Research Talent Tree Tech Op

The hero has a natural aptitude for study and fact-finding. These talents can be selected in any order.

Savant

Select one of the skills listed in the following paragraph. The hero must have ranks in the skill if it is Trained Only. The hero gets to add a bonus equal to his or her level when making checks with that skill. A hero can take this talent multiple times.  Each time it applies to a different skill; Computer Use, Craft (any single skill), Decipher Script, Demolitions, Disable Device, Investigate, Knowledge (any single skill), Linguistics, Navigate, Repair, Research.

Linguist

With this talent, the hero becomes a master linguist. Whenever the hero encounters a new language, either spoken or written, that he or she does not know the hero can make an INT check to determine if he or she can understand it. The check is made with a bonus equal to the hero’s level. For a written language, the bonus applies to a Decipher Script check instead.

The DC for the check depends on the situation: DC 15 if the language is in the same group as a language the hero has as a Read/Write Language or Speak Language skill; DC 20 if the language is unrelated to any other languages the hero knows; and DC 25 if the language is ancient or unique. With this special ability, a hero can glean enough meaning from a conversation or document to ascertain the basic message, but this ability in no way simulates actually being able to converse or fluently read and write in a given language.

A single check covers roughly one minute of a spoken language or one page of a written language.

Prerequisite: At least 3 ranks in either Linguistics.