Translation DCs

[kanrath]

I have to ask, can the DCs be lowered on the tablets and such when the parts where they ask for a dc 50 check? I'm using a heavily lored bard able to pull off 30 lore, perhaps 31, but at the dc of 50 its practically impossible. I wonder were the dcs ever calculated to take into account the fact identify no longer adds 10 to the bonus?

[Paha]

It is not impossible for devoted scholars. Some of the DC's are meant to be hard, but possible for those that chase it.

[kanrath]

I've maxed my lore with 4 lvls of bard so also getting the bardic knowledge bonus, and if you saw what I am wearing you would understand why I find it so difficult to understand. My armor alone adds 4 to lore. I can get it to the point where everything I wear and wield adds lore and its no better then 31-32 lore

[Dr Dragon]

The fact the Lore spell no longer gives bonus to the lore skill makes it even more hard.

[Paha]

I am aware, but I've also seen many to pass it. There are ways for it.

[kanrath]

I've never met anyone able to get the 50 lore checks to a point where they have a better then a 1 in 20 or 1 in 19 chance or something extremely difficult, as many of these areas are near impossible to get to without a lot of work you end up getting to try it once, and most likely failing then having to wait till a reset or something. And since playing victor I've yet to find someone able to get up to 30 lore, there may be others but I doubt it as victor's entire focus is translation to be honest. I've translated the gull rock pillars, the sunken enclave tomes except the last dc 50 pages, and a lot of others

[Egon the Monkey]

They were set to be hard but not impossible at a time when everyone used Lore Potions or Identify for translations, so it had to take into account that anyone can use that to get an instant double-digit lore skill. Now, they are effectively at least 13 points higher because of the change to Identify. The onlt chance you have if having SF Lore, secondary Lore maxes, Courteous Magocracy, max Cunning roll and gear up the wazoo, or getting your hands on a Legend Lore scroll.

[Johannes]

It is certainly not impossible, or even unreasonable for a devoted PC to attain translation DCs this high. Don't expect everything to be handed to you on a platter.

[Snoteye]

I doubt any Lore DCs were adjusted to account for the change to Identify. That would indeed make them bugs.

[Paha]

I am quite sure most have been, atleast I would recall some DM's mentioning it.

And still, as said, I know these are still being beaten by devoted characters. They are not meant to be sunday scholars findings necessarily, sometimes it takes time to achieve the level of skill you require to succeed. This is how I feel atleast.

[Wrexsoul]

The only thing that annoys me with checks like these is the random nature of rolling a d20 to determine if you successfully translate the text or not. Being able to beat a DC 50 lorecheck theoretically is doable with dedication, but relying on a 5-10% chance to be able to do so per reset is pretty rough, since luck is, after all, a bitch.

Since this is DnD, I guess a roll is needed, but one solution I could see working nicely would be if success wasn't absolute. What if a DC 50 lore check instead had a DC of 30, but every point you beat the DC with would only reveal 5% of the text? So with a DC of 30, rolling 31 would only translate 5% of the words, rolling up a 40 would translate 50% of them, and only with a roll of 50 or more (the original DC), the full text would be translated? This would both lower the absolute luck requirement, -and- make things more interesting, since you could then use your own deduction skills, fun roleplay, logic and/or intelligence to interpret whatever incomplete translation you end up with, instead of having it all settled with a boring roll of the dice. It would also be a much more plausible rendition of the process of translating a foreign language; You don't mysteriously go from not understanding a word to getting a complete picture of a foreign text, you translate things word for word until you are knowledgable enough to understand it all.

Would something like this be implementable? Could be as simple as substituting the percentage of the words you fail to translate with "...", or something similar. Would be a genuinely awesome change, I think!

[Nightshadow]

That sounds awesome, Wrex... Though perhaps too difficult/time consuming/impossible to implement? I hope not, because it's a great idea.

[Talir]

This is not the place to suggest new ways of handling the lore books. They already provide partial translations by lower lore checks, steadily increasing in difficulty to learn more of the contents.

If this is indeed a bug and if this is in need of a change, someone will look into it.