Longest Road House Rules

Knowledge Checks

I stole this from OOTS! Link

You can attempt a Knowledge check to give yourself an advantage in a situation. You may attempt one such check per day for each Knowledge skill in which you have ranks. A basic check (DC 20) gains you a +1 competence bonus to AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, or the save DCs of your spells against one particular opponent , or a +2 competence bonus to one saving throw against a particular effect (a certain wizard's spells, poison, or to avoid traps, for example), or a +2 competence bonus to one skill check to accomplish a particular task. A DC (30) check increases these bonuses to +2/+4/+4 respectively. You must specify the opponent, effect or task upon making the check, and the bonuses last until the conditions are met or a day passes, whichever comes first. You must describe how your knowledge produces these results; a knowledge skill which is incompatible with a particular result increases the check DC by +10, at the DM’s discretion. If you fail the Knowledge check, you may not attempt to gain an advantage through that Knowledge skill for the rest of the day, though you may still use a different Knowledge skill.

Examples:

• Boris the Brave raises his sword and begins to stalk towards the party, plate mail clinking heavily. Rosa the bard knows that the Brave family is an old and chivalrous line, and has a duty to protect women. She uses that to her advantage, unbinding her long hair and taunting, "You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?" as she tries to stab him with her rapier. Boris is thrown off by her taunts, and fights poorly. (Rosa makes a successful Knowledge (nobility and royalty) check, and gains a +1 AC bonus versus Boris).

• Marco squints around the ruined great hall and comments to his fellow adventurers, "You know, that support pillar there doesn't actually support anything. And it's not decorated. I wonder why it's there?" A quick search later and the nimble halfling has found a secret tunnel hidden behind the pillar. (Marco makes a successful Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check, and receives a +2 bonus to his Search check to find the secret door).

• Hedda growls as she sees the enemy wizard preparing to cast. Her sorcerous companion shouts, "It's another fireball!" "Get down!" Hedda calls back, and her companions begin diving for cover. Hedda recognizes the tall grass to her left as not being flat land, but a recessed divot common to plains. She rolls into the sheltered hollow just as the fireball bursts overhead, safe from the flames. (Hedda makes a successful Knowledge (geography) check, and receives a +2 bonus to Reflex saves against area spells).

Extended Example:

A party is facing off against a band of orcs. The party wizard targets the orcs with a fireball, and really wants the orc shaman to be affected. She first makes a Knowledge (arcana) check, gets a 22, and declares her understanding of the arcane mysteries to be so thorough as to increase the saving throw DC on her fireball by one, for the shaman only.

When the fireball clears, only a few orcs are standing. The party rogue dashes up to one, makes a Knowledge (local) check and gets a 20, and suddenly remembers these orcs consider spiders to be their totem animal. "Wow, what a big spider!" she calls, pointing. The orc turns to look, and the rogue gets a +2 competence bonus on her Bluff check to feint him.

The fighter is up next, and he first makes his Knowledge (geography) check. He gets a 20 as well, and declares he is using the slope of the ground to add momentum to his charge. He gets a +1 to attack the orc he singles out for his charge, lopping the orc's head off.

Finally, the party cleric decides to just bash one of the remaining orcs with his mace. He knows the undead-infested tomb is just up ahead, and he wants to save his situational advantage for when he really needs to turn some of them.

Suggestion, Charm, Dominate

Since this is about to come up, I wanted to nail down my rulings on these three abilities in plenty of time to give y'all opportunity to plan. Basically, my logic is based on one principle: Make Things Fun.

Suggestion

• You influence the actions of the target creature by suggesting a course of activity (limited to a sentence or two). The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the activity sound reasonable. Asking the creature to do some obviously harmful act automatically negates the effect of the spell.

This is like a weak form of dominate. You can force your target to perform a single action. See dominate for the limits...

Charm

• This charm makes a humanoid creature regard you as its trusted friend and ally (treat the target’s attitude as friendly). If the creature is currently being threatened or attacked by you or your allies, however, it receives a +5 bonus on its saving throw.
• The spell does not enable you to control the charmed person as if it were an automaton, but it perceives your words and actions in the most favorable way. You can try to give the subject orders, but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn’t ordinarily do. (Retries are not allowed.) An affected creature never obeys suicidal or obviously harmful orders, but it might be convinced that something very dangerous is worth doing. Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the charmed person breaks the spell. You must speak the person’s language to communicate your commands, or else be good at pantomiming.

The person charmed considers you a trusted friend, someone they respect and whose judgment they consider to be worthy. They will not do anything that goes against their basic nature; if you or your friends threaten them it is shattered. A charm plus some really good logic and trickery may convince an NPC to reveal information they otherwise may not have, but your character will have to work for it. Make it convincing, I know you guys are brain-a-saurs!

Dominate

• You can control the actions of any humanoid creature through a telepathic link that you establish with the subject’s mind.
• Subjects resist this control, and any subject forced to take actions against its nature receives a new saving throw with a +2 bonus. Obviously self-destructive orders are not carried out. Once control is established, the range at which it can be exercised is unlimited, as long as you and the subject are on the same plane. You need not see the subject to control it.

Here is my ruling: Dominate can force a person to perform actions. It cannot force them to reveal information.

My reasons:

• It's not fun, nor is it challenging. You guys are way smart, I am confident you can get information a better way.
• This kind of "easy out" creates a world in which nobody of note needs to torture anymore. And come on, torture is awesome. I mean, um.
• The rule goes both ways: if any PC is dominated, they will not be able to be forced to reveal information.
• The ruling will increase the fun and complexity of the campaign. Specifics avoided, naturally.

In-game reasons:

• Dominate is such a brute-force ability that it's not possible to fine-tune it to extract information. That's what charm is for: a lighter touch.
• Some high level divination abilities can also help in this regard...?

In Conclusion

Dominate is cheap. Use something smarter. XP rewards will be commensurate with the challenge offered and the creativity of solution. :)