Best knoweldge to take Skill Focus for (Loremaster)

[deuxhero]

What would be the best one to take?

[Ernir]

The one that comes up most commonly in your DM's game.

[sreservoir]

history, religion, or nature.

because you can get them from frog god's fane if you make an intelligence check, not because they're useful. though nature is a lot of types, I'd go with it. religion has undead, and sacrifices to evil gods, though.

[Keld Denar]

Religion. Why? Because its ALSO a prereq for Divine Oracle, a PrC I like to combo with Loremaster. Also one of the options available from visiting the Frog God's Fane (also Nature). So, you can pay gold to get one feat that serves as a prereq for 2 different PrCs. Not bad.

[mootoall]

Yeah, if you can just buy it from the Frog God's Fane, do that. If you can't, I'd recommend Local. Humanoids are a very common enemy, especially as CR falls apart at the high end of the system and enemies with class levels become more common. 'Course, I'm thinking solely in terms of Knowledge Devotion.

[sreservoir]

Religion. Why? Because its ALSO a prereq for Divine Oracle, a PrC I like to combo with Loremaster. Also one of the options available from visiting the Frog God's Fane (also Nature). So, you can pay gold to get one feat that serves as a prereq for 2 different PrCs. Not bad.

and, the first two levels are nice for 5 and 6.

[Keld Denar]

Knowledge Local doesn't really have to be high for IDing humanoids. The DC to identify that an orc is an orc is the same whether that orc is a Warrior1 or a Barbarian20. Most humanoids don't have more than like, 2-3 HD, so the highest knowledge check you'd have to make to ID a creature is 17-18, and most humanoids don't have a lot of special abilities, so you don't need to beat the check by much to get the important ones.

So unless you are using Knowledge Devotion to gain a further advantage, there really isn't much point in pumping it too far.

Religion, on the other hand, is pretty useful, since undead HD scale pretty fast. Planes is also very useful because while most outsiders scale in HD 1:1 with CR, they also have a metric boop-ton of special abilities and resistances, and every 5 points you beat the check by, you get one of those properties.

[ericgrau]

In general Knowledge(nature) because it covers the most monster types. Non-monster knowledge checks don't really scale so the extra +3 is often a bit of a waste. While undead and humanoids are the most common each of the related skills only provide 1 type and as pointed out humanoids don't scale. Weak undead like zombies scale HD fast but major undead like spectres scale normally. Animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids and plants combined are usually more common than undead, except in certain campaigns. Plus I bet you have 2 other party members making knowledge(religion) checks and 0-1 covering nature. Likewise certain campaigns favor planes, for outsiders. Check your campaign and your party to make sure.

[Half-orc Bard]

It depends on the rest of your party if you have a druid with maxed out nature dont take nature or if you have a Sorcerer with maxed out Arcana don't take arcana. Just try to fill a knowledge skill that is not covered by your party. If you are the only one using knowledge I'd say Nature>Arcana=the Planes>Religion>History>Local>the others

[Andion Isurand]

Don't forget Dungeoneering in that list, given its one of the creature ID skills.

[Telonius]

Architecture and engineering.

"Okay, you reach the keep of the Big Bad."
"I study the castle and try to determine the weakest structural point.... 45! Okay, Wizard, Disintegrate it right there, we'll be home by supper."

[deuxhero]

What? And trap the loot under all that rubble? And Home?

What part of rich murderous hobo wasn't clear?

[Dusk Eclipse]

What? And trap the loot under all that rubble? And Home?

What part of rich murderous hobo wasn't clear?

Thiis is full of win.... may I sig that?

[deuxhero]

Fine by me.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Fine by me.

Doesn't fit :smallfrown: