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Mastering the Wild / Discovery and Exploration / Creating a Territory

Step 1: Define the Territory

Source Ultimate Wilderness pg. 126
The first step is to determine your territory’s Challenge Rating. Typically, this should be the same value as the PCs’ Average Party Level, but you might want to make it easier or harder for the sake of the story. The territory’s CR helps guide the creation of random encounters, but it also determines the base DC of exploration checks, which can be found on Table 4–1. Though most exploration checks use the Survival skill, you can assign a different skill for particularly unusual or magical territories (for example, exploring a complex extraplanar library might require a Knowledge check, while exploring the mindscape of a slumbering god in which the PCs are trapped could require a Sense Motive check).

Exploration check DCs are intended to be moderately difficult. Characters who are heavily invested in the relevant skill for a given check should have a reasonable chance of success, while those who are not adept with the necessary skills are in danger of leading the PCs off track by providing erroneous information or misinterpreting way signs. Often, characters who lack the relevant skills for a particular exploration are better off using their abilities for other tasks or helping more skillful PCs via the aid another action.

Table 4-1: Exploration DCs

Territory CR	Exploration DC
1	17
2	19
3	21
4	22
5	23
6	24
7	25
8	26
9	27
10	28
11	29
12	30
13	31
14	32
15	33
16	34
17	35
18	36
19	37
20	38

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Step 1: Define the Territory

Table 4-1: Exploration DCs