Your Natural Lore skill measures your ability to recall lore about terrain, plants and animals, the weather, and natural cycles.
Recall Information
You can use the Natural Lore skill to recall information about nature spells (both arcane and divine), natural phenomenon, local geography, seasons and cycles, weather and various creatures. This functions as the Recall Information ability of the Academics skill but only covers this specialized field of study.
Identify Creatures
This functions as the Identify Creatures ability of the Academics skill but only covers this specialized field of study. Natural Lore can identify animals, elementals, fey, plants, vermin, and oozes.
Identify Unnatural Effects
A successful Natural Lore check can allow you to identify any spell or effect that directly manipulates nature, such as any druid or ranger spell or an entangle spell cast by any spellcaster, but not a fireball spell.
You can also recognize other magical effects where they have impacted nature, though you may not know exactly what the effect was, such as identifying that the area was burned by a spell but not necessarily that it was done by a fireball spell.
The base difficulty class to identify any spell or spell effect is 20 + the spell’s level. Apply the modifiers as given on the Identify Spell Effects table of the Arcane Lore skill to determine the final DC.
Natural Lore can also identify spells, psionic powers, and other esoterica that aren’t nature related, but attempting to do so increases the DC by +10.
Tracking
| Surface | Base DC |
|---|---|
| Very soft ground | 5 |
| Soft ground | 10 |
| Firm ground | 15 |
| Hard ground | 20 |
| Condition | Modifier |
| Every 24 hours since the trail was made | +1 |
| Every hour of rain since the trail was made | +1 |
| Fresh snow cover since the trail was made | +10 |
| Tracked party hides trail (and moves at half speed) | +5 |
| Every three creatures in the group being tracked | -1 |
| Size of creature or creatures being tracked1 | |
| – Fine | +8 |
| – Diminutive | +4 |
| – Tiny | +2 |
| – Small | +1 |
| – Medium | 0 |
| – Large | -1 |
| – Huge | -2 |
| – Gargantuan | -4 |
| – Colossal | -8 |
| Poor visibility2 | |
| – Overcast or moonless night | +6 |
| – Moonlight | +3 |
| – Fog or precipitation | +3 |
| 1 For a group of mixed sizes, apply only the modifier for the largest size category. 2 Apply only the largest modifier from this category. | |
You can find and follow tracks with a successful check; however, tracks with a DC higher than 20 are too difficult to follow without special training (see the Track feat).
To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Natural Lore check. You must make another check every time the tracks become difficult to follow.
You move at half your normal speed (or at your normal speed with a -5 penalty on the check, or at up to twice your normal speed with a -20 penalty on the check).
The DC depends on the surface and the prevailing conditions, as given on Table: Tracking DC. Several modifiers may apply to the Natural Lore check, as given on the table.
If you fail a tracking check, you can retry after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes (indoors) of searching.
Alternatively, you can use the Perception skill to find a footprint or similar sign of a creature’s passage using the DCs given above, but you can’t use Search to follow tracks.
Surface Types
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 stream beds fall into this category, since any footprints left behind are obscured or washed away. The creature leaves only traces (scuff marks or displaced pebbles).
Use Magic Item
This functions as the Use Magic Item ability of the Arcane Lore skill but functions only with nature spells, such as those from the Ranger and Druid spell lists. Natural Lore can be used with wands and scrolls that contain both arcane and divine spells, but only those spells that are directly related to nature.
Wilderness Survival
You can keep yourself and others safe and fed in the wild. A DC 10 check allows you to hunt and forage for food and water while traveling at up to half speed. You can provide food and water for one other person for every 2 points by which your check result exceeds 10.
You can keep from getting lost and avoid natural hazards, such as quicksand, with a DC 15 check.
Predict the weather up to 24 hours in advance with a DC 15 check. For every 5 points by which your exceed 15, you can predict the weather for one additional day in advance.
You may gain a +2 save bonus against severe weather with a DC 15 check. You may grant the same bonus to one other creature for every point by which your check exceeds 15.