What knowledge skills do you never use?

[Lamoni]

Our adventure groups rarely put points into knowledge skills. Many of the knowledge areas seem pointless to take any ranks in except for character background reasons.

Therefore I just wanted to get a feel for what other people thought of the knowledge skills. What knowledge areas do you never take? What areas do you roll for often? Here is the list.

* Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts)
* Architecture and engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications)
* Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking)
* Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people)
* History (royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities)
* Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)
* Nature (animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin)
* Nobility and royalty (lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes, personalities)
* Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead)
* The planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, elementals, magic related to the planes)

To start this thread off, I have never seen anyone use Architecture and Engineering, dungeoneering, geography, history, or nature. Actually we haven't ever used The planes either, but would have liked to do so once. The rest of the skills seem to have some uses occasionally with Knowledge(arcana) being the most useful. knowledge(religion) is probably rolled most often in our games. The bad guys always seem to be part of some religious group under some evil god.

 

[was]

The ones that I've never seen used are Architecture and Engineering, Dungeoneering and Local.

 

[diaglo]

other than using them to qualify for various PrCs. most of them never see use in campaigns i've played in.

 

[Thanee]

Knowledge (local).

Since 3.5 Knowledge skills became more useful with the monster identification, but we have used them before (especially Knowledge (arcane) and Knowledge (religion), of course).

When I DM, I try to keep in mind what knowledge the characters possess when giving out information.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rashak Mani]

We tend to use many Know skills... but Architecture and Dungeoneering are ones I don't remember ever using...

Know. Geography in fact is used frequently in our group. It helps plan travel routes and not getting lost.

 

[der_kluge]

Knowledge(quantum mechanics) rarely comes up.

Seriously, all of the following have been popular in our games:
arcana
religion
local
history


It really depends on the kind of game you run, I suppose. I mean, if the DM starts the game off saying "we're going to play in my generic homebrew" then something like knowledge(heraldry) or knowledge(history) probably aren't going to come up since none of that stuff is probably defined. Likewise, something obscure like knowledge(astrology) would probably only be used in a setting like Kalamar, where there are actual constellations defined. So, the knowledge skills used are a direct reflection of the complexity of the campaign setting you're playing in.

 

[The Madhatter]

Throughout a three year campaign the characters used all but Knowledge(Nobility and Royalty). We actually hired a sage to do it for us. It only came up once or twice since NPCs were far more likely to wear religious items than coats of arms. I think in our new campaign, we are going to fold it into Knowledge(local). It'll beef both skills up since we are gaming in the FR where Kn.(loc) skills have to be specified by region.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Not Used Much:
Architecture and Engineering
Geography
Nobility and Royalty

We get good use out of the others but there is rarely (if ever) an occasion to roll for these.

 

[Chronosome]

It depends on the game. If you're doing a gritty, wilderness survival thing, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) might not be of much use (until you meet Tarzan). Etc.

When I DMed (before 3.5), I'd make sure that a PC's ranks in a Knowledge skill meant something. I'd give them little bits of trivia that pertained to the campaign, filtered through their specialty.

In playing (3.5), I find I'm loving the new "monstrous" application of the skill.

 

[Crothian]

In my current game we have used all of those plus more. They don't come up that often but I'd say we used at least a knowledge skill or two every session.