Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft

[BluWolf]

I know this has probably been discussed to death like 5 years ago but for the life of me why is there Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft???

Why WOULDN'T they be the same thing???

 

[darthkilmor]

I know this has probably been discussed to death like 5 years ago but for the life of me why is there Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft???

Why WOULDN'T they be the same thing???

The same reason knowledge: nature and survival arent the same thing, because they're for different things. They *could* probably be combined if you wanted to but so can alot of skills.

 

[moritheil]

To force you to choose between upping one or the other if you are a low-int caster (such as a Sorc with an int penalty.)

 

[Jack Simth]

I know this has probably been discussed to death like 5 years ago but for the life of me why is there Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft???

Why WOULDN'T they be the same thing???

Spellcraft is about spells and magical effects - and basically nothing else. Knoweledge(Arcana) is about "ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts".

Or, to put it another way, Spellcraft is "how-to", Knoweledge(Arcana) is "what's gone before". Think Craft(Buildings) vs. Knoweledge(Architecture and Engineering). Yeah, they've got some overlap, but Craft is the nitty-gritty of doing things, Knoweledge is the history of the thing, famous people in the thing, and so on.

 

[krupintupple]

maybe an analogy?

spellcraft is like you knowing the fine-tunings of your car's engine, and could probably rebuild the engine block from the gears up should something go awry. you can identify problems based on description alone and can cite the product code and year of production, as well as other alternative part makes by the same company that would also work.

knowledge (arcana) is you know where the parts for the engine block are made and the names of the original designers of your engine, as well as where they studied earlier and got their inspiration. you know popular opinion concerning how well the engine block performed based on lab tests and have studied up quite accurately on benchmarks comparing it to other makes. you could probably change your oil, but you're more of a scholar of engines.

?

 

[Shin Okada]

I know this has probably been discussed to death like 5 years ago but for the life of me why is there Knowledge Arcana and Spellcraft???

Why WOULDN'T they be the same thing???

Of course they could be combined into one skill (and I though 4e actually integrates many skills).

But at the same time It CAN BE separated, too.

Now you can make a scholar type mage who know both know both about practical use of spells and the history and knowledge about arcane deeds, or a more "aggressive and pragmatic" type of mage who has spellcraft but not a single rank in Knowledge (Arcana).