What would it take for a FR character to know about Earth?

[Gavinfoxx]

Let's limit ourselves to 3.5 rules for now. Faerun has had some decent amount of crossover with Earth throughout it's history. What level of what knowledge skill or lore skill or group association would someone need to, totally in-character, know about Earth in some form?

[Buufreak]

If memory serves, there is an entire society in FR built on the back of earthling slaves. I'd say for anyone there, it wouldn't take much of anything to hear and know about the mother land.

[Biggus]

The only characters I'm aware of who officially know about Earth are Elminster and Laeral Silverhand, so I'm guessing the knowledge/ lore DC is probably pretty high. Some of the priests and loremasters of Unther and Mulhorand probably know a little about the place where their people first came from, but they're likely more legend than history by now (while I don't think a date was ever officially put on it, from the gods they worshipped it seems to have been somewhere around 4,000 years ago). Probably some very ancient creatures (such as the oldest dragons) can remember when the connection between Earth and Toril was closer. AFAIK that's about it, it all seems to have been left pretty vague.

[Quertus]

This sounds like the reason I hate Knowledge skills: if my background was that Elminster brought me from Earth to FR, and trained me as a Wizard (something he'd never do, as he's still anti-apprentice, right?), then what's the DC for me to know about Earth? Um… what?

I get that Knowledge skills are a lot easier than just keeping track of what your character has learned, but they make so much less sense. :smallfrown:

[Fizban]

Depends on how Knowledge skills work. Can a Knowledge skill tell you literally anything? If the highest difficulty possible is say, DC 30, then it's DC 30. If the DC can be arbitrarily high, then it's whatever DC the DM says it is.

This is why I have a rule for Know What You Don't Know, where if something is not sufficiently known in the broader base that makes up the knowledge skills, then a DC 20 check will tell you the answer is not available. If it's not written in a book which has copies in every major library, you can't pull it out of your rear by saying you just happened to read it in a book somewhere.

[Quertus]

Depends on how Knowledge skills work. Can a Knowledge skill tell you literally anything? If the highest difficulty possible is say, DC 30, then it's DC 30. If the DC can be arbitrarily high, then it's whatever DC the DM says it is.

This is why I have a rule for Know What You Don't Know, where if something is not sufficiently known in the broader base that makes up the knowledge skills, then a DC 20 check will tell you the answer is not available. If it's not written in a book which has copies in every major library, you can't pull it out of your rear by saying you just happened to read it in a book somewhere.

Oh, I like that! I'm likely to steal this "DC to know that something is unknown" concept. Sounds especially useful for games where the GM makes the roll in secret.

Also, Quertus, my signature academia mage for whom this account is named, needs to get to work printing more books - these knowledge skill checks aren't going to make themselves!

[Segev]

This sounds like the reason I hate Knowledge skills: if my background was that Elminster brought me from Earth to FR, and trained me as a Wizard (something he'd never do, as he's still anti-apprentice, right?), then what's the DC for me to know about Earth? Um… what?

While some might try to cheese this, in general, if your background says you know something, you don't have to have an appropriate Knowledge for it. But this will tend to be either very specific facts, or very general knowledge OF a thing. Knowledge skill ranks and checks let you know what specifics you can recall and operate on.

I imagine if you actually have "Knowledge (Earth)," then even one rank lets you know a lot of stuff that a common man of the 20th century growing up here would know. In fact, it probably means you know a little more than most Westerners would; I'd argue it's the equivalent of a rank of K:History for Faerun if you're Faerunian.

Basiclaly, you need knowledges to represent background information you have iff the knowledge is something specialized and generally useful. "I grew up in a house full of cats, so I know how often to change their litter and can tell when a cat isn't feeling well, and know how to scritch the right spots" is one thing. "I grew up in a house full of cats, so I know how to de-worm them and all the signs of various cat-illnesses, and how to tame them," is something I'd probably say you need Animal Handling for.

[Zarrgon]

Earth, as well as dozens of other planets across the Prime Plane are part of the official Forgotten Realms Lore and History.

It's not common knowledge to say a farmer or merchant captain, but it would be known to anyone with even an 'average' knowledge of History, Magic and Culture.

So that is only a DC of 20 for Arcana, History, and Religion; 25 for Geography and Local.

For anyone knowledgeable it is very basic to know: "The Realms are full of people that have come from other planets" is quite basic. It is after all the foundation of the Realms.

Now to know really anything other then a planet named Earth exists and some people came from there is a DC 30.

[hamishspence]

I could see Knowledge (the planes) applying, using the approach that there's many different Material Planes rather than just one.