Character Creation

Can you give an example of how the new research roll would work? If it takes a 3 on a 1d3 to get a clue, even half the knowledge roll would be massive.

I am unfortunately having to withdraw my interest from the game. Really bummed because the game looked really nifty, but I am having a hard enough time keeping up with my current games right now between increased work and class loads. Perhaps another time.

Good luck to you all and enjoy!

simply put research is a standard 1d3 roll

This represents a completely uneducated person making an attempt to figure out whats going on.

investing 100gp and 100xp will gain an extra size to the dice ie
1d3 -> 1d4 ->1d5

This represents someone spending a large amount of time and money in researching the subject, even a newbie can learn valuable information like this. Though there is an increasingly small chance that they will find out nothing still.

Half the knowledge skill is invested in a roll about a specific thing within the realm of that knowledge. So if the player has discovered a zombie is running amok and they have 4 points in the "knowledge: corporeal undead" section they get a bonus of 2 to the roll.

1d3+2

This in real terms is the fact that a hunter with at least some experience in the field of corporeal undead is likely to do good research into the zombie and figure out at least one established way to fight it.
Knowledge skills get invested in as hunters level up and can be considered to be a mark of how much they have experience facing the supernatural in specific areas.

It seems like a lot at once, but the most the bonus you will receive on the roll is likely to be is a +4, and only the most experienced hunters are going to get that.

Some particularly powerful and obscure nuggets of information are incredibly hard to find out and require extreme research into the subject. As such some information will only be revealed on very high rolls.

Basic information might encompass ways to repel or hurt a monster would be the kind of facts you'd learn for a 3/4/5 roll
Advanced information might involve things like sigils and markings that can be used to draw out or trap monsters would be the like you'd find from getting a 7/8/9
Rare information would have incredibly powerful effects, like perhaps a power word which repels the creature or a method which will quickly and effectively kill the creature as opposed to more difficult methods less fruitful research will leave.

Finally a small example roll.

Carroll Gunnman is a 5th level hunter.
He has 8 points invested in "knowledge:fey"
He has been tracking what he thinks is a dyrad, however when he got into combat with it, his usual method of dispatching dryads, a burning stake to the heart, had little effect and he barely escaped with his life.

He decides to research the subject.
He decides to spend 100xp and 100gp on research and has a knowledge bonus of 8 for fey.


Therefore his total roll is 1d4+4
he rolls a 2 giving him a total of 6

From his research he has learned that dryads grow stronger the longer they are left in a place of woodland antiquity, eventually they will become a dryad matron, a powerful dryad that can convert virgin maidens into dryads. This is a grave threat but he has also learned that a dryad matron can be reduced in power by burning her source tree. Doing so will allow him to stake the dryad as normal and end its reign of terror.

He will have to figure out its tree by himself however, as he found no way to indicate how to tell if a tree is a source tree.

...

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That was a long post, did that make sense? I hope so :S

Sad to hear that kyz, feel free to apply at a later date though!

I like how you have explained the research for knowledge skills... now my question is... since you are using monster types it seems as knowledge skills each their own, are you counting ranks put into the skills as the bonus to research, or are you adding the int modifier to the bonus as well... ex. Saltatore has a +3 int modifier. if i put one rank int knowledge (fey) will i get the +2 on my research on the fey? or do i need 4 ranks?

Also, I'm going to rearrange my char sheet to add those knowledges in, just a heads up, but i'm only putting the knowledges in the areas i believe Saltatore would find an interest, i'm not putting ranks into any of them, unless you'd allow us to rearrange our skills real fast.

You can rearrange all you like up to the point where you actually start your first mission (as in leave the guild base).
Its the score itself. As in the number of ranks you have, there may be specific rolls which will require you use the knowledge skill but for the research rolls it is only your rank which matters, no int bonus included.

Hope that helps

Alright cool. It helps alot actually cleared things up for me at least lol and I'll have to rearrange a little then. Until I get my private thread. Thanks!

Ok, that answers that question.

Now for another, as I want to get a grasp on what skills may or may not still have a use.

Gather Information? which would seem to work closely with the additional XP and Gold spent to increase the dice used.
Spellcraft?

These are not as important and I would actually rather them work behind the scenes as to whether they are helpful depending on how they are role played. I would prefer not to have everything in black and white where you can mechanically engineer a super hunter.

I also was thinking that using the table for Knowledge Devotion feat would be another way to add in bonuses for skills. It would require a large roll to be able to attain even a +4 or +5 while assuring a fairly routine bonus given a person knowledge ranks.

Gather information remains much the same itself, you'll use gather information on your case much like any other time, you'll need to know whats going on before you can research after all.
I don't want to give away the specific mechanics for things (as it'll ruin some of the fun) but there is a basic chance that you might end up researching badly because there isn't enough information, needless to say effective gathering of information will reduce this risk substantially, so be sure to ask around. Gather information isn't the only way to do this however, physical clues and the like are just as valuable.

As for spellcraft, it has no real value to this game due to the magic mechanics.

Just in case that wasn't clear: Gather information has no mechanical effect on the research roll itself, its used as per normal to help figure out whats going on, while the research figures out why, and what.

That's sound peachy. I just want go find some ghosts. Fake ones, I am too low a level for real ones.