Most Important Knowledges

[Minosis]

What are the most important knowledges? I am looking to make a Lore Master and since I must have 2 skils at 10 ranks and skill focus knowlkedge I am looking for suggestions as to which knowledges I should concentrate on and why.

Thanks

 

[Hidden Master]

The Knowledge skills that have been the most useful in my experience are Arcana, Nature, Religion, and The Planes.

 

[IcyCool]

Arcana, Nature, Religion, and The Planes are probably the most commonly used. In addition, Nobility and Royalty will net you a synergy bonus to diplomacy if you have at least 5 ranks in it. History will garner you a bonus to your bardic knowledge checks if you have 5 or more ranks. Geography is a prerequisite for the Horizon Walker PrC. And last but not least, Dungeoneering is one of the monster identification skills (abberations, I think?).

I have no idea what you'd use Local for.

 

[Bryntryst]

I have no idea what you'd use Local for.

Humanoids.

 

[starwed]

Knowledge(Local) should come up constantly if you actually adventure within an urban environment.

 

[Ambrus]

Knowledge(Local) should come up constantly if you actually adventure within an urban environment.

Although if you travel around a lot it quickly becomes useless.

 

[tylermalan]

What exactly is Knowledge (Local) supposed to represent?

 

[brehobit]

What exactly is Knowledge (Local) supposed to represent?

I've always assumed it meant you knew something about the area that is "local" to you.

In my games, this is any area you've spent significant time in. So if you've been using Sharn as a base of operations for a few weeks to a month, I allow you to use it in Sharn. In general I use it for knowing who people are, who might have what, and the general layout of the area.

One PC in my group had a cousin who was a bartender. Game term wise he provided a +10 bonus to knowledge(local) wrt the town.

Mark

 

[Li Shenron]

What are the most important knowledges? I am looking to make a Lore Master and since I must have 2 skils at 10 ranks and skill focus knowlkedge I am looking for suggestions as to which knowledges I should concentrate on and why.

Thanks

IMXP it depends on the campaign style.

You can't go wrong with "Arcana" since magic is more than half of D&D

But as a second, there can be many choices. In my opinion the most useful are in descending order:

The Planes (even if your DM hates planar travel, at least nearly every DM uses outsiders)
Religion (lots of adventures involve cults et al)
Geography (unless the whole campaign happens in the same place, not so common)

The others come up less often in our games.

 

[Li Shenron]

What exactly is Knowledge (Local) supposed to represent?

I think it was originally intended to be specialized, such as Knowledge(Silver Marches) or Knowledge(Thay).

But many groups just treat it as one single skill that covers anything about civilized places, particularly towns.

In our games we treat it as separate skills, and we allow different degrees of "narrowness" (e.g. you could select a region or only a town).

In any case it covers questions like:
- people in charge, authorities, and groups of power
- local laws
- people living in the area ("Where can I find an alchemist?")
- local places and sights ("Where's the nearest entrance to the sewers?")
- customs, events
- the history of the region
- local flora and fauna

In a certain way, you can allow the local knowledge of a certain area to cover most (if not all) the other knowledge, but with the obvious restriction that only answers questions to the specific area.

For example, Knowledge(Amn) can answer questions such as:
"What are the religions practiced in Amn, who are the leaders, and where are the temples?" (Religion)
"What is the history of Amn?" (History)
"What plants can I find or harvest around Amn?" (Nature)
etc.