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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 6638811" data-attributes="member: 6777737">No.&nbsp; The Bard has always included lore for legends, legendary persons, and magic items.&nbsp; General knowledge has not been their realm of study at all.The <a href="https://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/excerpts/excerpt_ph1_bard.pdf" target="_blank">1E Bard</a> has a chance &quot;of knowing something about a legendary person, place or thing or of knowing what a particular magic item is. The latter ability is limited to weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, and those items of magical nature which the bard can employ or which bear magical inscriptions[.]&quot;&nbsp; It has a 50% chance of success at name level.In 2e, the chance of knowing something about legendary people was removed completely (or emulated through the ability to just cast legend lore, which, of course, Wizards can do earlier), and the item knowledge was changed to be item history and item nature only.&nbsp; It explicitly did not reveal any information about a magic item's abilities.&nbsp; It had a 5% chance of success per level, again giving you about 50% chance of success at name level.In 3.x, <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm#bardicKnowledge" target="_blank">bardic knowledge</a> is explicitly limited to &quot;local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places&quot;.&nbsp; Additionally, while the DCs mirror those of Knowledge checks, the ability is level + Int mod (a secondary stat), meaning it's got an inherent -3 penalty to the check.&nbsp; Furthermore, you're explicitly barred from Take 10, as &quot;this sort of knowledge is essentially random.&quot;The Bard is only a master of legends, history, rumor, and storytelling.&nbsp; It was 5e that changed this flavor, granting skill Expertise and bonus skill proficiencies (for College of Lore) when, historically, Bards have exactly been the dilettante for anything other than music and performance.&nbsp; It wasn't until 3.5 that Bards got enough skill points to even think about putting skill points in more than one Knowledge skill.Wizards, on the other hand, focus their lives on study.&nbsp; Yes, mostly study of Arcane Lore, but that art is the most useful for learning about other facts.&nbsp; In previous editions, Wizards not only had the spells which could best acquire knowledge, they had the Intelligence necessary to more regularly make Int checks.&nbsp; In 3e, they had enough Int to get skill points to invest into Knowledge skills.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 6638811, member: 6777737"] No. The Bard has always included lore [I]for legends, legendary persons, and magic items.[/I] General knowledge has [I]not[/I] been their realm of study at all. The [URL="https://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/excerpts/excerpt_ph1_bard.pdf"]1E Bard[/URL] has a chance "of knowing something about a legendary person, place or thing or of knowing what a particular magic item is. The latter ability is limited to weapons, armor, potions, scrolls, and those items of magical nature which the bard can employ or which bear magical inscriptions[.]" It has a 50% chance of success at name level. In 2e, the chance of knowing something about legendary people was [I]removed completely[/I] (or emulated through the ability to just cast [I]legend lore[/I], which, of course, Wizards can do earlier), and the item knowledge was changed to be item history and item nature [I]only[/I]. It explicitly did not reveal any information about a magic item's abilities. It had a 5% chance of success per level, again giving you about 50% chance of success at name level. In 3.x, [URL="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm#bardicKnowledge"]bardic knowledge[/URL] is explicitly limited to "local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places". Additionally, while the DCs mirror those of Knowledge checks, the ability is level + Int mod (a secondary stat), meaning it's got an inherent -3 penalty to the check. Furthermore, you're explicitly barred from Take 10, as "this sort of knowledge is essentially random." The Bard is only a master of [I]legends, history, rumor, and storytelling[/I]. It was 5e that changed this flavor, granting skill Expertise and bonus skill proficiencies (for College of Lore) when, historically, Bards have exactly been the dilettante for anything other than music and performance. It wasn't until 3.5 that Bards got enough skill points to even think about putting skill points in more than one Knowledge skill. Wizards, on the other hand, focus their lives on study. Yes, mostly study of Arcane Lore, but that art is the most useful for learning about other facts. In previous editions, Wizards not only had the spells which could best acquire knowledge, they had the Intelligence necessary to more regularly make Int checks. In 3e, they had enough Int to get skill points to invest into Knowledge skills. [/QUOTE]

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