Knowledge Devotion

[MesiDoomstalker]

So I'm starting a character who has Knowledge Devotion and a fair amount of Skill Points per level (at least 6 for most of his career, more if I get good rolls for Int). What ways, besides Feats and Classes (those are already locked down), can I pump up my Knowledge checks (RAW is easier than Homebrew, but my DM is open to homebrew)?

I've already got Masterwork Items for all relevant Knowledges and I'm pumping most of my skill points into Knowledges already. The character is a Cleric if it matters, I don't know of any spells that would be particularly relevant.

[Allanimal]

Have the party Bard inspire competence before you roll your knowledge check.

[geekintheground]

use 2 of your skill points for that skill trick whose name escapes me... gives you +5 to identify a monster (which is was Knowledge Devotion is)

[Cavir]

use 2 of your skill points for that skill trick whose name escapes me... gives you +5 to identify a monster (which is was Knowledge Devotion is)

"Collector of Stories" in Complete Scoundrel

[Mountain]

Crystal Mask of Knowledge (MIC) for whatever you fight the most.
Divine Insight (SpC) is a cleric-only spell that will give you one really good knowledge check per casting. I personally cast 2-3 each day with my cleric.
Following the same line as the mask, ask about a custom item for all knowledge skills. Skill items are relatively cheap and not a bad investment for a knowledge devotion character.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Have the party Bard inspire competence before you roll your knowledge check.

As far as I know, we lack a Bard. HOWEVER! We have 3 Artificers. So we will always the magic items we'd like (Probably).


use 2 of your skill points for that skill trick whose name escapes me... gives you +5 to identify a monster (which is was Knowledge Devotion is)


"Collector of Stories" in Complete Scoundrel

Oh awesome! That's incredible.


Crystal Mask of Knowledge (MIC) for whatever you fight the most.
Divine Insight (SpC) is a cleric-only spell that will give you one really good knowledge check per casting. I personally cast 2-3 each day with my cleric.
Following the same line as the mask, ask about a custom item for all knowledge skills. Skill items are relatively cheap and not a bad investment for a knowledge devotion character.

I think I did the math on this. a +5 Competence Item of All IDing Knowledges is something like 10k (approx). The main issue there is convincing the DM of that. I'd probably be able to convince separate items easily but I'd either have to get them as Wondrous Items or Slotless, both would add up rather quickly. Great on the Crystal Mask though. I don't know what we'll be facing most often yet, so I'll keep that open.

Divine Insight is awesome, completely forgot about that spell. Will be good once we hit 3rd level (we start at 2). I'll talk to the DM about getting an Eternal Wand of Divine Insight. It be nice to have a lot at my disposal.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If your cheese tolerance is sufficiently high, Guidance of the Avatar (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) is a second level spell that gives the target +20 on a single skill check. It's got one of those "one use within a 1-minute duration" things, too, so you can drop it during a buff round.

[Mountain]

If your cheese tolerance is sufficiently high, Guidance of the Avatar (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) is a second level spell that gives the target +20 on a single skill check. It's got one of those "one use within a 1-minute duration" things, too, so you can drop it during a buff round.

I don't know about your gaming experience, but I very rarely have a round to buff before the fight starts. That's why I like Divine Insight. It's always there before I need it.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I don't know about your gaming experience, but I very rarely have a round to buff before the fight starts. That's why I like Divine Insight. It's always there before I need it.
Wow, I never noticed that Divine Insight is hours/level. That is nice.

[gorfnab]

Tome of World Memory
Scroll of Uncertain Provenance
Lore of the Gods spell
Paragnostic Guild affiliation
Frog God's Fane location

[Harrow]

It's not RAW, but maybe RAI; you may be able to get your DM to allow your Artificers to emulate Utterances, in which case they can make Potions of Hidden Truth. It gives you +10 to your next Knowledge check and lasts indefinitely. It's the equivalent of a second level spell that is available at 3rd level, so it should cost 300 gold. This is a little much for every combat, but can give you an edge when you know that your next fight is going to be a tough one.

Normally, people on this board would lobby for Scrolls or, even better, Wands long before Potions, but all Spell Trigger and Spell Completion items have an arbitrary and asinine rule that they require your personal truename, which can be difficult to acquire. If you can get your DM to drop that rule as well then a wand charge between each fight could be really useful.

