This'll look real choppy if I do the /quote thing for each line...
Why does it read as “+20 (trained)” where say, the Locking Door Haunt says, “Stealth DC 18 to notice…”?
Complex Haunts roll initiative, so they have a Stealth modifier instead of a DC listed, but it's the same thing. Stealth +20 (trained) is the same thing as Stealth DC 30 (trained) otherwise. Incidentally, +20 is probably a typo--that is way higher than the recommended statistics for a level 3 hazard. It was probably meant to be DC 20, which should have been adjusted to Stealth +10
Am I rolling a stealth check against the PCs’ Perception DC?
Sort of; if somebody is searching for hazards, you don't roll Stealth, it's their (secret) Perception check vs. the static DC 30 20 (remember DC = mod + 10). If the haunt is triggered, you roll Stealth for initiative but otherwise only to determine when it takes its actions (it is presumably no longer hidden since its Ghostly Grasp goes off as soon as it is triggered, which is followed by initiative)
Is 20 the static DC that the players are trying to beat with their own Stealth checks?
Generally I don't think there's any way to avoid a hazard by players rolling stealth unless explicitly mentioned in the Disable section.
What does it saying (trained) imply? Can only PCs trained in Stealth engage this initial check?
This means only people Trained in Perception gain an opportunity to notice the hazard, and only if they're searching. The difference between (untrained) and (trained) is that everybody automatically rolls perception to see if they notice the "untrained" hazard. The difference between (trained) and (expert) is that some classes gain expert Perception later than others, so if you search for hazards and you're only trained, no matter how well you roll, you can't spot it.
What does their success or failure mean for the resulting hazard encounter?
If the player who is searching for hazards beats the Stealth DC 30 20 with their Perception check, they see what is described (a weird, faintly glowing ripple) and also becomes aware of the hazard. This should usually happen before they are in a place to trigger the hazard if they are being careful (moving as slowly as required by the Search activity). What happens next is up to the party, but generally involves either leaving the area or attempting to Disable the hazard. I don't believe there's any explicit rules telling the players how to disable the hazard, but imho it's generally fair game that if they've noticed it, you don't force them to bang their character sheets against it until they've guessed what trick works. At your option you might choose to reveal only some of the disable information, or force them to recall knowledge to learn more, but remember that a high enough Religion check can end the haunt on its own, so at some point you have to realize that calling for a Religion check to learn that you can defeat haunts with a Religion check might unnecessary punish a good or bad roll on the Recall.
If they fail the check, you simply don't tell them about the hazard. If the hazard is something they would trigger in the normal course of exploration (say in the middle of a hall they were already walking down), they automatically trigger it. If it has a more specific trigger, you just wait for that circumstance.
In the case of the Grasping Currents, they obviously trigger it when they cross the water, so I would probably make the secret perception check (if somebody was searching) right as they were entering the water but before they were away from shore. If they notice, they don't trigger until they move out into the water, and if they don't notice, provided they don't change their mind about the crossing (because of player discussion, say, or because they noticed the GM suddenly making secret checks behind the screen) they trigger the haunt when I feel is a good moment in the crossing. Note that for this haunt the book also suggests reminding the players about the eight practices before they enter the water, since normally players might not have a reason to think to search the water for hazards, nor to generally be searching for hazards as they explore the town.
What sort of DC should I use for a Recall Knowledge on this or any other Haunt?
I don't think there's any explicit guidelines, but you can use the default level-based DC. This haunt is level 3 and the level based DC for a level 3 task is 18. Technically the rarity of this haunt is listed as Unique, but I would caution against automatically applying rarity modifiers to knowledge checks. In many circumstances it's appropriate ("you've never heard of this monster because it's rare in these parts, information is limited") but in this case I feel like it would be pretty useless to bump the recall check to 28 just because this haunt is technically unique to this body of water in its current circumstances. If the players somehow beat the unique DC I might give them some special detailed hint about the lore, but just figuring out that it can be disabled the same as most haunts, or learning a little bit about what it might do to them, or even just reading its general description is not something that feels fair to post behind DC 28. It's already almost impossible to notice as written
---
Incidentally, the Hazard rules are here on the Archives of Nethys: Hazards. GM Core p 98. Haunts are a type of hazard so they're mechanically almost identical to traps, even if their narrative and aesthetic elements resemble creatures a lot more. Hopefully that helps!
Not to necromance a thread, but I thought I had made my own asking about this, apparently not - on the subject of the river haunt specifically, the haunt has an initiative, so the grasp tries to pull PCs down every round, yes?
I've run this once before, and my players caught hell even trying to roll above single digits, but every time they managed to get free, the haunt would just pull them back down again. Everyone had a blast, thankfully; but I can see how that might be frustrating.
Creative Director
|
Not to necromance a thread, but I thought I had made my own asking about this, apparently not - on the subject of the river haunt specifically, the haunt has an initiative, so the grasp tries to pull PCs down every round, yes?
I've run this once before, and my players caught hell even trying to roll above single digits, but every time they managed to get free, the haunt would just pull them back down again. Everyone had a blast, thankfully; but I can see how that might be frustrating.
Correct. The easiest way to determine if a hazard (such as a haunt) plays out over several rounds, acting on initiative every turn (like a normal fight) is that it has the "Complex" trait under its title rather than the "Simple" trait.
For some players (particularly new players), the methods of disabling or fighting against a hazard (particularly non-trap ones like haunts) isn't intuitive. The rules for this are in the GM Core, not the Player Core, so if your group is struggling with how to work at disabling haunts or the like, consider doing a quick "here's how haunts/hazards work" presentation at the start of the next session so that players understand that they can try various skill checks to disable things like this, or in some cases can disable them via attacks or other narrative-based methods. A PC who Recalls Knowledge about a haunt should be able to learn about what skill checks and other non-secret methods could potentially work to disable it.