Survival
Full rules text, use cases, and edge-case handling for this skill.
Description
Survival encompasses the wilderness arts — tracking creatures, finding food and water, navigating without a map, enduring harsh weather, and avoiding natural hazards. A skilled survivalist is at home in any terrain and can keep a group alive where others would perish.
Check
Survival has several distinct uses, each with its own DC.
| Task | DC |
|---|---|
| Get along in the wild (avoid getting lost, find food and water) | 10 |
| Gain a bonus on Fortitude saves vs. severe weather (1 extra person per +1 DC) | 15 |
| Keep the party from getting lost in poor visibility | 15 |
| Avoid natural hazards (quicksand, thin ice, avalanche risk) | 15 |
| Predict the weather up to 24 hours ahead | 15 |
| Follow fresh tracks (last hour) | 10 |
| Follow day-old tracks | 15 |
| Follow week-old tracks | 25 |
Tracking Modifiers
| Condition | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Every 3 creatures in the group being tracked | –1 DC |
| Prey is using trackless step or similar | +5 |
| Mud, snow, or dust (soft ground) | –5 |
| Dense undergrowth or rain in the last hour | +5 |
| Rain since the tracks were made | +10 |
| Mounted quarry | –2 |
| Each hour since tracks were made | +1 |
Tracking pace: Move at half normal overland speed while tracking (or at full speed at a cumulative –5 penalty per hour). Failure by 5 or more loses the trail — you must restart from the last confirmed sign.
Action
Survival checks for foraging, weather prediction, or avoiding hazards are made once per day. Tracking is a move action per round of movement (or effectively part of overland travel). Gaining a weather-survival bonus for allies requires a check made before the severe weather begins.
Try Again
For avoiding hazards: No — you either avoided it or you didn't. For tracking: If you lose the trail, you can retry by returning to the last known point and spending additional time searching (DC +5). Weather predictions: Once per day.
Special
- Ranger (Favored Terrain): Rangers gain a competence bonus on Survival checks in their favored terrain, making them exceptional trackers in specific environments.
- Track (feat): Required to follow tracks using Survival. Without this feat (or the Ranger class feature), you cannot use Survival for tracking at all.
- Ranger class feature — Track: Grants the Track feat as a bonus feat.
- Druid (nature bond, spells): Many druid abilities complement Survival, including pass without trace (removes trackable signs for the party).
- Self-sufficient (feat): +2 bonus on Heal and Survival checks; increases to +4 with 10 or more ranks in either.
- Endurance (feat): Assists with the severe weather fortitude save that a successful Survival check supports.
Untrained
Yes, for most uses. However, tracking requires the Track feat (or Ranger's Track class feature) regardless of ranks — an untrained character without Track cannot follow a trail.