Survival and Naturalist - what do I roll against

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

... given this and upon reviewing the uses the skills can be put to, my conclusion is that Naturalist is a lovely newbie trap that you shouldn't invest points in except for background color and/or to satisfy prerequisites for other traits.

Why trap? It's basically a way to get all Survival specialities, as well as a little bit of Biology, Mimicry, Pharmacy, and Tracking. There are 8 land-based Survival terrain types, and the highest cost for three levels of skill is [12]. Which basically means that if you're investing more than a single point per Survival terrain, you're better off taking Naturalist.

It also has the neat feature that it is IQ-based, so if you're making a cerebral/introspective character (IQ>Per), you get even more out of the defaulting.