Hello,
I've the idea that if a PC spends X hours per day, for Y days reading a book (that he borrow from a library for example) the PC will got something out of it...I don't know if it is a skill rank or a point in knowledge. Is this right?
I looked for it everywhere and I didn't find it anywhere, but I think I saw it somewhere. Is this really a rule? How does it work exactly?
Thanks!
It's not any rule I'm familiar with. The usual mechanism for representing book learnin' is granting a circumstance bonus on Knowledge checks when the PC has access to an appropriate tome.
If you want a more permanent reward, just give them some XP.
No rules in the core line regarding it. Once upon a time there were rules regarding the building of libraries that let you choose what Knowledge skills they boosted when the library is consulted. You still see that in APs from time to time. You might also have read something from the Manuals of Improvement third-party products in that vein, though I recall they gave circumstance bonuses primarily.
They don't actually give skill points, but many times a book will give a circumstance bonus (+2 to +4) on Knowledge checks relating to that specific subject, and rarely even let you make skill checks untrained.
Libraries will do it for whole categories of Knowledges, bigger libraries having a broader scope, and more commonly have the "Can make Knowledge checks untrained" quality.
Ok, thank you. I really thought that I had read that in the Core Rulebook - I don't have many other books (only RotR and Gamemastery, this last one I just browsed). But I look for it several times now, and I couldn't find it, so I thought I might have read it in a website somewhere. I look for it but nothing, although I had a strong impression that I actually read it somewhere.
I'm new to GM (Pathfinder in general) and I told a player (in our second game session) that he could learn from a book, and I told him I would check about the number of hours and days later. I will have to tell him that I made a mistake. I will inform my PCs about the advantages of being in a library though.
Thank you for all your answers!
This may help, although i dont know if its explained anywhere specically in the books. There is however, an order of the stick comic that talks about it.
Basically, the game makes no effort to explain where the knowledge about anthing comes from. Its assumed that any time a PC takes a rank in a skill they dont know or a class they did not have before that they retroactivly were studying it the whole time. Basically the game hand-waves the fine details about these things.
Because these details are handwaved, the game does not need to make up any special rules for learning from books.
If a player wants to activate a Skill he did not have before or wants to raise a skill that can not be practised, like a knowledge skill, I have them justify it to me, by, for example, acquiring an appropriate book. That is not RAW 'though, only a houserule at my table.