Survival (Skill) (Midnight)

After a single run-in with the forces of Shadow, most characters will be forced to live in the wilderness, at least for a time, and traveling across the vast expanses of Eredane requires knowledge of the land and how to live off of it. Additionally, PCs often find themselves hunted by forces of the Shadow or having to infiltrate areas with heavy patrols. In addition to foraging for food and tracking foes, Survival becomes quite literally a skill that keeps the PCs from a gory and violent death.

In the uses of the Survival skill below, the character making the checks is referred to as the “guide.”

Foraging

The world of MIDNIGHT is a harsh place, and competition for food is fierce, especially in lands dominated by the Shadow’s armies.

Evading Patrols

Rather than opposing the characters’ Hide and Move Silently checks with the Spot checks of every orc in the patrols they pass near, assume that a party manages to pass through a Shadow-patrolled area undetected if their guide meets the DCs on Table 5–4 on his Survival checks. If he fails, the party draws the attention of the patrol. When attempting to evade patrols, the natural terrain determines the check’s DC, as shown on Table 5–4; however, the guide also suffers penalties or bonuses to his check similar to the Condition modifiers listed under the Track feat in the PHB. Rather than acting as penalties and bonuses to the Survival DC, the listed modifiers (in which “group being tracked” refers to the guide’s own group) instead act as penalties and bonuses to the guide’s Survival check. The DM may call for a Survival check once per day, once per hour, or however often he deems appropriate, depending on the level of danger he wants the characters’ journey to have. When the characters attempt to sneak past specific guard points (for instance, past a well-guarded bridge or through the pickets of an enemy encampment, opposed Spot and Hide checks are in order.

Counter-tracking

Unlike in the core rules, hiding one’s tracks in MIDNIGHT is far too important to be represented by a simple DC modifier to a foe’s Survival DC. Instead, whenever a party attempts to hide its trail (which requires that they move at half speed), the guide makes a Survival check with a DC dependent on the surface over which the party is being tracked (see Table 5–4). For every 2 points by which the guide beats the DC, the DC to track the party increases by 1.