Skills

Navigate (Int)

Check: Make a Navigate check when a character is trying to find his or her way to a distant location without directions or other specific guidance. Generally, a character does not need to make a check to find a local street or other common urban site, or to follow an accurate map. However, the character might make a check to wind his or her way through a dense forest or a labyrinth of underground storm drains.

For movement over a great distance, make a Navigate check. The DC depends on the length of the trip. If the character succeeds, he or she moves via the best reasonable course toward his or her goal. If the character fails, he or she still reaches the goal, but it takes the character twice as long (the character loses time backtracking and correcting his or her path). If the character fails by more than 5, the or she travels the expected time, but only gets halfway to his or her destination, at which point the character becomes lost.

A character may make a second Navigate check (DC 20) to regain his or her path. If the character succeeds, he or she continues on to his or her destination; the total time for the trip is twice the normal time. If the character fails, he or she loses half a day before the character can try again. The character keeps trying until he or she succeeds, losing half a day for each failure.

When faced with multiple choices, such as at a branch in a tunnel, a character can make a Navigate check (DC 20) to intuit the choice that takes the character toward a known destination. If unsuccessful, the character chooses the wrong path, but at the next juncture, with a successful check, the character realizes his or her mistake.

A character cannot use this function of Navigate to find a path to a site if the character has no idea where the site is located. The GM may choose to make the Navigate check for the character in secret, so he or she doesn’t know from the result whether the character is following the right or wrong path.

A character can use Navigate to determine his or her position on earth without the use of any high-tech equipment by checking the constellations or other natural landmarks. The character must have a clear view of the night sky to make this check. The DC is 15.

Special: A character can take 10 when making a Navigate check. A character can take 20 only when determining his or her location, not when traveling.

A character with the Guide feat gets a +2 bonus on all Navigate checks.

Time: A Navigate check is a full-round action.

In a campaign that features space travel or dimensional travel, you can use the Navigate skill to plot a course between planets, star systems, or dimensions.

Check: The rules for plotting a course over a great distance work as described in the Navigate skill description. Aboard a starship, you need a functional Class II sensor array (or better) to plot a course through space. You don’t need to make a Navigate check when traveling along a pre-established space route or passing through a dimension gate with a pre-calibrated destination.

Time: Plotting a course is a full-round action in the same system, but can take several minutes to plot a course in another solar system or galaxy.