Has anyone else noticed that the skill unlocks from Occult Adventures are kind of... Useless? Especially at low levels.
There are a few that aren't useless: Dowsing, Faith Healing, Phrenology (sort of...), Psychometry, and Read Aura are pretty much usable right out of the gate.
In case you can't tell, my main issues are Automatic Writing and Prognostication.
Automatic Writing currently has you spending 1 hour a week to effectively cast a spell that can tell you Good/Bad consequences within the next 30 minutes. In short, useless.
Prognostication has the same issue (But once a day taking 10 minutes), but the DC to tell a fortune (as Augery, so the same issue as above) is 25+HD. Hard to hit at low levels.
Fixing Automatic Writing:
There are two tasks you can use Automatic Writing for
1: Predict an Outcome
2: Predict a Situation
When attempting to Predict an Outcome, you may ask three questions ("Will we survive the dungeon? Will there be great treasure? Will the taxmen be after us?") with a timeframe of 3 days. The Linguistics check deciphers the entire text (A mix of gibberish, riddles, cryptic statements, and information that pertains to someone else), but each answer rolls for coherency and meaning separately. As per Divination and Augery, you have 4 possible answers:
1: Weal (Generally good)
2: Woe (Generally bad)
3: Weal and Woe (Both)
4: Nothing (Neither or failed)
As with Augery and Divination, player actions may change the circumstances enough to make the answer useless.
At 10 ranks, you may roll against DC 30 to ask 6 questions with a timeframe of 2 weeks (Divination would be this powerful if you could only cast it once a week in an hour long ritual).
Predicting a Situation:
There is only 1 question asked here, and it is this: "What may happen within X weeks/months/years/Decades?". In short, you are attempting prophecy. You have no control over the information, which is more detailed than the four answers above, but it is generally more cyptic. Example: -[Gibberish] 3 [childhood riddle involving days and sicknesss]- Mrs. Darling suggests [fragment of upstairs neighbors argument]- Goblins do not wake [gibberish involving triangles]- THERE MAY BE BLOOD [beef pie recipe in a different language]- do not romance the innkeeper's daughter [list of criminal charges, including treason].
Timeframe is restricted by your total ranks in Linguistics, and each timeframe has a separate DC.
1: 1 week (DC 15)
2: 2 weeks (DC 15)
3: 1 month (DC 20)
4: 3 months (DC 20)
5: 6 Months (DC 25)
10: 1 Year (DC 30)
15: 1 Decade (DC 35)
20: 1 Century (DC 40)
Each attempt is split into 5 pieces, and each piece has a base 60% chance of being coherent, meaningful and relevant, with a +5% bonus for every 1 by which you beat the DC (Max 90%). The pieces may or may not be connected to each other.
In short, this is a GM tool to dangle a plothook in front of the players (In three days, the upstairs neighbors will fall ill. Their friend, Mrs. Darling, will come bearing a beef pie. She will ask the PCs to help her gather ingredients from a nearby forest. THe PCs discover the ingredients are guarded by goblins that have a peace treaty with a nearby village - killing them will break the treaty and the village will be raided. Mrs. Darling is the inkeeper's daughter, and her husband is jealous. The criminal charges are against a person that does not live within 100 miles of them.)
In either task, it may only be attempted once a week, taking 1 hour per attempt. Attempting to perform this more than once a week may invite misfortune.
Fixing Prognostication:
To begin, decrease all DCs by 5. Telling a fortune becomes very different however, and its DCs will change. AS with the base skill unlock, you may only attempt this once per day, taking 10 minutes per attempt. Trying to use it more often may lead to a Fate Slap.
When telling a future, you have a chance to predict a general pattern and two specific pieces of information. The pattern and information follow the rules for Augery and Divination (Something Good, Something Bad, A Bit Of Both, Make A Bluff Check to Keep Their Money), and roll separately for being coherent enough to give a relevant meaning at a base chance of 60% and +5% for every 5 that you exceeded the DC by (Max 90%).
The base DC for telling a fortune is DC 30, subtracting the creature's HD (the more powerful you are, the more of Fate's Attention is on you), with modifiers for Timeframe as below:
The Currents of Fate are Fresh... (1 week) -15 to DC
... Very Fresh. (5 Days or less) -20 to DC (For a joke, scroll down*)
As The Moon Passes... (1 Month)-10 to DC
Before The Sun Stands as Today... (1 Year) -5 to DC
Within a Season of Your Life... (1/4 subjects total life span) -0 to DC
By The Midwinter of Your Time... (1/2 subjects total life span. Replaces Season of Life if the subject is between the two) +5 to DC
Near The Twilight of Your Days... (Subjects entire lifespan. Replaces Midwinter of Time if the subject is between the two) +10 to DC
*... Like, Breath Mint Fresh... (Less than 12 hours) -25 to DC
Once a fortune has been attempted for a given timeframe, no other legitimate fortunes can be told for that person in that timeframe until it passes, even if the circumstances change the relevance of the fortune. (a young lady doesn't like that her fortune for the week is Weal involving grapes and a stranger. She attempts to gain a different fortune, but any attempts to do so just reveal the same fortune as before until the week passes. Unfortunately, by that time she has grown frustrated enough to attempt a forbidden ritual in her family vineyard and is skewered by a passing paladin).
All information, however, is even more vague than Automatic Writing (Dungeons, Castles, Inns, and Tents all count as buildings, for example), and piecing it together is even more difficult (Sense Motive against DC 20 for a 40% chance, with a +5% bonus for each 1 you exceeded the DC by, Max 80%).
Fixing Phrenology:
No Game mechanics here (except decreasing all Dcs above 10 by 5 to match Prognostication), but a fluff change: Phrenology is closely to related to Psychometry (an unlock they expected to see in common use, judging by the DCs), and you are instead reading the psychic impressions left by the soul and mind of the person.
Read Aura: Drop the time required to 5 minutes.
Dowsing: With a related item attached to your rod (or pendant, as some prefer), you may roll against DC 25 to find a particular item (A child's toy to find said child, a dried goblin ear to find the largest group of goblins in range, a piece of deer hide to find a herd of them, etc.).
Additional Unlocks: At 5, 10, 15, and 20 ranks, gain one additional use of your skill unlocks.
Thoughts, questions, ideas?
