7.15 Knowledge (Int)
The Knowledge skills represent your understanding of particular aspects of the world. Like the Craft, Profession, and Perform skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of separate skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, such an academic or even scientific discipline. Typical fields of study are listed below, but the GM may create additional fields or decide that some fields are irrelevant in a particular setting.
- Arcana (arcane spells, dragons, magical beasts)
- Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking, subterranean monsters)
- Engineering (architecture, buildings, bridges, fortifications, siege weapons)
- Items (magic items, artifacts, constructs)
- Local (myths and legends, laws and customs, history, nobility and royalty, nearby monsters)
- Nature (nature spells, animals, fae, monstrous humanoids, plants, terrain and climate)
- Planes (pact spells, the Primal Planes, the Aligned Planes, the Astral Plane, planeforged, magic related to the planes, extraplanar monsters)
- Religion (divine spells, undead, deities, mythic history, religious traditions, holy symbols)
7.15.1 Common Knowledge Tasks
Identify Monster: You can make a Knowledge check to identify a monster and recall its special powers or vulnerabilities. Each monster notes in its description the specific information that you learn from a successful Knowledge check. In general, the difficulty value for basic information is equal to 5 + the monster’s level. Legendary monsters such as dragons can be much easier to recognize.
Identify Item: You can make a Knowledge check to identify any unusual properties or functions of a magic item or esoteric mundane item. The difficulty value is equal to 5 + twice the item’s rank. Items that are particularly common in a particular setting may be easier to identify, which can reduce the difficulty value by 2 or more. Success means that you know the item’s general purpose, and how to activate its functions, including any magical effects. You also know the item’s rank, which lets you estimate its value.
Recall Information: You can make a Knowledge check to remember information related to your field of study. The difficulty value varies depending on the difficulty of the question (see Standard Difficulty Values).
Identify Magical Effect: You can make a Knowledge check to identify the general nature of a magical effect that you observe. The difficulty value is generally equal to 10 + twice the effect’s rank. Unusually obscure or obvious magical effects can have higher or lower difficulty values.
You must use a Knowledge skill relevant to the magical effect. Arcane effects require Knowledge (arcana), divine effects require Knowledge (nature), nature effects require Knowledge (nature), and pact effects require Knowledge (planes). In some circumstances, other Knowledge skills could be used if they are directly relevant to the magical effect. For example, Knowledge (dungeoneering) could be used to identify many spells from the terramancy mystic sphere.