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There have been many times in my campaign where I have had a need to quantify how long it would take and how hard it would be for someone to discover the Research Knowledge of Magic Items. The rules below outline a simple system for generating the time it would take, through research alone, to discover the Research Knowledge of Magic Items. The below rules assume that the Key Knowledge is already known via the Weapon or Item History Talent.

The character attempting to discover the Research Knowledge of a Magic Item must have the Research skill (if the character does not have this skill, please see the note at the end). The character first rolls his Research Skill. The target number is determined by the Rank of the Research Knowledge saught (see chart). If a Research Knowlege covers more than one Rank of the Item, the highest rank is used.
 

The result of this test is compared to the chart below to establish a unit of time.
 

After determining the unit of time, the character is allowed to make another Research Skill Test for every unit of time that passes. As each unit of time passes the character makes another Research Skill Test and adds the Effect of each Roll. The character successfully discovers the Research Knowledge of the Item when he accumulates (Item Spell Defense x Rank Saught) points.

Modifiers

For every Scholar/Assistant helping the character gather the information a +1 Step modifier is gained. The step increases gained by having assistants cannot exceed the characters Rank in his Research Skill.

Library/Research Source Quality

NOTE: These bonuses do *NOT* apply to the initial Research Skill Test to determine the time unit. The character is depending on her own merits here.

Example

1. Roll Research Knowledge to generate a time unit. For a Rank 3 Research Knowledge, our hero needs to roll a 9 with his research skill. He rolls and average success, thus setting the time unit at a month.
2. After the first month, our hero can roll his Research Skill. This total is accumulated every month until a total of 48 points (Spell Defense x 3) is generated. Our hero continues to roll every month until this total is achieved and he has discovered the Research Knowledge.
3. If the character was using an Extraordinary Library (Throal?) with the aid of 2 Scholars, his Research skill would be increased by +5 Steps!

NOTE: If a character does not have the Research skill, use the chart on page 244 of the EarthDawn rulebook or on the GM screen as follows: Take the difficutly on the Class 2 line and then trace down to the untrained line to determine the new difficulty number. The character then uses his Perception Step as his Research skill.