Implementing Exploration Tactics: APs and Beyond

[Captain Morgan]

Exploration mode is a solid concept to make dungeon delving run smoother. It’s also something many people struggle with and doesn’t always intersect with how published adventures are written. This is gonna be little bit rules explanation, a little bit advice, and a little bit critique. I’m not exactly trying to write a guide here, but I’m going define some terms.

First off, there are broadly two categories of exploration activities. I’m largely focusing on what the playtest called Exploration Tactics: activities performed while traveling. There are also activities that require you to stop and spend anywhere from 1 action to 10 minutes or even longer. Technically these are all officially labeled Exploration Activities, but making the subcategory for Tactics is useful.

Similarly, while Exploration Mode technically applies to a wide variety of situations, it can be broadly lumped into four categories: Around the Town, Overland Travel, Dungeon Delving, and Points of Interest.

Around the Town is when you're in a non-hostile settlement. Quite often this will be treated as downtime, but technically activities like Gather Information, Decipher Writing, and Learn a Spell are considered Exploration activities. And of course, specific circumstances may shift things towards the more hostile forms of exploration, like a heist or traveling through a rival gang’s territory.

Overland Travel is when you travel long distances and moving at half speed doesn’t seem worthwhile. Usually, this means you won’t be using Exploration Tactics, though at higher levels some feats let you use tactics while moving at full speed.

Dungeon Delving is what I call traveling through dungeon corridors. This means a hostile terrain where caution is preferable to speed. That is when you start using Exploration Tactics which require moving at half speed. Usually, if you aren’t in combat but are moving between rooms on a grid or pre-drawn map, you’re Dungeon Delving.

Points of Interest are anywhere you pause to examine your surroundings. That means almost any room in an AP which has a description to read out loud to the players. Also, most battlefields become points of interest, because after an encounter the party stops to search the bodies and room, Treat Wounds, and other 10 minute Exploration Activities. The transition from Dungeon Delving to Points of Interest is where I think Paizo’s published adventures fail to do justice to Investigate and Detect Magic, because you can generally pause and cycle through several different tactics before you start moving again.

It is also important to understand that Exploration Mode is meant to be a convenience. If someone is going to search every door for traps, they don’t need to painstakingly describe how they poke each individual door with their 10-foot pole or constantly roll Perception. They just say they are searching for traps and the GM can call for a roll when it actually matters.

Now with those terms defined, let’s look at those Tactics.

Avoid Notice:

Exploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 479 2.0
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You attempt a Stealth check to avoid notice while traveling at half speed. If you have the Swift Sneak feat, you can move at full Speed rather than half, but you still can’t use another exploration activity while you do so. If you have the Legendary Sneak feat, you can move at full Speed and use a second exploration activity. If you’re Avoiding Notice at the start of an encounter, you usually roll a Stealth check instead of a Perception check both to determine your initiative and to see if the enemies notice you (based on their Perception DCs, as normal for Sneak, regardless of their initiative check results).

I believe Avoid Notice works great as written, at least if you factor in the guidance from the GMG. But people get confused about transitioning from Avoiding Notice to an Encounter. That’s a conversation unto itself, so I won’t focus on it.

Defend:

Exploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 479 2.0
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You move at half your travel speed with your shield raised. If combat breaks out, you gain the benefits of Raising a Shield before your first turn begins.

Defend is straightforward. No issues.

Detect Magic:

ConcentrateExploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 479 2.0
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You cast detect magic at regular intervals. You move at half your travel speed or slower. You have no chance of accidentally overlooking a magic aura at a travel speed up to 300 feet per minute, but must be traveling no more than 150 feet per minute to detect magic auras before the party moves into them.

Detect Magic has two problems. First, it is a little unclear how it distinguishes itself from Repeating a Spell, which means some people think it is fatiguing. (I never thought so myself, but recently ran into someone that did.) This largely just calls for a bit of clarification.

The other problem is with adventure design. Usually when something is magic it is at a point of interest. If players are going to pause to examine a room or Treat Wounds, there is no reason not to send off a Detect Magic, which means the Exploration Tactic feels kind of pointless.

