Investigation Mechanic, Thoughts?
Short: Thoughts on the mechanic? Balancing concerns? Would you use this as a player to say: Learn about the weaknesses of a Blue Dragon before planning to attack one its lair instead of a single Investigation Check that gives you a failure or dead end?
Long: I am running Waterdeep Dragon Heist and have a player who is playing a Financial Investigator working for the Bank of Cassalanter to investigate the missing gold coins. We wanted to make the character feel more 'investigative' outside the player's actions and roleplay alone so I created this Investigation Process mechanic.
The player will spend downtime investigating their current interest (but cannot supersede the core story flow for the missing dragons of course) and at the end of the day roll an Investigation Check. They will make progress on their research and once they complete that research be rewarded with their discovery.
It also takes some of the pressure off of me as a DM to, in the moment, come up with an answer to "Do I find my answer with a 16 Investigation Check?". Because now I can say "You have found a significant lead and will start the next day knowing exactly where to pickup from. You're closing in on an answer." Then between now and next session I can plan out what answer to give them haha
I'm looking for some feedback on balancing of the affects and rolls. I'm also curious to know if anyone has tried something like this or would use something like this? We are currently level 3 and this campaign is expected to end around level 8.
