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Pathfinder Unchained / Consolidated Skills / Survival (Wis)

Follow Tracks

Source Pathfinder Unchained pg. 65
You must succeed at a Survival check to find or follow tracks for up to 1 mile. You must attempt an additional check each time the tracks become difficult to follow. While following tracks, you move at half your speed. You can move at your normal speed by taking a –5 penalty on the check, or twice your normal speed by taking a –20 penalty on the check. The DC to follow tracks depends on the surface and the prevailing conditions (see the Surfaces section below).

SurfaceSurvival DC
Very soft ground5
Soft ground10
Firm ground15
Hard ground20
Your Survival check might be modified based on any of the following conditions. Multiple conditions could affect the same roll, but apply only the size modifier for the largest creature in a group being tracked and apply only the most severe penalty for poor visibility.

Tracking ModifiersSurvival DC Modifier
Multiple creatures in a group–1 per three creatures
Size of creatures being tracked
Fine+8
Diminutive+4
Tiny+2
Small+1
Medium+0
Large-1
Huge-2
Gargantuan-4
Colossal-8
Time since the tracks were made+1 per 24 hours
Rain since the tracks were made+1 per hour of rain
Fresh snow since the tracks were made+10
Poor visibility
Fog or precipitation+3
Moonlight+3
Overcast or moonless night+6
Tracked party hides its trail and moves at half speed+5


Action: Full-round action or longer.

Try Again: You can retry a failed check after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes (indoors).

Untrained: You can follow tracks untrained, but only if the DC is 10 or lower.

Perception: Detecting a footprint or similar sign of a creature’s passage with the Perception skill uses the same DCs as Survival checks to follow tracks, but you can’t use Perception to follow tracks.

Surfaces

This sidebar gives examples of surfaces for the first table presented in the Follow Tracks section.

Very Soft Ground: Any surface (fresh snow, thick dust, wet mud) that holds deep, clear impressions of footprints.

Soft Ground: Any surface soft enough to yield to pressure, but firmer than wet mud or fresh snow, in which a creature leaves frequent but shallow footprints.

Firm Ground: Most normal outdoor surfaces (such as lawns, fields, woods, and the like) or exceptionally soft or dirty indoor surfaces (thick rugs and very dirty or dusty floors). The creature might leave some traces (broken branches or tufts of hair), but it leaves only occasional or partial footprints.

Hard Ground: Any surface that doesn’t hold footprints at all, such as bare rock or an indoor floor. Most streambeds fall into this category, since any footprints left behind are obscured or washed away. The creature leaves only traces (scuff marks or displaced pebbles).