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This Old Rule: Knowledge Checks by Amber E. Scott This article will deviate slightly from the standard format of the "This Old Rule" articles, in that our purpose is not to rewrite the rule entirely, but to look at new ways to use it. Knowledge checks are part of the game that is either really important, or unimportant, given your DMing style. Some DMs make their players roll to see if they know how to tie their shoes, while others assume the characters know everything the players do. Most DMs want something in the middle, and that's when Knowledge checks become useful. The categories of Knowledge skills in the Player's Handbook are very broad, and cover almost any subject a PC would need. But they don't give many examples on how to use checks, what sort of information is revealed, and how to incorporate them into your game. The 3.5 update made Knowledge skills slightly more useful by incorporating synergy bonuses. Still, most players prefer to take ranks in only a few Knowledges - arcana, nature and religion - and will look at the others only for roleplaying purposes or to qualify for prestige classes. While there's nothing wrong with that, it makes the world feel richer if the DM can put the more "sidelined" Knowledge skills to good use, and reward players for selecting skills that fit their character concept. Surveying the Rule: 1.) Knowledge skills come in 10 basic categories: arcana, architecture and engineering, dungeoneering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility and royalty, religion, and the Planes. There is no "Knowledge (monster)" skill, but monster lore can be gleaned by type, each type corresponding to a different Knowledge category. This is a good system to use, as a "Knowledge (monster)" category would be so useful a player would almost certainly want to take it over, say, Knowledge (geography). Since our goal here is to make all Knowledge skills interesting and useful, we don't want any one category to be so good that it overshadows the others. 2.) The difficulty class for gaining knowledge follows a standard pattern: 10 for really easy checks, 15 for basic knowledge, and 20 - 30 for obscure knowledge. This is a good rule of thumb to use - it gives DMs a baseline for determining DCs, and there's no reason to change it. 3.) The Player's Handbook also gives examples of the sort of knowledge you can expect to get from a Knowledge category, but they are one-word examples with no tips on incorporating them into adventures. Also, the "Try Again" section is terse, and strictly interpreted can mean a character can never learn new information - ever! It needs to be reworded. Those two areas are what this article will focus on. Building the Foundation: Our primary concern is to make all Knowledges useful to the player who invests ranks in them, not merely as a small synergy bonus or as a qualifier for a prestige class. The easiest way to do this would be for me to list alternate uses, but we also want to inspire DMs to think of ways to make Knowledge checks more useful in their own games. So we fall back on the ever-useful rule of thumb. 1.) First, we'll think of everything a player would want for his character. These include: better chances to hit in combat, dealing more damage in combat, bonuses to skill and ability checks, more effective spells with a better chance of affecting targets, and better saving throws. How can knowledge checks help with any of this? Easily. Boris the Brave raises his sword and begins to stalk towards the party, plate mail clinking heavily. Rosa the bard knows that the Brave family is an old and chivalrous line, and has a duty to protect women. She uses that to her advantage, unbinding her long hair and taunting, "You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?" as she tries to stab him with her rapier. Boris is thrown off by her taunts, and fights poorly. (Rosa makes a successful Knowledge (nobility and royalty) check, and gains a +1 AC bonus versus Boris). Marco squints around the ruined great hall and comments to his fellow adventurers, "You know, that support pillar there doesn't actually support anything. And it's not decorated. I wonder why it's there?" A quick search later and the nimble halfling has found a secret tunnel hidden behind the pillar. (Marco makes a successful Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check, and receives a +2 bonus to his Search check to find the secret door). Hedda growls as she sees the enemy wizard preparing to cast. Her sorcerous companion shouts, "It's another fireball!" "Get down!" Hedda calls back, and her companions begin diving for cover. Hedda recognizes the tall grass to her left as not being flat land, but a recessed divot common to plains. She rolls into the sheltered hollow just as the fireball bursts overhead, safe from the flames. (Hedda makes a successful Knowledge (geography) check, and receives a +2 bonus to Reflex saves against area spells). 