Tracking: Survival, Perception, or Investigation?

[RickAllison]

Exactly as in the title, does tracking someone qualify as a Survival, Perception, or Investigation check? I realize opinions will differ and that the actual skill will probably differ based on how the user is tracking. Survival might be tracking footprints, etc. Investigation could be finding small indicators such as different soils in a boot print. Perception could be more of a speed-tracking, where the creature is trying to spot different clues without any one clue giving a significant amount of information.

The inspiration for this question came from the Keen Senses trait for lycanthropes, which gives advantage to Perception checks that rely on the keen senses (smell for all but wereboar, hearing for weretiger and werewolf) and so it brought to mind whether the lycanthrope could use that trait to track someone through scent. Thoughts?

[Flashy]

It'd probably depend on the distance? If they were trying to track a substantial distance overland I'd probably call it survival (but give them advantage anyway), if they were trying to tail someone down the street I'd call it perception.

[Tanarii]

Following tracks is a Wisdom (Survival) check per the PHB description of the skill, and the Activities while Traveling, Other Activities, Track section.

Rangers get advantage on checks to track their Favored Enemy, get to use double their proficiency bonus (if proficient) in their Natural Explorer terrain. In the latter case they also learn the exact number of creatures, their size, and how long ago they passed through the area.

Edit: Spotting tracks in the first place might be Perception. Figuring out the most likely place to start looking for them when you know the should exist would be Investigation.

Edit2: for the full rules on Tracking, see DMG page 244

[Gtdead]

The phb stronly indicates that anything that has to do with tracking, recognizing footprints, inhabitats etc is a survival check.
So if there were multiple tracks, the character would need to roll survival in order to follow the right ones.

To find patterns in the tracks you need investigation. For example the monster may move in circles because it wants to protect something other than itself.

The party needs to hunt a beast that terrorizes a village.

The group arrives to the scene, they try to find some kind of thread to follow,
Wizard starts investigating, making sure that this is an animal attack, and then proceeds to deduce where it came from and it's motive, hunger, territorial (Investigation)
Party finds some tracks to follow (Automatic or Perception most likely)
Ranger tries to identify the beast (Knowledge Nature)
Ranger follows tracks (Survival check)
Ranger notices that the party came by this place twice (Perception Check)
The wizard tries to deduce why would the creature move in circles (Investigation Check)

and so on

[PoeticDwarf]

We use survival, perception if there is a specific noise or something you can still here in invesrigation in some special situations but normally survival

[Ninja_Prawn]

It'd probably depend on the distance? If they were trying to track a substantial distance overland I'd probably call it survival (but give them advantage anyway), if they were trying to tail someone down the street I'd call it perception.

Good call. 'Real' tracking is survival, but following someone over distances of feet and inches could easily involve the 'search' type skills.

"You turn the corner, but Jimmy Two-Hats has disappeared into the crowd!"
"Did I see where he went?"
"Roll perception, with advantage due to your keen vision."
"24."
"Out of the corner of your eye, you see the tail of his cloak whipping into an alleyway."

[Ronnocius]

Technically it is Survival, but if you're looking for patterns/information from the tracks it would be Investigation. Perception is if you're looking for someone/something in a crowd. In the above example of finding someone when they round a street corner, you wouldn't track them, you would look for them.

[Ninja_Prawn]

In the above example of finding someone when they round a street corner, you wouldn't track them, you would look for them.

That was the point of the example - it illustrates that what we have here is an issue of semantics. If I were writing a novel, I would be perfectly within my rights to say that 'Eagle-Eye' Johnson tracked ol' Two-Hats through the crowd... with no survival checks in sight.

So, the moral of the story is: determine the type of check based on the situation, not some abstract notion of "if you can find a way to claim that a task involves 'tracking' it's always survival".

[lebefrei]

In my games I call for the following: Perception to pick up tracks, survival to follow them, investigation to deal with the details of how and why they end.

So, we had a bugbear that fled a fight early in the campaign, and my players felt it was important to find him. He was an ambushing murderer and they feared him being free.

They already saw him flee, so no need for perception. With survival, they tracked him to a building but lost the tracks. Now, a perception check spotted signs that he'd climbed a wall. Survival again to track him up and inside a skylight. Then, investigation to search the room for him. Eventually, using the clues available and hints from rolls, they found him in a big ale keg.

I like using multiple skills for this partially because only a rogue or bard will likely have all three, so it lets others shine, too. Also, it lengthens and gives more significance to the search, making it an encounter in its own right.

[Tanarii]

That was the point of the example - it illustrates that what we have here is an issue of semantics. If I were writing a novel, I would be perfectly within my rights to say that 'Eagle-Eye' Johnson tracked ol' Two-Hats through the crowd... with no survival checks in sight.Agreed. Same reason I specified "following tracks" in my post. As well as that being literally what it says in the Survival skill and in the Adventuring Chapter under the Track heading. :)