Investigate a Crime

You can investigate a crime to find out who committed said crime. Often times divination spells will result in more accurate and quicker results, but for those criminals that protect themselves with magic, only the mundane methods can be used. This downtime action is most often used to tie a vigilante’s social identity to their vigilante identity. Use the following steps to investigate a crime:

First determine the DC of the investigation check. This is equal to 10+ the criminal’s ECL + the criminals Intelligence or Charisma (whichever is higher) plus a certain factor for how long it has been since the crime was committed.

Investigating a crime committed within the last week imposes no penalty. For every week in which the case was not investigated, increase the DC by +2.

Next, determine your method and make the check. If simply looking for clues this is a Perception check. If trying to piece together a profile of the criminal and match it to others, use Diplomacy, Knowledge (local), or Sense Motive. If using your skills as a professional, you can use Profession (investigator)

Any other applicable Knowledge skills can be used to aid in this investigation. This represents other disciplines being useful for cross referencing clues. A single day of investigation can only be aided by one other Knowledge skill.

Determine how many days are required. This is equal to the criminal’s ECL. Once you have investigated for the required time, you learn all of the relevant information of the crime. This is usually method, motive, and perpetrator; who did it, why they did it, and how they did it. If there are other pieces of information that would be relevant to the investigation (such as location if this is not already know) are also learned at this time.

Failing an investigation check by 4 or less yields no new information and the day is wasted. Failing an investigation check by 5 or more results in erroneous information. The following day also makes no progress, but a second failed check automatically results in further false leads. If the number of days in which an investigation leads to false leads equals the time required then the investigation leads to a false conclusion. Often this means that the investigation must be started all over again (no longer counting the time spent on false leads towards the investigation, resulting in a much higher DC). Other times this might result in a character accusing an innocent person, up to the GM’s discretion.

A character attempting to interfere in the investigation can take the Alibi action. This increases the investigation DC by the bonus given to Bluff checks.

The criminal can learn that they are being investigated by making a Diplomacy check to gather information or a Knowledge (local) check. The DC is equal to 10+ the investigator’s ECL. If the investigator is actively trying to hide their investigation, they can instead oppose the Diplomacy or Knowledge (local) check with a Bluff, Disguise, or Stealth check of their own.

Rules for Nibiru specifically: If a PC takes the investigation action, and they are aware out of character who committed the crime, they should mention the person they are investigating when they take the downtime action. Because this is almost certainly going to lead to PvP, don’t backdate investigations unless you have already discussed it with the other player (you can’t suddenly surprise someone with an investigation that’s concluded because you didn’t assign downtime actions to your character for a few weeks). If a PC takes the investigation action but are not aware out of character of who committed the crime, they should reach out to Staff to inform them.