Morph Bark
2012-08-04, 01:18 PM
One of the things that I see as a flaw of the d20 system, or rather DnD in particular and d20 Modern and its derivatives as well, is that there are so many different skills, while you can do relatively little with them in comparison to feats or class abilities. Indeed, often you need a feat or class ability to get anything worthwhile out of a skill at all! Otherwise all you need is a little item or spell to boost a skill when you need it and you can do everything with it that you're likely to ever do with it in a campaign. Personally, I feel that a party of 4 or more should be able to cover nearly all skills, at least if they all have a high Int score, so perhaps it would be better to say that a standard party can potentially cover all skills.
I think Pathfinder and 4E did that part with the skills well, but there's one skill in particular that I find suffers from it, and through it the players, DM and settings themselves. This skill is the Knowledge skill. This skill, like Craft, Perform and Profession, has various sub-skills. However, unlike Perform, they all have a different function and result; unlike Profession, they are all mostly useful; unlike Craft, they are all mostly very likely to see use in any game.
In DnD, it is split into ten in Core and a lot more outside of it. Arcana, architecture and engineering, dungeoneering, local, geography, history, nature, nobility and royalty, religion, the planes. Outside of Core you get psionics, law, wars and possibly several others more.
In d20 Modern, it's even more ridiculous. Arcane lore, art, behavioral sciences, business, civics, current events, earth and life sciences, history, physical sciences, popular culture, streetwise, tactics, technology, theology and philosophy. Who knows if there are even others that splatbooks add.
"But Morph," you may now say, "those are all valid fields." Sure, and for someone who prefers to have a perfect simulationist game, keep on using all those skills as they are. However, while I like simulationist games, I prefer them to have slightly more of a gamist edge. After all, DnD is first and foremost a game, and that should not be forgotten, nor neglected. As such, I decided to fold the various knowledge skills into new ones that can be used in both DnD and d20 Modern style games, which would be handy as I'd like to start merging the two a bit and introduce higher levels of technology in my DnD campaigns occassionally.
As such, I present:
Knowledge
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. Knowledge skills are broad and each encompasses several fields of study in close or distant relation with one another.
Arcane
Ancient mysteries, magic traditions, psionic traditions, arcane symbols, psychic symbols, cryptic phrases, astral constructs, constructs*, dragons, elementals, magical beasts, oozes, psionic races. The occult, magic and the supernatural, astrology, numerology.
Forbidden Lore
Aberrations, other planes, outsiders, magic related to the planes, undead.
Geography
Lands, terrain, climate, where people live. Caverns, spelunking.
History and Culture
Royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities. Lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes. Sociology, laws, legislation, legal rights and obligations, politics, entertainment, foreign affairs. Popular music, films and books, famous people. Art, religion, gods, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols.
Nature
Animals, fey, giants, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin. Biology, botany, genetics, geology, paleontology, medicine and forensics. Psychology and criminology.
Science**
Astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, engineering. Technology, new technological developments.
*constructs can also fall under Knowledge (science) if nothing magical was used to create them. It depends on the setting.
**yeah yeah, more accurately this should be named "hard science", but whatever.
What has gone where?
Knowledge (arcane) includes the old Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (arcane lore), as well knowledge of oozes from Knowledge (dungeoneering) and elementals from Knowledge (the planes).
Knowledge (forbidden lore) includes the old Knowledge (the planes) minus elementals, but including undead from Knowledge (religion) and aberrations from Knowledge (dungeoneering). It has the same name as the skill introduced in the sanity system in Unearthed Arcana, which is no coincedence. This skill encompasses anything that could potentially be sanity-taxing, so if you want to use a sanity system, you can simply use this skill to go with it.
Knowledge (geography) remains the same, but gains everything that Knowledge (dungeoneering) has left after the earlier two took its monsters away.
Knowledge (history and culture) includes the old Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local) minus the geography bits and knowledge of humanoids in general. It further contains large parts of d20 Modern's Knowledge (art, behavioral sciences, civics, current events, history, popular culture and theology and philosophy).
Knowledge (nature) includes the old Knowledge (nature), plus knowledge of humanoids and psychology taken from d20 Modern's Knowledge (behavioral sciences), as well as Knowledge (earth and life sciences).
Knowledge (science) includes d20 Modern's Knowledge (physical sciences) and Knowledge (technology).
Additional uses for these new Skills
What else to do with these? Well, for one, a rank in Knowledge (science) or one of the others could be made a prerequisite before one can learn how to use the Craft skill to craft certain types of tools, such as chemicals, electronics, machines or medicine (Knowledge (nature) may be appropriate for the latter).
