Knowledge (Int)

Trained Only

Like the Craft and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of unrelated skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, possibly an academic or even scientific discipline. Below are typical fields of study.

Check: Answering a question within your field of study has a DC of 10 (for really easy questions), 15 (for basic questions), or 20 to 30 (for really tough questions).

Retry: No. The roll represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn’t let you know something you never learned in the first place.

Special: An untrained Knowledge check is simply an Intelligence check. Without actual training, a character only knows common knowledge about a given subject.

You can take 10 when making a Knowledge check, but you can’t take 20.The GM may alter the DC of a Knowledge check, or apply a modifier to the check, to reflect a character’s familiarity (or lack thereof) with a specific aspect of the skill category.

For example, a GM may allow a character with the Knowledge (Jedi Lore) skill to recall information about the Sith with a +2 or +5 or higher modifier to the skill check DC.

Also, the GM may decide that having 5 or more ranks in a specific Knowledge skill provides you with a +2 synergy bonus when making a related skill check.

For example, a character with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (Medicine) could get a +2 synergy bonus when making a Treat Injury check in certain situations.

Synergy list: (pending development)

A character with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (ninja lore) gains a +2 bonus to Learn checks when mastering a technique.

Time: A Knowledge check can be a reaction, but otherwise requires a full-round action

Forbidden Knowledge:

Vorlon

Shadow

Entropy

Etc

You know That Which Should Not Be Known. You have had horrible supernatural experiences and read forbidden tomes, learning truly dark secrets that have challenged everything you thought you knew. Since these revelations defy logic or commonly accepted fact, it does not matter how intelligent or wise you are when using this skill—only how much exposure to these dark secrets themselves you have experienced.

Check

Answering a question about the horrible deities and secrets that lurk at the edges of reality has a DC of 10 (for really easy questions), 15 (for elementary questions), or 20 to 30 (for difficult or really tough questions). Unlike in other fields of study, there are almost no really easy questions associated with this dark knowledge.

You can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, the GM can give another piece of useful information.

The GM can decide which monsters are subject to the Knowledge (forbidden lore) skill and which monsters are subject to one of the standard Knowledge skills. For example, the GM may rule that Knowledge (the planes) is still the relevant skill for learning or knowing about outsiders, rather than allowing them to be iedntified by Knowledge (forbidden lore). However, in most campaigns that use the Sanity variant, aberrations and oozes should be able to be identified by Knowledge (forbidden lore) rather than by Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (dungeoneering) respectively.

Action

Usually none. In most cases, making a Knowledge check doesn’t take an action—you simply know the answer or you don’t.

Try Again

No. The check represents what you know, and thinking about a topic a second time doesn’t let you know something that you never learned in the first place.

Special

You cannot gain ranks in this skill by spending skill points. You can only gain ranks by reading forbidden tomes or having experiences with horrible creatures. Each rank you gain in this skill permanently reduces your maximum Sanity by 1 point:

The more you know about the horrible truths underlying reality, the less capable you are of leading a normal life.

A character’s first episode of insanity [that is caused by a supernatural source,(that is, an occurrence of temporary or indefinite insanity)] bestows 2 ranks in the appropriate forbidden knowledge skill, thereby lowering his maximum Sanity by 2 points.

Each time a character fails a Sanity check and endures another episode of insanity that is caused by a supernatural event, he gains an additional rank in the appropriate Forbidden Knowledge skill

For example, Caldark has 1 rank of Knowledge (forbidden lore) after reading a strange manuscript. She then steps outside, sees a chaos beast, and goes indefinitely insane, her raving mind failing to understand the strange creature she has encountered. Since she has never gone insane before, her player adds 2 ranks of Forbidden Knowledge (Path of Entropy) to Caldark’s character sheet. Now Caldark’s Maximum Sanity is 87 (90 minus 3 ranks of Knowledge [forbidden lore]).

You cannot take the forbidden Knowledge skill during character creation. However, the skill has no maximum rank; your level does not limit the number of ranks in forbidden Knowledge that you can acquire.