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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6226132" data-attributes="member: 4937">I break down knowledge slightly differently.  Standard D20 allows the following divergence of knowledge:a) Knowing how to cast a spell: This is the ability to actually use magic, with or without understanding.  b) Spellcraft: This is practical knowledge of how spells are cast.  A person with lots of spellcraft can recognize what a spell is likely to do by observing how it is cast, either because he simply knows the forms even if he can't use them, or because he's familiar with the shared tools by which spells are commonly built and cast.  A person requires a large amount of spell-craft to devise new spells.c) Knowledge (Arcane): This is knowledge of how the world actually works.  I joke that this is the equivalent in my world of Knowledge (Physics).  With this knowledge you may not be able to cast spells, and you may not know much about how to cast spells, but you know the theory behind how spells work.  You've just possibly never put it into practice unless you also have the other sorts of knowledge.  This is like being the difference between a physicist an electrician.  Given enough time, a physicist can figure out how a house should be wired, but he probably still shouldn't be trusted to be your general contractor or to repair a electrical substation after a lightning storm.</blockquote>