%+
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3/4 normal
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The tracker moves too fast. The tracker must move slower than
his normal Movement Rate in order to stay alert for signs of the
trail. His Movement Rate limit depends on his modified Tracking
score, as shown on Table 5.6.05.
Should the tracker exceed the Movement Rate in Table 5.6.05 —
for instance, if a monster abruptly ambushes him and he’s forced
to run — he loses the trail.
- The modifiers change. If the trail leads to a new terrain type,
night falls or any other change occurs that requires a new Tracking
modifier (as described on Tables 5.6.2-5.6.4), the tracker loses
the trail. The new conditions may dictate the use of modifiers
reflecting a trail that is easier to follow, not more difficult,
and DMs should consider applying a bonus in such conditions. Nevertheless,
the new roll must still be made.
- A second track crosses the first. Crossed trails mingle the physical
signs of each, making tracking difficult. The DM determines if
such a situation exists. If so, the tracker’s efforts fail. (If
the tracker wishes to continue tracking, as described below, he
must decide which of the crossed trails to follow.)
- The tracker becomes distracted. An attack from a monster may interrupt
the tracker’s progress. Further, the tracker may intentionally
choose to stop if he needs to rest, eat or hold a prolonged discussion
with his companions. Any of these interruptions qualifies as a
distraction.
- When any of these conditions occur, the tracker loses the trail.
To continue tracking the quarry, he must spend at least an hour
exploring the immediate area for new signs of the trail. After
an hour of searching, he makes a new Tracking skill check, based
on a Tracking score calculated taking into account the new conditions
(if illumination has change from daylight to twilight, he must
now modify his Tracking score by -15%). If the check succeeds,
the tracker may continue following the trail as before. If he
fails, he has lost the trail for good.
- Identification check: By noticing the details that other characters might overlook
— the depth of a footprint, the thickness of a snapped branch,
a hair caught in a thorn bush — the tracker can deduce a sizable
amount of information about his quarry. The more skilled the tracker,
the more information he deduces.
- Whenever a tracker makes a successful Tracking check, he may then
attempt an identification check. The identification check uses
the same score and modifiers as the Tracking check. Essentially,
the identification check is a second Tracking skill check.
- If the identification check is successful, the DM provides the
character with some information about the quarry based on the
guidelines in Table 5.6.6. The tracker’s unmodified skill score
determines the type of information he receives. The information
is cumulative; that is a tracker with an unmodified (by terrain,
illumination or situation) skill score of 70% who makes a successful
identification check receives all types of information available
to trackers with lower skill scores.
- The DM provides only general information, not exact details. At
his discretion, the DM may give more precise or less specific
information than suggested in Table 5.6.6. The information my
be ambiguous (“The tracks resemble those of a large bird, though
they could have been made by some sort of reptilian creature.”)
but the DM shouldn’t intentionally mislead the tracker (for instance,
by telling him the tracks were definitely made by a bird when
in fact they were made by a reptile). The parenthetical comments
in Table 5.6.06 indicate how a DM might respond to a tracker studying
tracks that were made by a pair of juvenile red dragons, each
with a human rider.
Table 5.6.6: Identification check results
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Skill score
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Information received
|
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60% or less
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General type of creature (“A dragon or other large reptilian creature.”)
|
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65%
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Specific type of creature and where it was heading (“Some kind
of dragon, probably red. It appears to have been headed to the
mountains to the north.”)
|
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70%
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Probable number of creatures (“Looks like two of them.”)
|
|
75%
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Approximate size and/or age (“From the length of their prints,
the dragons were probably juveniles”)
|
|
80%
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Pace of creatures (“There’s no indication of haste; they were
probably taking their time”)
|
|
85%
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How recently the trail was made (“The tracks were made within
the last three or four hours.”)
|
|
90%+
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Special conditions of creatures, wounded or healthy, riders, etc.
(“The unusual depth of the prints and the space between steps
indications the dragons had riders. A tiny scrap of cloth is similar
to the material worn by soldiers in this area. The riders were
probably human.”)
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- Covering movement: Not only is the tracker able to track the movement of others,
he’s also adept at concealing his own trail. If a tracker moves
at half his normal Movement Rate, he may cover his footprints,
avoid snapping twigs and execute similar actions necessary to
conceal his trail.
- When another character, including a tracker or ranger, attempts
to track a tracker who has concealed his trail, he does so at
a -25% penalty to his Tracking score. The penalty is increased
to -35% when tracking a ranger who concealed his trail in his
primary terrain.
- Tracking at sea: Tracking ships at sea is an extremely difficult task. Ships leave
no permanent trail on the surface of the water; wakes generally
fade within a few minutes and disturbance of fish and seabirds
generally passes within two turns. However, it is sometimes possible
to track at sea (at the DMs discretion) a ship or creature whose
trail is no more than two hours old. A penalty of -60% is applied
to the tracker’s skill score when attempting to track at sea.
Note also that each ship in a group is considered one “creature”
for the purpose of determining a Tracking bonus. The seamen aboard
are not individually counted.
- Barbarians: A barbarian character receives the Tracking skill as a bonus
skill. A barbarian may track with no penalty in his homeland terrain,
but his skill score is penalized by -30% (like other trackers)
in other terrains.
- Racial modifiers: Elberethi elves, Wild Halflings, and Forest gnomes receive a
+15% bonus to their Tracking skill. Oceanus elves receive a +60%
bonus when tracking at sea, but are penalized by -60% on land.
Paladian, Oldanquasti, and Variquesti elves, Half-elves, Halflings,
Uldra and Fälgornian humans receive a +5% bonus to their Tracking
skill score.
- Trailing (Mental 1 or Physical 1, Observation) — Trailing is similar to
Tracking, except Tracking is associated chiefly with the wilderness
and Trailing typically is used in urban areas. It is the talent
of following someone — of keeping a certain distance from the
quarry or even catching up to the person followed, though the
quarry may be attempting to blend into a crowd or at least get
lost in the confusion of a street full of people.
- However, unlike Tracking, the character using this skill must
have seen the creature he plans to trail within two rounds of
the attempt. This skill does not allow a character to locate the
tracks of a creature that has moved out of the Trailer’s visual
range. This skill can only be used to follow invisible creatures
if the Trailer has the ability to detect invisibility or otherwise
see the creature.
- A skill check is first made to see if the character is able to
follow without being noticed. If the person followed has the Alertness skill, then the character using this skill suffers a -25% penalty
to his check.
- If the Trailer is noticed, the person being followed may attempt
to evade. To keep from losing the trail, the character using this
skill must make another skill check. At the DM’s option, a modifier
of -15% to +15% may be used (varying from first time in a foreign
city to the character’s home neighborhood) to reflect how well
the trailer knows the area. Warn the player beforehand if you
will apply modifiers (although you needn’t tell exactly what they
are).
- The DM should feel free to use situational modifiers on these
rolls. For example, if a street is relatively clear, the Trailer
should have a -5% to -10% penalty applied to an attempt to follow
unnoticed, but a +5% to +10% bonus should be applied if he has
been seen and is chasing after his subject. The opposite numbers
could be used for exceptionally crowded situations or at night.
- For any Trailing skill roll, a -15% penalty applies if the person
followed has the Trailing skill.
 
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