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jcsw
2008-06-17, 02:52 AM
I'm having a coastal campaign, where the entire map is an archipelago, so my players will be having to sail around a lot. However, I seem to have run into a problem, despite my repeated hints(really obvious hints at that), no one in the party has put in ANY ranks in Knowledge (Geography) and since the minimum DC for a nearby island that hasn't been visited before is DC 25, there's a major problem here. Is there any way of solving this without actually changing the rules? Any spells or items(artificer/alchemical savant in the party) than I can point out to them? Or any quick fixes?

Some more info:
In the previous session, they kinda electrocuted all the resident sailors on the island, so no one is willing to help, since they're all injured.

They have a map(+2 Circumstance) and sextant(another +2 Circumstance), and the highest int in the party is 17(the artificer)

They didn't want a solution such as "craft an item of +10 to navigation checks" (+10 Knowledge Geog item = 10k, halved to 5k because it's only usable for navigation, then halved again to 2.5k because it's being crafted)

marjan
2008-06-17, 03:30 AM
Ancestral Knowledge from MoE gives you a bonus to your next knowledge check. Also in SC or CC there is a spell Lore of the Gods that gives you a +10 (+5 only if you don't worship deity that has knowledge as one of domains I think) to knowledge checks for 10 mins/level.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-06-17, 04:51 AM
Sounds like your players screwed up pretty badly and should suffer the consequences. Have them get lost trying to sail somewhere, lose their ship and equipment, get stranded on a hostile island, and make them find their way off it.

A PC navigator shouldn't be that critical, but if they can't even be bothered to secure themselves a NPC navigator, they'll just have to suffer through what follows.

Also, why the frag don't they like the solution of crafting the item? Isn't that what Artificers are do to solve problems? A magical compass and sextant seem like the obvious solution here.

Kizara
2008-06-17, 05:34 AM
Ariel scouting (wildshape, animal companion, familiar) and scrying could help alot here. As well as things like Find the Path.