RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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How do other people handle this skill in their games? Let's assume that the characters don't have access to comprehend languages for a moment. They find a scroll written in an ancient language that none of them speak. With a sufficiently high Decipher Script roll, they can translate the scroll. How does this make sense? There are scrolls in the real world that entire teams of linguists and cryptography experts have picked at for YEARS and haven't translated yet. Deciphering lost and obscure languages should be nigh-impossible and should certainly require weeks if not months or years of work to accomplish and even then you would need access to a library or other similar house of knowledge to make any progress. Plus, with a 1st level spell, this skill becomes functionally obsolete. I'm curious to find out how other DMs handle this skill. Do you allow for the translation of other languages with it or do you use the skill specifically for deciphering cryptographs (that's what I use it for)? If you allow it to translate unknown languages, how do you rationalize it and define it in-game?
Director of Narrative
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I start here:
From the SRD-
"Decipher Script (Int; Trained Only)
Check:
You can decipher writing in an unfamiliar language or a message written in an incomplete or archaic form. The base DC is 20 for the simplest messages, 25 for standard texts, and 30 or higher for intricate, exotic, or very old writing.
If the check succeeds, you understand the general content of a piece of writing about one page long (or the equivalent). If the check fails, make a DC 5 Wisdom check to see if you avoid drawing a false conclusion about the text. (Success means that you do not draw a false conclusion; failure means that you do.)
Both the Decipher Script check and (if necessary) the Wisdom check are made secretly, so that you can’t tell whether the conclusion you draw is true or false.
See also: epic usages of Decipher Script.
Action
Deciphering the equivalent of a single page of script takes 1 minute (ten consecutive full-round actions).
Try Again
No. "
I agree that it sometimes seems kinda ridiculous that it's possible with those mechanics. I often add circumstantial modifiers to increase the DC if it is information I don't want out just yet. There are heaps of things that don't make real world sense in this game. Also, there is no point in placing information in game that you don't want the PCs to discover.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I agree that it sometimes seems kinda ridiculous that it's possible with those mechanics. I often add circumstantial modifiers to increase the DC if it is information I don't want out just yet. There are heaps of things that don't make real world sense in this game. Also, there is no point in placing information in game that you don't want the PCs to discover.
Good points. I'm wanting the PCs to find some ancient tome that CAN be deciphered, but I want it to require the aid of a specialist and this particular specialist hasn't been seen since he went to investigate the Ruins of XYZ. That kind of thing. I guess I could just arbitrarily assign the check a DC of 50 or so so that there is no chance of the PCs managing on their own, but that strains things a bit. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to fudge rolls and arbitrarily decide that the PCs fail to decipher it until they can have the specialist take a look at it.
Honestly, if the DCs as written don't work for your game, don't use them or (better yet) apply circumstantial modifiers as you see fit. For a human, trying to read that script that illithid use would be pretty much impossible without instruction in at least the basics of the language -- that the four lines have to be "read" simultaneously and all influence eachother.
If you assign a +10 modifier to the DC for a complete lack of grounding the fundamentals of the language (for example, trying to understand classical greek when the only non-english experience you have is the rudiments of spanish) and a scaling modifier depending on the amount of source and related material they have, it ought to be more reasonable. If they happen to know a language that shares an alphabet but is otherwise unrelated (knowing elven and finding a writing in some elemental language that shares that alphabet) the task would likely be easier than, say, trying to decipher abyssal graffiti when the only "outsider speech" you've seen is written neatly in the holy scripts of Pholtus.
On a (hopefully) related note, I've got a self-taught Dread Necromancer character I'll be playing at some point who had rudimentary training both as a generalist wizard and in a secluded temple to Boccob. She discovered her calling by chance -- she came across some "forbidden tomes" and after isolating the languages they were written in, persuaded some of the priests to show her how to translate and find her way through other books written in the same languages. For her and her entry level decipher script modifiers, the most sensible way to piece meaning out of those books was by gathering large quantities of relevant knowledge and then piecing it all together.
Well, you could alter the mechanic universally, adding +5 or even +10 to all checks required (and thus removing the skill from functionality at low and even mid levels and driving everyone to just get a scroll of comprehend languages). And/or you could make it take 1 hour to translate a page's worth of material, as opposed to 1 minute.
Also, bringing in circumstance bonuses is a good idea, too. If a character knows two languages, they get a +1 bonus (perhaps competence bonus in this case), and another +1 for every additional language. If they translate at least one page's worth of material in a multi-page text, then they get a +2 for having some "key" and understanding at least some element of the topic and themes. If they have translated this type of script before, there's another +2. If they fail their Wisdom check, that's -2 or even -4. If they succeed by X amount over the check DC, they can make a form of "dictionary" that provides (check - DC) bonus on Decipher Script rolls against this same cipher or language in the future (or maybe just say if they succeed by 5 or more they can make a codex which grants a +5 bonus). Allo for codices to be bought for 50 or 100gp that grant +2 bonuses on Decipher Script checks. Give the character a -5 or even -10 penalty if they have absolutely no logical means of ever having exposure to anything similar to this before (such as the ilithid "brail").
In the end, Daigle's right: why put info in your game that the players aren't ment to find? Again, this is just one area where it seems that real world logic has to be thrown out in the name of fun, balance, and efficiency... or at least, that's what the RAW say. As DM, you can, of course, change anything you want.