SRD Talk:Knowledge Skill

Other Knowledge Skills?

So the Knowledge fields presented here are certainly useful, but how do you handle other Knowledge skills in your games? Do you include custom Knowledge skills at all? How broad or narrow do they tend to be? Do they provide synergistic effects anywhere, and are they properly incorporated into the setting, or do you just force everything into one of the fields presented here?

One I've had to deal with recently is, playing a Bard, my GM said I needed to take Knowledge (music) in order to compose a song, but giving it thought, especially in comparison to the presented Knowledge skills, this seems like a hyper-specialized choice that could be easily expanded into a full category, Knowledge (Arts), easily as useful as Knowledge (Arcana), and that composing a song should probably be a Craft (song) skill.

Just as a thought, I'll include a summary of Knowledge (Arts) here:

Knowledge (Arts) covers a knowledge of the arts - literature, theater, music, artwork, rhetoric and stories. Characters versed in Knowledge (arts) are capable of both appreciating and identifying pieces of art, and of relating events in their lives to stories, or vice versa. This Knowledge is useful in identifying themes, legendary monsters and items, interpreting riddles and puzzles, and even recognizing references to the arts, as well as in composing, creating, and performing.

Knowledge (Arts) grants a synergy bonus +2 to

• Forgery when used to spot forged artwork
• Craft checks related to the arts
• All Perform checks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by KharonAlpua (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts.

I'm not sure that I agree with your GM that writing a song is covered under a knowledge skill. You can't, say, read a book and suddenly become a good songwriter. Knowledge (Arts) would, I think, include everything you listed, except for the last phrase ("as well as in composing, creating, and performing"). Songwriting would be closer to craft or perform. Craft would be best, actually, as it easily gives you a mechanism for how long it takes. Otherwise as a knowledge skill, it takes the same amount of time to write anything from a jingle to an epic, 10-hour long opera. JazzMan 13:16, 7 July 2011 (MDT)

Below are listed typical fields of study (format)

close enough yet incorrect format. e.g. Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts) should be Arcana: ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts.

Everyone knows that a colon precedes a list. Additionally, yes ending each list with a period is correct as each subjective sentence contains an implied predicate. Parentheses are used for personal side notes (I think... oh & math too).