Survival Skill!

[MrGrendel]

This was mentioned in the thread about tracking, but is a seperate suggestion, so here's a thread for it.
 
Survival skill!
 
Fine you say, so what about the Meta-Why?
 
- We have 2 unused skills, craft armor/weapons already in the game
- With a ton of undiscovered areas before us, this is an ideal time to give more options to wilderness wanderers
- Allow guides, navigators and explorers to have a way to truly give their characters an edge in the wilds
- No longer do nature-hating, tribe-stomping conquistadore types have to have a "magical fuzzy connection" to nature in order to have any mechanical advantage for cutting trails and burning native crops!
- Make getting along in the wilds amount to more than merely "how many rabid dire badgers can your tank hold off." :p
 
 
Alright, and what sort of things could be done with it, specifically? Here's a starting list of things that could be added to the game that would utilize the Survival skill. Note that all of these ideas are basically exactly what pen and paper DnD says the survival skill should be used for. More uses are certainly possible!
 
- Predict weather! Bah humbug? How about storms that make ranged weapons miss, and winds that kill your spot/search checks... not to mention actually getting lost for real? More suggestion posts ahoy...
- Not getting lost in rabid, dire badger-infested areas - Suggestion post for that, later!
- As Survival lets you gather food and live off the land, it could be used for the harvesting/planting, as well as the cooking scripts implemented.
- Tracking! (plug plug plug) In the interest of not having every character of a certain class be the same, an unused feat (skill focus: craft/survival) can be used, just like in 'real' AD&D. Now you non-magical, non-hippie people can learn how to use your eyeballs and follow tracks!
- Easier resting in the wilds. Jealous of those scruffy druids? Make your own bedroll out of scavenged tufts of rat fur.
- Treacherous terrain. That's right - Quicksand pits. *evil laugh*
- Navigating boats by the stars - don't want every transition on a boat to end in were-shark infested waters? Better find a navigator to tag along. (See said suggestion post above :p)
- Reduced effects of bad weather, such as (all per pen and paper DnD) rain and storms that make ranged combat, search and spot less effective, winds that make it hard to use listen, hail that can damage, etc. Laugh at the city halflings as they get tossed around by raging winds ;)
 
Moar ideas welcome! n_n
 
It would probably also be the best fit for any swimming checks, as tumble is used for climbing. :)

[Nights Bane]

I'm bumping this. Curious to see the level of interest has changed.

*Bump*
I like! Quicksand pits.  Stargazer Pungee stick traps.  Ice floes.  - General Things to oppose conquistadors and a concrete skill to challenge these obstacles... Discuss! I like!

[Vlaid]

I don't agree with most of the mechanical ideas in this thread about how to use Survival and what it should effect, but the basic concept of being able to use one of the craft skills as your "Survival" skill I absolutely love.

[ScottyB]

Survival is a wisdom-based skill, and the craft skills are intelligence.

While tumble is dexterity, it's a closer match for our general athletics use since armor checks really should apply to climbing and swimming. Intelligence boosting your swimming, though, makes less sense.

Edit: Although, I can see if a server-side override for making Craft Armor WIS-based would affect characters without the override.

[Jayde Moon]

Perhaps you understand the physics of moving through water... ?

:)

[MrGrendel]

I don't agree with most of the mechanical ideas in this thread about how to use Survival and what it should effect, but the basic concept of being able to use one of the craft skills as your "Survival" skill I absolutely love.

It was really more of a brainstorm, I wanted to show that there are a good number of things the skill could be implemented in. My main desire is the feasibility of non-sneaky wilderness types. (See the issue not too long back with Stargazer barbs.)
 
Since the main obstacle to non-stealth nature characters are spawns, a "path" system similar to the rafts would be great. Path points (hidden trails, small cave openings, etc) could be found in a lot of places, and you could choose to try and travel along them by direction, ie North, West by Southwest, etc. Your Survival skill check would determine just how clear the path is of hostile critters (number of people in your party should increase the DC for this particular point), and wether you in fact arrive at the destination path-point, or just somewhere in the wilds, lost. (With no re-entry point.)
 
That would also make path-finders a lot more popular, I'm sure, as they really could save people time from point A to point B, and get them there much more safely.
 
Anyway, like I said - brainstorm! If you have more ideas or suggestions, feel free to offload them here.
 

Survival is a wisdom-based skill, and the craft skills are intelligence.
 
While tumble is dexterity, it's a closer match for our general athletics use since armor checks really should apply to climbing and swimming. Intelligence boosting your swimming, though, makes less sense.
 
Edit: Although, I can see if a server-side override for making Craft Armor WIS-based would affect characters without the override.

Since the skill would probably only be used in custom scripts, would it be acceptable to adjust the stat bonus on a per script basis? Ie take off their int bonus from the result, and add the wis bonus...

[MrGrendel]

And since gathering food in the wilds is a function of Survival, this fishing system could make use of it, too. Survival + dexterity + 1d20...