Going even further, you could have a Wonderous Item created of Hidden Knowledge on a Command Word Trigger. It shouldn't be too expensive, doesn't have to take up a slot in combat (pull it out, use it, then put it back in your downtime) and even by RAW doesn't require your personal truename. Still gonna need to talk to you DM about Artificers emulating spell effects that exist solely as SLAs.

All of these also share the problem of requiring a good Truespeak check. Just one on creation, so that's not too hard to optimize, but it's still another barrier.

Between needing at least one rule adjustment, possibly a personal truename, and certainly a high, trained only skill check on a skill no one probably has, this may sound like a lot of effort, but where else are you going to get a +10 untyped bonus that lasts until you use it from a second level spell?

[MesiDoomstalker]

Tome of World Memory
Scroll of Uncertain Provenance
Lore of the Gods spell
Paragnostic Guild affiliation
Frog God's Fane location

Do you have sources for any of these? I only recognize Frog God's Fane.

[IAmTehDave]

Those items: Probably Complete Divine or Complete Champion.

If you don't mind a 1-level dip you can take 1 level of Dragonfire Adept. Take the Draconic Knowledge invocation:
+6 to all knowledge checks, and you can do them "untrained". Up to the DM to say whether that means they qualify for Knowledge Devotion without ranks.

Also. gets you a 1d6 breath weapon (laughable at best, but qualifies you for Entangling Exhalation, which is a great BFC ability. Entangles everyone but evasion-types in a 15 foot cone or 30 foot line for 1d4 rounds, as a standard action)
Alternatively: Get your DM to approve (and refluff) Eldritch Disciple for DFA. This may, however, be a completely different character idea than what you're playing.

On another note: I now want to try out an Eldritch Disciple of Bahamut (Or really, any of the Draconomicon gods...)

[gorfnab]

Do you have sources for any of these? I only recognize Frog God's Fane.
Tome of World Memory (MIC) - Basically it's the Junior Woodchuck's Guidebook
Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (MIC)
Lore of the Gods spell (CC)
Paragnostic Guild affiliation (CC)
Frog God's Fane location (CS)

[Eldaran]

Tome of World Memory
Scroll of Uncertain Provenance


Just to point out something a lot of people over look. The Tome, Scrolls, and Collector of Stories all provide a +5 competence bonus to your check, so none of them stack.

[Spuddles]

As a skill trick, collector of stories can only be used once per combat. Not terrible, but still a limitation I rarely see pointed out.

[Telok]

Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (MIC)

Do note that this item is abuseable in some small way and may not be allowed by your DM.

[Know(Nothing)]

Five ranks in Survival gets you synergy with Knowledge(Nature). Not terrible to have, particularly at low levels.

[Kennisiou]

Five ranks in Survival gets you synergy with Knowledge(Nature). Not terrible to have, particularly at low levels.

Especially since at low levels survival is really useful, meaning those five ranks are good as survival ranks early and as a knowledge boost later.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Those items: Probably Complete Divine or Complete Champion.

If you don't mind a 1-level dip you can take 1 level of Dragonfire Adept. Take the Draconic Knowledge invocation:
+6 to all knowledge checks, and you can do them "untrained". Up to the DM to say whether that means they qualify for Knowledge Devotion without ranks.

Also. gets you a 1d6 breath weapon (laughable at best, but qualifies you for Entangling Exhalation, which is a great BFC ability. Entangles everyone but evasion-types in a 15 foot cone or 30 foot line for 1d4 rounds, as a standard action)
Alternatively: Get your DM to approve (and refluff) Eldritch Disciple for DFA. This may, however, be a completely different character idea than what you're playing.

On another note: I now want to try out an Eldritch Disciple of Bahamut (Or really, any of the Draconomicon gods...)

As I said in the OP, levels are already set. I'm already losing one Caster Level for Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian dip and the game will top out around level 11 or 12, so being 1 CL behind is bad enough.


Tome of World Memory (MIC) - Basically it's the Junior Woodchuck's Guidebook
Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (MIC)
Lore of the Gods spell (CC)
Paragnostic Guild affiliation (CC)
Frog God's Fane location (CS)

Thank you.


Five ranks in Survival gets you synergy with Knowledge(Nature). Not terrible to have, particularly at low levels.

5 Ranks is quite expensive. I don't have a wealth of skill points, as of right now (level 2) none of my Knowledges have maxed out points for that reason. I'd rather put more points into Knowledge Nature to boost Knowledge Nature instead of points in Survival.