To make this tactic matter, you need to sprinkle in magic where the players wouldn’t already be checking for it, or wouldn’t find anyway using Search. (Search is generally a more important tactic to use.) A magic item hidden under some rubble in a dungeon delve, or in a bird’s nest while traveling overland. Or a magical hazard that doesn’t have a proficiency gate —a high DC might mean your master of perception fails to spot it, but Detect Magic can save the day.

Follow the Expert:

AuditoryConcentrateExplorationVisual
Source Core Rulebook pg. 479 2.0
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Choose an ally attempting a recurring skill check while exploring, such as climbing, or performing a different exploration tactic that requires a skill check (like Avoiding Notice). The ally must be at least an expert in that skill and must be willing to provide assistance. While Following the Expert, you match their tactic or attempt similar skill checks. Thanks to your ally’s assistance, you can add your level as a proficiency bonus to the associated skill check, even if you’re untrained. Additionally, you gain a circumstance bonus to your skill check based on your ally’s proficiency (+2 for expert, +3 for master, and +4 for legendary).

Follow the Expert works as written. It has some issues with Avoid Notice, but I think that’s mostly Avoid Notice’s fault. Usually, you use this at a point of interest, like a narrow surface to balance across, but could also use it while traveling or delving.

Hustle:

ExplorationMove
Source Core Rulebook pg. 480 2.0
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You strain yourself to move at double your travel speed. You can Hustle only for a number of minutes equal to your Constitution modifier × 10 (minimum 10 minutes). If you are in a group that is Hustling, use the lowest Constitution modifier among everyone to determine how fast the group can Hustle together.

Big problem here is the undefined refractory period. How long do you have to wait before your PCs can hustle again? And can they continue to travel at normal speeds during this time, or do they need to stop altogether to catch their breath?

Investigate:

ConcentrateExploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 480 2.0
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You seek out information about your surroundings while traveling at half speed. You use Recall Knowledge as a secret check to discover clues among the various things you can see and engage with as you journey along. You can use any skill that has a Recall Knowledge action while Investigating, but the GM determines whether the skill is relevant to the clues you could find.

Paizo has done dirty to this tactic. All of the published examples I can think of that ask for Recall Knowledge happen at Points of Interest instead of while traveling/dungeon delving. Much like Detect Magic, making this useful requires knowledge checks they couldn’t just make if they were Searching and found something interesting. Call out some clues left behind by monsters that only someone Investigating will notice, for example. Or have the hieroglyphs scattered through out the hallway have an important piece of information buried in them.

Repeat a Spell:

ConcentrateExploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 480 2.0
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You repeatedly cast the same spell while moving at half speed. Typically, this spell is a cantrip that you want to have in effect in the event a combat breaks out, and it must be one you can cast in 2 actions or fewer. In order to prevent fatigue due to repeated casting, you’ll likely use this activity only when something out of the ordinary occurs.

You can instead use this activity to continue Sustaining a Spell or Activation with a sustained duration. Most such spells or item effects can be sustained for 10 minutes, though some specify they can be sustained for a different duration.

Issues include what separates it from Detect Magic (fatiguing vs non-fatiguing), how long the refractory period is (see Hustle), and if using this tactic will be detected by enemies sooner than other tactics. (Spells generally creates visible manifestations and requires speaking in a clear voice.)

Scout:

ConcentrateExploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 480 2.0
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You scout ahead and behind the group to watch danger, moving at half speed. At the start of the next encounter, every creature in your party gains a +1 circumstance bonus to their initiative rolls.

Scout is functionally fine, but it is the worst named Tactic. It should have been called something like “Look Out” because that is what it is. Scouting is traditionally defined as sending an advanced party to stealthily observe the dangers ahead and report back, which is would be a combination of Avoid Notice and Investigate.

