Science
From D20advanced
| SCIECNE | INT, Requires Tools |
|---|
You have training in one or more scientific disciplines, and you can use your knowledge for ends such as inventing or treating the sick and injured.
Contents |
Use
Craft
You can mix chemicals to create acids, drugs, explosives, poisons, and so forth. To craft something effectively, you must have an appropriate set of tools.
The difficulty and time required to make a particular item depends on its complexity. If your campaign uses the optional rules for Wealth and Purchasing Equipment, you will have to make a Wealth Check with a Difficulty Class 10 less than the Craft DC to acquire the necessary materials. If your Craft check succeeds, you have made the item. If the Craft check fails, you did not produce a usable end result, and any materials are wasted.
| TABLE 3.12: CRAFT CHECKS TO CREATE CHEMICALS | |||
| Complexity | Craft DC | Time | Examples |
| Simple | 15 | 1 hour | Aspirin, simple painkillers, simple experiments |
| Moderate | 20 | 12 hours | Drugs, complex experiments |
| Complex | 25 | 24 hours | Advanced medicines or poisons, difficult experiments |
| Advanced | 30 | 60 hours | Cutting-edge chemicals, groundbreaking experiments |
Demolitions
Characters can use Science to make explosives. The detonator mechanism, however, requires a Technology check to create.
Knowledge
Make a Science check to answer a question in one of the following fields:
- Behavioral Sciences: Psychology, sociology, and criminology.
- Earth Sciences: Geology, geography, oceanography, and paleontology.
- Life Sciences: Biology, botany, genetics, medicine, and forensics.
- Physical Sciences: Astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and engineering.
The DC is 10 for easy questions, 15 for basic questions, and 20 to 30 for difficult questions.The GM may make a Science roll for you, so you don’t know whether or not your information is accurate.
Medicine
The DC and effect depend on the task.
- Diagnosis (DC 10): You can diagnose injuries and ailments with an eye toward treatment. At the GM’s discretion, a successful diagnosis provides a +2 bonus on Medicine checks for treatment.
- Provide Care (DC 15): Providing care means treating a wounded person for a day or more or providing routine medical treatment. If successful, the patient adds your Medicine rank to any recovery checks. You can tend up to your skill rank in patients at one time.
- Revive (DC 15): You can remove the dazed, stunned, or unconscious conditions from a character. This check takes two action. A successful check removes one condition. You can’t revive a dying character without stabilizing him first.
- Stabilize (DC 15): For one action, a successful Medicine check stabilizes a dying character.
- Treat Disease (DC 15): You can tend a character infected with a disease. Every time the diseased character makes a saving throw against disease effects (after the initial contamination), you make a Medicine check requiring 10 minutes. If your check succeeds, you provide a bonus on the character’s saving throw equal to your Medicine rank.
- Treat Poison (DC 15): You can tend a poisoned character. When a poisoned character makes a saving throw against a poison’s secondary effect, you make a Medicine check as a standard action. If the check succeeds, you provide a bonus on the character’s saving throw equal to your Medicine rank.
- Surgery (DC 15-30): You can perform surgical operations. The DC ranges from 15 for routine procedures to 30 or more for tricky operations like heart or brain surgery.
Try Again
For crafting, you may try again, although it may require new materials.
For Knowledge, you cannot retry a Science check. The check represents what a character knows, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn’t let you know something you didn’t know before. The GM may allow another Science check if a character gets access to a better source of information. For example, a character who doesn’t know the answer to a particular question off-hand might get another check with access to a library or online database (and could take 10 on that check, depending on the circumstances).
For medicine checks to revive dazed, stunned, or unconscious characters, and stabilizing dying characters, you may try again.
Action
The time to make something varies according on its complexity. The Gamemaster may increase or decrease the time for a particular project as necessary. You can cut the time for making or repairing an item in half by taking a –5 penalty (see Challenges, below). Knowledge can be a reaction, but otherwise requires two actions. Medicine checks take time based on the task, as described above.
Special
You can take 10 when crafting, but can’t take 20 since doing so represents multiple attempts, and you use up raw materials with each attempt. If you don’t have the proper tools, you take a –5 penalty on Craft checks.
You can take 10 when making an Science check for Knowledge. You can take 20 on Knowledge with rigorous research and access to the materials and time necessary to search out information in such a manner.
You can take 10 when making a Science check for Medicine. You can take 20 only when giving long-term care or attempting to revive dazed, stunned, or unconscious characters.
If you do not have the appropriate medical equipment, you take a –5 penalty on your Science check for Medicine.
You can use the Science skill on yourself only to diagnose, provide care, or treat disease or poison with Medicine. You take a –5 penalty on checks when treating yourself.
Extended
Normal use of Science for crafting resembles an extended check in many ways. If you want, you can replace the standard crafting rules with an extended check. In this case, a single failed check doesn’t ruin the project; instead, rolling three failures before achieving the requisite number of successes does.
The GM might require an extended Science skill check to treat a particularly virulent disease or similar complex medical condition with Medicine.
Challenges
The following Challenge appropriate for Science checks:
Fast Work
You may add +5 or +10 to the indicated Difficulty Class to craft something. This increase allows you to make the item faster than usual, reducing the time to half or one-quarter normal, respectively.
