Discern
A powerful general stands high over a battlefield deducing his opponent’s objectives. A judge hears a defendant’s case, and then determines if he's telling the truth. A powerful wizard sees through the disguise of an assassin posing as one of his servants. All of these are perfect examples of the use of the Discern skill.
Contents
Difficulty
Since Discern can be used for multiple purposes, the DL differs depending on the task. Mostly, Discern is an opposed roll.
| Example | DL |
|---|---|
| Realizing a ferocious bear is only protecting her young | 10 |
| Get the gist of what a mute person (or person whose language you don’t speak) is trying to tell you | 15 |
| Figuring out that someone is being magically controlled, or that something about a situation is otherwise amiss | 20 |
Learning battle plans
With a successful Discern check, you can determine your enemy's (or ally's) battle strategy. Oppose your Discern against their Bluff.
Sense ability
With a successful Discern check, you can figure out specific things about people you meet. A DL of 10 will get you comparative skill (they're better/worse/as good as you). A DL of 15 will get you style specifics (the clothes they wear indicate they practice fire magic, etc.). A DL of 20 will get you limited statistic information (a ballpark of how many Health Points remaining, what percentage of their Mana is drained, or what's the neighborhood of their endurance score, etc.) A DL of 25 or over gets you specifics. One stat is allowed per roll.
Estimation
Estimating is useful for determining the number of troops on a battlefield, revealing the market price of a gem, guessing a woman's weight, or figuring out how long building a ship will take with six laborers are all uses of Discern for estimating.
Since there are so many broad uses for performing estimates, the GM should decide the DL for each on an individual basis using the chart at the beginning of the chapter. Characters should receive a situational bonus if he or she has knowledge of the subject. For instance, a farmer would have a pretty good idea how long it would take one man to harvest an acre of corn. Such knowledge should effect a +5 bonus on the check.
Opposed Rolls
Discern checks are used versus Bluff and Disguise checks
Retry
Discern attempts cannot be retried without the expenditure of a fate point, however, the character can try to Discern something different about the same subject.
