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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ranger19k" data-source="post: 5650359" data-attributes="member: 98621">You are taking the stance that Knowledge (local) is some kind of [FONT=&quot]catch-all uber category that makes several of the other Knowledge skills irrelevant.  That [/FONT]is a significant stretch away from what's actually written, and I'm not sure why you would choose to interpret it that way.According to the PH, Knowledge (local) gives insight into:[FONT=&quot]legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, and humanoids[/FONT].  That is a useful, but limited list. It's the equivalent of Civics + Legends. For any given city you would have an idea as to how it functions and have knowledge of the leadership and notable NPCs.  That's really about it. Nowhere on that list is anything called "locales", so nothing would lead me to believe that it includes everything that you would get from Knowledge (geography).  If you are adding that in, then [FONT=&quot]you are making the skill much stronger than it was written by WotC[/FONT].  As written, it does not include anything to cover [FONT=&quot]mountain ranges or passes, forest roads, navigable rivers, weather, climate, trade routes, or even the locations of cities.[/FONT]Likewise, equating the Knowledge (local) familiarity with legends and traditions as the functional equivalent of full blown history also seems to be a stretch.  I agree with your previous post that any sensible rework of knowledge skills would fold Legends into Knowledge (history), but as a small part of history, not as the equivalent. Legends should cover less and in far less detail than legitimate history.  I play Knowledge (local) as written, and I find it a useful skill, but not even close to some uber-catch all.  If you use an overly broad hand-wave on what "l[FONT=&quot]egends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, and humanoids"[/FONT] means, and you start adding in additional things like "locales", then I understand why you would feel the need to nerf the skill.  But as written, I have found Knowledge (local) to rank somewhere between the first and third most useful knowledge skill, depending on the flavor of the campaign.  It shines in urban settings, but not in dungeon crawls or wilderness adventures.  I completely disagree that it subsumes and makes the other knowledge skills irreverent.  I guess we play the skill very differently.All that said, I will be the first to agree that all of the Knowledge skills are in need of a serious logical make-over.  I have continued to use the skills as written simply because I wasn't interested in house-ruling a rework of the whole system.  But if you have done one that works, and you are willing to share, I for one would be interested in what categories you wound up using.</blockquote>

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