2.) Obviously, this sort of thing can be abused. AC bonuses and to-hit increases are greatly coveted by players, so we need some rules to keep things in check. Let's look at DCs. We want to reward players for investing ranks in skills, so we won't give them a bonus for common knowledge checks (DC 10). We want this to be useful at higher levels as well, so we will make both a "basic" reward (DC 15) and an "advanced" reward (DC 25). The rewards should be small enough not to overshadow magic item and spell bonuses, but significant enough that players want them. With that in mind, let's draft a list of bonuses: AC (+1/+2), attack bonuses (+1/+2), skill check bonuses (+2/+4), saving throw bonuses (+2/+4), spell save DC bonuses (+1/+2), damage roll bonuses (+1/+2). A first level character with maximum ranks in a Knowledge skill, and an Intelligence of 18, would have a +8 bonus to her skill check. Synergy bonuses and magic items could easily make that +12 at second level, and it keeps going up from there. So a character would have almost no chance of failing at even the most basic skill check. Therefore, we'll increase the DC for basic rewards to 20, and for advanced rewards to 30. A first level character with max ranks in a Knowledge skill and an Intelligence of 16 (more likely, since only wizards really must have a high Int) would have a +6 to her check, and would be around the +10 mark at level 3-4. That gives her a 50% chance of getting a basic reward from her Knowledge skill. At level 10 she'll have about a +15, giving her a 75% chance of getting a basic reward and a 25% chance of an advanced reward. At level 17 she'll have about a +22 to her skill check, guaranteeing her a basic reward and giving her a 60% chance of getting an advanced reward. That seems about perfect. More intelligent characters will have a better chance, and less intelligent characters will have a worse chance of gaining rewards. 3.) As for the rewards themselves, even a +1 AC bonus is really good, and we don't want to bog the game down by having characters make Knowledge checks every round. We'll have to impose limits. We'll use once a day as a starting point. We'll also name the bonuses to make things easier, and prevent any kind of skill-stacking cheese. Since it has everything to do with a character's skill, we'll term any reward a "competence bonus". However, since some of the point is to encourage characters to invest in several different Knowledge skills, we should allow players to gain benefits from multiple ranks in each. We can allow a character to attempt one such Knowledge check each day for each Knowledge skill in which they have ranks, so that a bard with 5 ranks each in Knowledge (arcane), Knowledge (geography), and Knowledge (religion) can attempt a check three times, once with each skill. Of course, we can make it so that failure wastes the attempt, so spreading out 1 skill point in every Knowledge skill won’t result in constant bonuses. 4.) Now, how to decide what bonus is appropriate in what situation? The easiest way is to make the player decide. Instead of the DM giving options, the player should say, "I'm going to make a Knowledge check to try and get an AC bonus". Or skill bonus, or save DC increase. The player must explain how he is using his knowledge skill to produce the effect; if a player is stuck, the DM or other players should feel free to make suggestions. This is a cooperative game! In some cases, a field of knowledge just won't be appropriate. When that happens, the DM can rule that no check can be made, but that takes the power out of the player's hands. The character should always be able to try. A better rule is that, when the knowledge and the desired effect are incompatible, the DC of the check increases by 10. 5.) The effects that are available as rewards can normally only be gotten through magical enchantments, magic items, or leveling up. Thus, we should be careful not to make them too powerful. While the rewards are small, we'll cap the power of the skill check by making it specific. The rewards only apply in one situation, and against one opponent or challenge. Instead of gaining a "+1 AC bonus", you gain a "+1 AC bonus against attacks made by that orc with the scar over his eye". 6.) Knowledge checks normally don't take an action to use. It seems silly to waste a standard action one round just to get a +1 to hit one opponent the next, so we'll call it a free action. 7.) We need a duration for this bonus. Since the rewards are so specific, they can last until the conditions are met, or until a day has passed, whichever comes first. 8.) Last but not least, we'll look at the "Try Again" feature. This is easy to correct. You can try a Knowledge check again, but not until your skill bonus has increased. Putting a headband of intellect on might help you draw connections between information that never occurred to you before, and adding ranks in the skill represents hard work and studying. The Big Reveal:
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