I am running a party of one Bard PC with five NPCs from Hommlet. One of the NPCs is Meleny, and I assumed that her ranks in Survival would help me control random encounters, especially at higher levels. However, not once in the game have I been given the choice to avoid a random encounter, and the party is now at 11th level. Meleny has the maximum number of ranks in Survival, plus a high Wisdom score, and a +6 enhancement to Wisdom from an amulet. From this, I assume that NPC ranks in Survival are ignored when random wilderness encounters are generated. Can anyone confirm if this is correct?
Does your PC have at least 1 level of Survival? http://www.co8.org/community/index....nd-random-encounters.11469/page-2#post-142335
Nope. At this point I'm not concerned, as the party is pretty high level, with enhancements due to party crafting. But it does make using a lot of NPCs a bit more challenging early in the game.
What I meant is that at 11th level, the party can likely handle the majority of high level wilderness encounters. I think it is earlier in the game that you can get faced with some overpowered wilderness encounters. I remember meeting 4 hill giants at about 5th level. And when they begin right next to you, it can get a bit tense. Next time I put together a party for which I plan to use a lot of NPCs, I will plan to have a PC with survival skill as a class skill.
