Lamoni said:
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.
There are none that I would not take, if skill points were limitless. My PC currently has Dungeoneering, Geography, Local, and Nature. By 20th level, I expect to have at least one rank in them all.
Arcana gets little use, in campaigns where I play. We don't seem to run into constructs, dragons, or magical beasts too much, and the other uses almost never come up... I think one of the problems, here, is that Spellcraft should be a part of this skill. "Arcane symbols" (like glyphs of warding, explosive runes, etc) get identified with Spellcraft, instead, and knowledge of spells IS knowledge of the arcane, by definition! I was surprised that this skill survived the 3e --> 3.5e rolling of many skills into one.
Architecture & Engineering sees a lot more use in our games than many, perhaps. You use it to know the merlons from the embrassures, for instance (which is important if the Captain orders them reinforced)! Architecture is also useful when you want a new & better tool... My PC is always wanting them designed, and having to pay someone else (!) to design his equipment (one of these days!)... He does have some excellent, multi-use items, however!
Aberrations & oozes are enough reasons to take a rank of Dungeoneering, for me... With my PC's INT bonus, he stands a decent chance of knowing what to hit something with. The other "uses", like Arcana, never come up.
Geography and Local step on each other's toes, a bit, again (like Arcana & Spellcraft). Geography gets used a lot less, but IF the GM prepares culture & customs AHEAD of time, it could prove quite useful! (Assuming you had it!) As it is, it rarely gets used for more than knowing where you are... At low levels, it can be nice to have 5 ranks, just to keep from getting lost, but at higher levels, it is much less useful.
History (along with Architecture & Engineering) should be on the Fighter's skill list (along with Profession (Bodyguard)). Old fighters tend to become Bards, in real life, and 5+ ranks in this would aid them. In our games, knowledge of history is probably more use than Arcana in learning about those ancient mysteries. Again, though, it requires the GM to make uses for it (for instance; most PCs looking at a statue get a description, but someone with Knowledge (History) gets a DC:15 roll. Rolls of 9 or less garner no new information. Failure by 5 or less results in being told that the statue looks familiar. Rolls of 15+ result in being told that the PC recognizes this as a statue of Good King Xanderus, and a little about the high points of his rule).
Local gets all kinds of uses! It gets used every day, whether in a new town or not. Just because you're not from the US doesn't mean that you've never heard of the legendary JFK, or the Cuban Missile Crisis, or Marilyn Monroe. Just the Humanoids, alone, is enough to make taking one rank worthwhile! Besides, knowing where to go, in a new town, to find lockpicks (or whatever) is worthwhile (unless you just like to explore). Being streetwise is always a good thing!
Knowledge (Nature) and Survival also step on each other's toes, a bit, but... unusually, having 5+ ranks in either adds a +2 Synergy Bonus to the other! So this is more complementing one another... The number of creatures is a major boon, too! Besides, there are any number of other things one can do with plants and animals besides eat them!
Nobility & Royalty and History also step on each other's toes - or complement each other - a bit. The +2 Diplomacy for 5+ ranks is also good... If you're playing in a "Foil" campaign, where the "Ignoble Noble" is the chief enemy (who can't be attacked, due to his station), then this is the knowledge skill that will be revealing his/her weaknesses! It is required for Political Intrigue games at court, Three Musketeers, and Robin Hood/Ivanhoe style campaigns. It sees no use, in ours.
Religion IDs that silver mare's head around the Prince's neck as the symbol for Ceres/Demeter, local goddess of agriculture, as opposed to some other cult. The knowledge of undead, alone, is worth the price of a rank.
Knowledge of the Planes is pretty useless, earlier on, but Sorcerers and Wizards who are summoning stuff from other planes should learn about them. At higher levels, you'd think the Druids and Rangers should have some skills here, as well.
Finally, Rangers should add their Favored Enemy Bonus(es) to appropriate knowledge checks, and be treated as trained, when it applies to their Favored Enemies... A Ranger with FE
ragons, for instance, should be able to roll for Knowledge (Arcana) with his INT + FE bonus to learn about Dragons' weaknesses & defenses, but NOT when attempting to know something about Ancient Mysteries which don't involve Dragons. Rangers with FE:Outsiders (Evil) should be treated as skilled with Knowledge (Planes) when dealing with info about the evil planes & creatures, but unskilled when dealing with Celestials, etc.
ALL the knowledge skills are good and useful... What really bothers me is when GMs start adding new ones, like Knowledge (Elves)/(Dwarves), when Knowledge (Local) covers Humanoids, or Knowledge (Strategy & Tactics) when Knowledge (History) covers battles (and, indeed, that is what you study at war college). Even Knowledge (Quantumn Mechanics) falls under Knowledge (Nature), IMHO. I see no need to go inventing even more skills to make the PCs even more ignorant (and less heroic). YMMV.
