Survival and Random Encounters

I thought you also needed spot and listen...

 

Apparently true but I think that I had some points in that as well. But can I "survive " depending on my npcs skills?

 

I'm not sure... I usually use PCs.

 

I've been experimenting with npcs. It's a little more challenging.

 

No matter how high your Survival+Listen+Spot total is for the best PC/NPC in your group, even if it makes your group win every encounter check within the new Co8 processing, the game will still proceed to run a normal Survival check afterward as a second step.

How that normal Survival check is processed exactly, I am not sure. But I do know that it mostly depends on the PC with the highest Survival skill, and NPCs don't count ever. Also, a PC must have at least 1 point spent in Survival to get the check at all. I think that the party's level is also taken into account if I remember the testing I did.

 

So no matter what my only PC needs at least one point in survival. The axact information that I was looking for.

 

I put one point in my PCs survival skill and now i sometimes get the survival/encounter window (where it asks you if you want to avoid or not). I'm going to do some more overland travel to see if one point is enough or if I should spend more of my sole PCs precious skill pointson survival.

 

Survival also sets how far away the foes are when the encounter begins.

With a high survival skill you even have time to buff and start the fight when you want to.