What can you accomplish with a Knowledge (Nature) Check?

[RUMBLETiGER]

I've rediscovered the Killoren race from Races of the Wild. +0 LA fay playable race. Good stuff. Anywho, one of the things the Killoren can do is take Aspect of the Ancient which grants a bonus to Knowledge (Nature) equal to your HD. I'm thinking,
"That's pretty sweet, I wonder what you can do with an incredible Knowledge Nature check?"
And so I figured I'd pick the brains of you fine people to see how useful this ability really is.

 

[Dandu]

Find opium.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Find opium.

Oh... many applications of that! situational improvement of diplomacy checks, alternative currency, poison effects.

Anyone else have options?

 

[Jimlock]

you can skin a turtle...

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

For example, The Archivist's Dark knowledge abilities, my understanding is a K. Nature check applies to animals, plants, fay, giants, monstrous humanoids and vermin.

Class abilities, or other applications of the skill such as those are what I'm aiming for.

 

[anest1s]

Find a circle of druids, and start betting with them...

 

[Gilladian]

I allow knowledge-nature to reveal information about plants and animals the PCs might want to hunt or capture or otherwise interact with.

I allow it to help on survival checks, animal handling checks, and ride checks (ie 5 ranks gives a +2 synergy bonus on those skills).

It also helps with understanding weather and climate, finding direction if you got lost, and recognizing when something is going on that is NOT natural. In other words - fey in my world are not "natural" - so Knowledge - Nature would allow the PC to realize "these creatures are fey" but that is all he or she would know.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I think Giladian covered most of the points I was going to make.

I've allowed it to be used in weather (and to a lesser extent, geological) prediction, sort of a Sense Motive vs Mother Nature. It's also possible to use for finding clues, or noticing when something is generally wrong or out of the ordinary: that the wrong kinds of birds are out for this time of year, or the trees are drier than normal, or the wisps over yonder is steam from a hot spring rather than wood smoke.

If you use an herbalism skill, then you might consider having it synergize with Know(Nature), as well. I might also consider letting it synergize with Heal when outdoors to model a character's ability to recognize herbs and create poultices or the like, at least in low-magic settings.

 

[xigbar]

You could reap early rewards from Knowledge Devotion, my personally favorite feat.

 

[airwalkrr]

I was going to point out Knowledge Devotion, but Xigbar beat me to it. Still, it only helps with Knowledge (nature).

But really, you can't do anything with Knowledge (nature) because Knowledge is not an action skill. It represents what your character knows on a particular generalized subject. In my games, when a player wants to use Knowledge, he generally has to ask a question pertinent to the subject. I set a DC based on the nature of the question and have him roll the check. If he succeeds, I give him the answer. I try my best to avoid the "What do I know about this with Knowledge (x)?" type questions but sometimes it is hard to work around them.

With Knowledge (nature), questions like the following would be appropriate:
"When is the next full moon?"
"How many days are left in winter?"
"How often does it rain in this region?"
"Is this forest the home of any known fey?"
"Was this cavern naturally formed?"
"Do these strangle-marks look consistent with those of an assassin vine?"
"What sort of dangers exist from falling volcanic ash?"

Hopefully you get the idea.