Changing the Loremaster Lore Mechanic?

[reiella]

I just had an interesting thought and was wondering about other views/takes on it.

The Loremaster is supposed to represent a book worm, more or less, with the Loremaster Lore ability they tend to just learn a bunch of 'miscellenous oddities'/secrets from their studies.

I was pondering if it'd be a better idea to apply the lore instead as a bonus to Knowledge checks, in an attempt to have it represent a greater degree of 'study'/knowledge within their fields of study.

Although, that may result in a greater resultant in their Knowledge skills, and a very diminished ability to "Know the Right Thing At the Right Time". Maybe for that, simply allow the Loremaster to attempt an unskilled Knowledge and use half their Loremaster level as a modifier?

Just curious on takes on it, and if anyone else had similiar thoughts, their experience .

 

[UltimaGabe]

Well, I have a 10th-level Cleric/2nd-level Loremaster at the moment, and I just became 2nd level Loremaster after the last adventure (just gaining the Lore ability) so I haven't been able to use it yet. However, the problem I have isn't that the mechanic doesn't work- it's that the modifier is relatively low... when you first get it, you'll have a modifier of 2 + your Intelligence modifier, to a max of 10+ your Intelligence Modifier. I understand that this is mostly meant for Wizards, who'll have plenty of Intelligence to go around, but does that mean they should compensate for a possible character's high intelligence by giving a low modifier? Frankly, a straight Bard of the same level is going to have a MUCH higher modifier- and it just strikes me as strange that a wandering jack-of-all-trades is going to be more knowledgeable about random topics than a person who's devoted their entire career into gathering knowledge.

In the same sense, I think they have too few skill points per level. True, 4 + Intelligence is good, and again, they're aiming this at characters with high intelligence, but again, I think someone who's spent their entire lives gaining knowledge and skills should be more skilled than your average Barbarian. My character wants to have lots of high Knowledge skills, but with the necessities for being a Cleric (namely Spellcraft, Concentration, Knowledge: Religion, and the like) are taking up most of my Skill Points, and at most, I can put 1 skill point in two or three knowledge skills.

Basically, for a class who's devoting their entire lives to gaining knowledge and lore, I think the Lore modifier should be much higher, and they should have more skills points.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Basically, for a class who's devoting their entire lives to gaining knowledge and lore, I think the Lore modifier should be much higher, and they should have more skills points.

What if non-epic loremaster levels each gave +2 to lore? A Wiz10/Loremaster10 would have 20 + Int modifier, just like a Brd20; a Brd10/Loremaster10 would get +30, but that's a very focused character.