Knowledge skill and animals

[jk7275]

My little group is trying d&D 3.5 and there is a dispute over knowledge checks involving animals. the dispute is over does knowledge nature cover all animals or just animals that live outdoors

[FocusWolf413]

RAW, all animals. RAI, all animals. Why wouldn't it be all animals?

[Hiro Quester]

A druid should have good knowledge over all plants and animals. Even domesticated ones.

[Ashtagon]

Are there any animals you were thinking should not be covered?

[jk7275]

Are there any animals you were thinking should not be covered?

I feel knowledge(nature) covers all animals but another player feels it makes sense that you use nature for animals that live outdoors and for animals that live underground you use dungeoneering

[Ashtagon]

I feel knowledge(nature) covers all animals but another player feels it makes sense that you use nature for animals that live outdoors and for animals that live underground you use dungeoneering

Badgers live underground. K/animal seems about right for them.

[Twurps]

DMG has a list of knowledgde skills assosiated with each type of creature so RAW it's knowledge nature for animals.

I do think there are a lot of things that could be covered by more than one knowledge skill though, in which case our DM rules you can use the highest one. In your example, we might be able to use the highest of k.nature and k.dungeoneering. (maybe with a small penalty if we use dungeoneering)

Another example would be: Stuf that happened to your home town in the past. A character can know these things through knowledge local, (knowing the current king's ancestory line), or knowledge history (knowing past kings).

[nedz]

Some knowledge skills [6] have creature types associated with them.


Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts)
Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking)
Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)
Nature (animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin)
Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead)
The planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, elementals, magic related to the planes)


There are a number of areas of the rules where this distinction is important, now they might not have come up in your game before - but they could at some stage.

Also, the rules don't necessarily make sense.

[DrMotives]

I suppose knowledge dungeoneering case could be made for animals & vermin in the underdark, but that would be in addition to nature covering them. I can't imagine a druid just going into a cave and not understanding things like badgers or giant cockroaches; knowledge nature should still cover them.