On the other hand, some skills aren't covered by the new system, while others still could be merged into them.
d20 Modern's Knowledge (business) either doesn't fit in DnD or can be done away with without much trouble, or filed under a different skill along with something like Appraise or such. Knowledge (streetwise) will fall under the new Thievery skill. Knowledge (tactics), or the DnD skill Knowledge (war) from Oriental Adventures can be merged with Martial Lore. Spellcraft/Psicraft can also be merged with Knowledge (arcane).
I think Pathfinder and 4E did that part with the skills well, but there's one skill in particular that I find suffers from it, and through it the players, DM and settings themselves. This skill is the Knowledge skill. This skill, like Craft, Perform and Profession, has various sub-skills. However, unlike Perform, they all have a different function and result; unlike Profession, they are all mostly useful; unlike Craft, they are all mostly very likely to see use in any game.
In DnD, it is split into ten in Core and a lot more outside of it. Arcana, architecture and engineering, dungeoneering, local, geography, history, nature, nobility and royalty, religion, the planes. Outside of Core you get psionics, law, wars and possibly several others more.
In d20 Modern, it's even more ridiculous. Arcane lore, art, behavioral sciences, business, civics, current events, earth and life sciences, history, physical sciences, popular culture, streetwise, tactics, technology, theology and philosophy. Who knows if there are even others that splatbooks add.
"But Morph," you may now say, "those are all valid fields." Sure, and for someone who prefers to have a perfect simulationist game, keep on using all those skills as they are. However, while I like simulationist games, I prefer them to have slightly more of a gamist edge. After all, DnD is first and foremost a game, and that should not be forgotten, nor neglected. As such, I decided to fold the various knowledge skills into new ones that can be used in both DnD and d20 Modern style games, which would be handy as I'd like to start merging the two a bit and introduce higher levels of technology in my DnD campaigns occassionally.
As such, I present:
Knowledge
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. Knowledge skills are broad and each encompasses several fields of study in close or distant relation with one another.
Arcane
Ancient mysteries, magic traditions, psionic traditions, arcane symbols, psychic symbols, cryptic phrases, astral constructs, constructs*, dragons, elementals, magical beasts, oozes, psionic races. The occult, magic and the supernatural, astrology, numerology.
Forbidden Lore
Aberrations, other planes, outsiders, magic related to the planes, undead.
Geography
Lands, terrain, climate, where people live. Caverns, spelunking.
History and Culture
Royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities. Lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes. Sociology, laws, legislation, legal rights and obligations, politics, entertainment, foreign affairs. Popular music, films and books, famous people. Art, religion, gods, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols.
Nature
Animals, fey, giants, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin. Biology, botany, genetics, geology, paleontology, medicine and forensics. Psychology and criminology.
Science**
Astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, engineering. Technology, new technological developments.
*constructs can also fall under Knowledge (science) if nothing magical was used to create them. It depends on the setting.
**yeah yeah, more accurately this should be named "hard science", but whatever.
What has gone where?
Knowledge (arcane) includes the old Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (arcane lore), as well knowledge of oozes from Knowledge (dungeoneering) and elementals from Knowledge (the planes).
Knowledge (forbidden lore) includes the old Knowledge (the planes) minus elementals, but including undead from Knowledge (religion) and aberrations from Knowledge (dungeoneering). It has the same name as the skill introduced in the sanity system in Unearthed Arcana, which is no coincedence. This skill encompasses anything that could potentially be sanity-taxing, so if you want to use a sanity system, you can simply use this skill to go with it.
Knowledge (geography) remains the same, but gains everything that Knowledge (dungeoneering) has left after the earlier two took its monsters away.
Knowledge (history and culture) includes the old Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local) minus the geography bits and knowledge of humanoids in general. It further contains large parts of d20 Modern's Knowledge (art, behavioral sciences, civics, current events, history, popular culture and theology and philosophy).
Knowledge (nature) includes the old Knowledge (nature), plus knowledge of humanoids and psychology taken from d20 Modern's Knowledge (behavioral sciences), as well as Knowledge (earth and life sciences).
Knowledge (science) includes d20 Modern's Knowledge (physical sciences) and Knowledge (technology).
Additional uses for these new Skills
What else to do with these? Well, for one, a rank in Knowledge (science) or one of the others could be made a prerequisite before one can learn how to use the Craft skill to craft certain types of tools, such as chemicals, electronics, machines or medicine (Knowledge (nature) may be appropriate for the latter).
On the other hand, some skills aren't covered by the new system, while others still could be merged into them.
d20 Modern's Knowledge (business) either doesn't fit in DnD or can be done away with without much trouble, or filed under a different skill along with something like Appraise or such. Knowledge (streetwise) will fall under the new Thievery skill. Knowledge (tactics), or the DnD skill Knowledge (war) from Oriental Adventures can be merged with Martial Lore. Spellcraft/Psicraft can also be merged with Knowledge (arcane).