Search:

ConcentrateExploration
Source Core Rulebook pg. 480 2.0
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You Seek meticulously for hidden doors, concealed hazards, and so on. You can usually make an educated guess as to which locations are best to check and move at half speed, but if you want to be thorough and guarantee you checked everything, you need to travel at a Speed of no more than 300 feet per minute, or 150 feet per minute to ensure you check everything before you walk into it. You can always move more slowly while Searching to cover the area more thoroughly, and the Expeditious Search feat increases these maximum Speeds. If you come across a secret door, item, or hazard while Searching, the GM will attempt a free secret check to Seek to see if you notice the hidden object or hazard. In locations with many objects to search, you have to stop and spend significantly longer to search thoroughly.

Searching works fine, and is maybe the most important tactic in published adventures. Hazards are very dangerous this edition. They are also one of the few things that are proficiency gated, meaning your party members with lower perception proficiency need not bother searching. Searching for items and hidden doors can suffer a bit from Points of Interest signaling it is time for the entire party to Search, but given the tactic has actual utility while traveling I’m not worried about it.

Honorable Mention: Track:

While Tracking isn’t listed in the CRB alongside the other Tactics, I think it qualifies as one; you travel at half speed while tracking without investing feats. Tracking doesn’t get much time to shine in published content either, though I think a motivated player or GM can often find some. Combing Survey Wildlife, Hunt Prey, and Tracking can be a great boon to Rangers. You could also find circumstances where Tracking is used to avoid a creature. Spotting the tracks and then changing course could allow you to bypass a dangerous encounter or start it from a more favorable position.

The big issues are that Paizo doesn’t really support Detect Magic and Investigate (and Tracking) with how APs are constructed. At least, not if they are meant to be used while traveling. If they are only meant to be used after you clear a room, they work fine, but their placement alongside the travel tactics suggests otherwise. Almost every room in a Paizo dungeon has a unique bit of flavor text meant to be read aloud to the player. That indicates to players it is time to temporarily switch over to these tactics before switching back to their defaults when they move on.

And players probably won’t even specify that they are switching tactics—they will just say what their characters are doing in fiction, which will coincide with Detect Magic, Investigate, or Track. They will probably all decide to search the room—at which point everyone is rolling perception when there may not be anything to find, which also undercuts the convenience of Exploration Mode.

It’s like how little support APs give to skill feats. Skill feats are almost never mentioned in adventures and GMs must actively work to find opportunities for them to matter. That requires an awareness of what feats the PCs have, as well, and players often won’t even remember their own skill feats. (Of course, if the APs pointed to situations where those feats mattered, people might be more inclined to remember them.)

There are some big barriers to making any of this work in APs. They must work no matter what feats or tactics the players choose. Pre-drawn maps are one of their big selling points, and those really beg for the “Points of Interest” model. And the usefulness of Investigate is gonna vary if the value of Recall Knowledge varies from table to table. Still, I think there’s room to putting in more support. Paizo likes to use S and Ts to mark secrets and traps on their maps. Why not expand that to include Ds and Is as well? Put some points in a hallway that characters will only notice if they are investigating. Or mark a Detect Magic radius around a trap, landing outside of its trigger squares?

And of course, our homebrew GMs can structure their dungeon delving without the constraints of modules. So be more cognizant of these things, and make feats like Ongoing Investigation actually matter.

[SuperBidi]

For Investigate, the rules are unclear if it happens when you meet some creatures. I personally allow it, as it makes Investigate usefull by giving a free RK check at the start of combat the same way Defend gives a "free" action at the start of combat.

[Captain Morgan]

SuperBidi wrote:

For Investigate, the rules are unclear if it happens when you meet some creatures. I personally allow it, as it makes Investigate usefull by giving a free RK check at the start of combat the same way Defend gives a "free" action at the start of combat.

Seems like a reasonable approach!

[breithauptclan]

I also think that there should be a better defined 'Non-Combat Encounter' mode. What you are calling Points of Interest. Where players aren't using a single exploration tactic. Often they are instead using skill feats, skill actions, or class abilities - things that often they could be doing in combat. But there is no initiative order or structure to it.