Spells which give +? to skills: In the real world would that be the same as inspiration, speeding up advancement?

[a-d]

Imagine you're Einstein doing research. Trying to answer a difficult physics question.
Frustrated, you cast a spell which gives a bonus of +4 to physics and while you still can't answer the question, suddenly you gain insight into a number of different aspects of physics!

You pass these insights along and the next day repeat the spell. As do your fellow researchers.
Rinse and Repeat as needed to unlock the mysteries of the universe.

Question
Game breaking? Almost certainly, but is this the way you think, or thought it worked?

 

[GX.Sigma]

Imagine you're Einstein doing research. Trying to answer a difficult physics question...you gain insight into a number of different aspects of physics...You pass these insights along...As do your fellow researchers...Rinse and Repeat as needed to unlock the mysteries of the universe.

That's pretty much how science normally works. I don't think the spell would speed up the process that much.

Actually... how do we know that isn't how mages invented all those spells in the first place?

 

[delericho]

Imagine you're Einstein doing research. Trying to answer a difficult physics question.
Frustrated, you cast a spell which gives a bonus of +4 to physics and while you still can't answer the question, suddenly you gain insight into a number of different aspects of physics!

You pass these insights along and the next day repeat the spell. As do your fellow researchers.
Rinse and Repeat as needed to unlock the mysteries of the universe.

That sounds very similar to the theory of the Singularity that I first encountered when reading Vernor Vinge's novels. Basically, his thinking was that eventually someone would create a device to boost intelligence. And, of course, having invented such a device, they'd immediately use it to invent a much better device to boost intelligence. And from there, advancement becomes exponential.

Question
Game breaking? Almost certainly, but is this the way you think, or thought it worked?

No, because I tend not to think of skills in that manner. I generally take the view that it is your number of ranks in the skill that represents the depth of your knowledge, while all the other bonuses merely represent how good you are at applying that knowledge. Therefore a spell that grants a bonus to Intelligence or a bonus to the skill itself just helps you process already-known information (and will certainly help recall that information), but won't increase the depth of your knowledge.

Of course, this model doesn't really account for the process of pushing back the frontiers of science by developing entirely-new theories, but since that's never come up in any game I've ever run, I'm not too worried by that.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Is your example correlated to a Knowledge skill check? The way I've always understood Knowledge checks, a character either does or does not know enough about something to understand it, but the information exists and is knowable. I don't know of any case where a Knowledge check is done and that person suddenly gains an understanding about the universe that no one before has ever had, although perhaps epic-level super-high knowledge checks could be used to simulate this.

If a Knowledge check is used to gain information and insight by 1 individual and then that individual passes that information to the rest of the people around him, the rest of the people do not gain skill ranks to their future knowledge checks, they simply now have that information. There doesn't appear to be a D&D precedent for one person's high skill increasing other people's high skill. You might have a spell that grants a +5 to a skill, but if everyone used that spell tomorrow, they'd still only get a +5 to that skill. A 15 Knowledge (Religion) can be boosted to a 20 by such a spell, but once all the people share what they know about everything Divine, they still won't be succeeding on DC 30 Knowledge (Religion) checks.

 

[MarkB]

That sounds very similar to the theory of the Singularity that I first encountered when reading Vernor Vinge's novels. Basically, his thinking was that eventually someone would create a device to boost intelligence. And, of course, having invented such a device, they'd immediately use it to invent a much better device to boost intelligence. And from there, advancement becomes exponential.

Heh - that (and this thread) reminds me of the 'infinite-alchemy' exploit from the computer RPG Morrowind.

In that game, the quality of alchemical potions you can make is influenced by your Intelligence score. And you can make a potion to boost your Int. And then you can drink that potion, and use your boosted Int to make a better Int-boosting potion. And then drink that potion... repeated literally ad infinitum, until you can brew potions providing literally god-like boosts to your abilities that last for ages, all pretty much at the start of the game.