What knowledge check lets you identify humanoids?

[Arrowhawk]

In Forgotten Realms we've always used RAW, which states that (local) works per-region and you can take it independently for each.

It's usually a good idea to ask the DM how likely it is that the party will stay in one region. When the party moves to another region, you can either take knowledge (local) for that region or other skills instead.

I haven't checked how regional RAW dictates, but I would agree with Nuo that requiring a separate skill investment for every region/locale would undermine the usefulness of the skill in a mobile campaign.

 

[Dandu]

I notice that Knowledge (the planes) does not seem to require a separate skill investment for each plane.

 

[Jon_Dahl]

I'm not the first to mention this but...

...could it be possible that Knowledge (local) just has an epicly failed name? You know... like they call Greenland a Greenland?

 

[Hassassin]

I haven't checked how regional RAW dictates, but I would agree with Nuo that requiring a separate skill investment for every region/locale would undermine the usefulness of the skill in a mobile campaign.

Also, swim is quite weak in desert campaigns.

Just saying...

 

[SnowleopardVK]

I'm not so up to date on the knowledges in 3x, but Pathfinder has Knowledge (Geography) listed as the skill for identifying ethnicities and accents. I think doing it like that makes decent sense and could be carried over.

So... Knowledge (Local) for any humanoids that are... Well, local. Knowledge (Geography) (or closest equivalent) for foreign humanoids, and maybe Knowledge (History) (or closest equivalent) could be used for identifying a humanoid from race that's dwindled in number over the years and is now rather rare?

 

[xigbar]

I think Local should work fine, but a generalized intelligence check that gets synergy from related skills might work too.