Knowledge: Local?

[Pasus Nauran]

How exactly does Knowledge: Local work?

I ask because I introduced a new character in the campaign I'm a part of last week: a Shadowbane Stalker (from Complete Adventurer). Since he's a information gatherer and spy, I gave him some ranks in Knowledge: Local. However, when the opportunity came to use the skill, my DM ruled I couldn't use it because I was in a different province from the town where I grew up, and thus my Knowledge: Local didn't apply to this area.

When I questioned him on this, he stated that Knowledge: Local only applies to particular areas, and thus you have to take ranks in seperate Knowledge: Locals for different areas, for example: Knowledge: Local (Waterdeep), Knowledge: Local (Baldur's Gate), etc. (our campaign is in fact in a custom world, but I use these as examples).

Does this sound right? I have seen no such explanation of Knowledge: Local in any book. The SRD simply describes it as: "Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)".

Were this the case, would the same not apply to Knowledge: The Plane, Knowledge: History, Knowledge: Geography, etc.?

 

[Jdvn1]

Different GMs run K(Local) differently. That's indeed how it's run in FR, which is one reason why a lot of people think it's a stupid skill. In theory, though, it'd apply to all legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, and humanoids.

 

[darthkilmor]

That sounds right, as in a FR game i just started i have knowledge local-thay.

But your DM should have asked you what region you wanted the skill in beforehand instead of ruining it for you when you first tried to use it.

 

[dcollins]

Does this sound right? I have seen no such explanation of Knowledge: Local in any book.

Very common point of argument. You're right that the rules don't explicitly say that you need to pick one area for it. But, lots of DM's (including me) run it that way, because, hey, by the name itself it has to be "Local" to something.

 

[Rhun]

I run Knowledge: Local in larger regions...such as Knowledge: Local (The North) or Knowledge: Local (Western Heartlands). This makes it a little bit more useful to my players than limiting it to an individual city or small area.

 

[Buttercup]

Does this sound right? I have seen no such explanation of Knowledge: Local in any book. The SRD simply describes it as: "Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)".

I've always assumed it works this way. Honestly, it seems counter-intuitive for it to work any other way.

Edit: But this is why I think it's a good idea to give players extra skill points to spend on knowledge, craft or profession skills at character creation. It allows them to add flavor without sacrificing utility.

 

[Jdvn1]

because, hey, by the name itself it has to be "Local" to something.

Why? Why can't it be "information about areas"? Why can't it tell you about legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, and humanoids, like it says it does?

I don't see a point to limiting it any more than the book does, and it seems to do nothing else than to weaken a skill that's already kind of weak and underused anyway.

 

[cmanos]

there are two schools of thought with this. One beingt hat Knowledge (local) pertains to any areay, and the second beingt hat it defines specific locales. I am considering letting people take concentrations in Knowledge(local) at half the normal cost, provided a) you have ranks in Knowledge(local) and b) your concentration ranks do not exceed your general skill ranks. The concentration would provide extra skill ranks specifically for that area.

Anotherwords, if you have 2 ranks in Knowledge(local) and 1 concentration rank in - Eldeen Reaches, you would be considered to have 3 ranks in Knowledge(local) when trying to figure out anything about the Eldeen Reaches, but only 2 ranks anywhere else.

One could also argue that Knowledge (geography) could be broken down as it details several different cultures...and one could also go so far as to say Knowledge (arcane) and (religeon could also be broken down into specific disciplines too, but, I think that is getting a bit out of hand.

 

[Ferrum]

The way I'd play it, would be that knowledge local applies best to the area in which the pc grew up, but would still be applicable outside of that area, albeit with penalties. Otherwise the skill seems pretty weak.

For example, Will the Rogue grew up in the city of Kyla, and knows the local area well. He wants a good deal on a horse and cart, does a knowledge:local check, and knows to go to Big Bob's house of carts.

He travels west 40 miles to the township of Merich, and does a knowledge:local check with a -4 modifier (-1 for every ten miles from Kyla) and remembers hearing travelers talk about the Grey Goose Inn, so he heads there.

While at the inn he overhears a group talking about a Lady Aellwyn and travelling east to meet her. He thinks about it, and gets a knowledge:local check and remembers she's the Duchess of Penterose, a city 60 miles east of Kyla (-6 distance modifier, +2 bonus for the name and general location hint of east).

This way it doesn't totally become useless, but does have a "home point" and becomes less useful the further from the original locality.

 

[ARandomGod]

Very common point of argument. You're right that the rules don't explicitly say that you need to pick one area for it. But, lots of DM's (including me) run it that way, because, hey, by the name itself it has to be "Local" to something.

But it is. It's local: "This material plane" as opposed to "historical" or "geographical" or "dungeoneering" or even "the planes".

History covers ALL histories. Geography covers ALL geographies, Nobility is all nobles of all regions, Arcana doesn't just cover the local arcane ideas... Nature is knowledge of all nature not just what was in your backyard when you were young, religion is ALL the gods not just the ones worshipped in your area.

In fact, RAW says "legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids", does not specify it to a certain location, and there are no precidents where it's limited in this way in any other types of knowledge... I can see an arguement as to how it's misnamed, but not as to how you only know a certain geographic or socio-political region. You know ALL the local knowledges everywhere. That's why it's "trained only". People without that trained skill probably know a good amount about where they were born without taking ranks of the skill, just background knowledge.