Really high knowledge rolls

[Cuddly]

What's a pre-epic knowledge check of 96 mean?

[Sir_Elderberry]

What's a pre-epic knowledge check of 96 mean?

You could build one of whatever it is you're studying. In the desert. Out of scraps. While blinded, deafened, and with 0 str, dex, and wis.

EDIT: Even if the thing you're studying is a city or a god or something.

[Jack_Simth]

You could build one of whatever it is you're studying. In the desert. Out of scraps. While blinded, deafened, and with 0 str, dex, and wis.

EDIT: Even if the thing you're studying is a city or a god or something.

No, that requires Craft. For Knowledge, it means you know the silly thing inside and out. If it's got 40 HD, you know 9 useful things about it - which is generally at the point of "okay, go look it up in the monster manual, and read the entire entry - you know all that in character"

Ah, here we go:

In many cases, you can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.

[Sir_Elderberry]

No, that requires Craft. For Knowledge, it means you know the silly thing inside and out. If it's got 40 HD, you know 9 useful things about it - which is generally at the point of "okay, go look it up in the monster manual, and read the entire entry - you know all that in character"


Ah well. At least I made an Iron Man reference.

[tyckspoon]

Same thing an Epic check does- Knowledge doesn't have any special Epic check results, at least as of the Epic Handbook. I don't think the Epic skill uses are actually restricted to Epic characters, either.. at least, the CharOp diplomancy builds reference making people Fanatical for you while pre-Epic, and they usually have their stuff pretty well vetted.

Practically, you know everything there is to know about whatever you're testing for, unless it's an astoundingly obscure thing (or it's an Epic creature using the HD-based rules to create a base DC of like 70.)

[Hal]

What's a pre-epic knowledge check of 96 mean?

It means you need to take Knowledge Devotion and make your DM cry.

[Jack Mann]

I once made a build that could get a Lore check of 115 at level 20... But the sad truth is that, outside of monster information and dark knowledge, knowledge and lore have no use past sub-epic ranges. You know pretty much anything it's possible to know on the subject with a check of thirty.

Kind of sad, really, given how much I typically spend on knowledges on my characters.

[Cuddly]

It means you need to take Knowledge Devotion and make your DM cry.

What is that/what's it do?

[nargbop]

Knowledge Devotion is a combat-helping feat for INTelligent characters with Knowledge ranks. You find the appropriate knowledge type (nature for normal animals, arcana for dragons and such, dungeoneering for oozes, etc... it's all in the beginning of the PHB) and roll a Knowledge check. Based on a table in Complete Champion, add a bonus to attack and damage.
The fluff is : you know where the important parts are on the dragon, and can choose to hit there.
My latest character was excellent with this feat : a Factotum with at least 5 in every Knowledge skill. Factotums can add their Factotum level to a particular skill check once per day. His INT was very high. Thus! I made sure that combats were rare, and was regularly able to make 40+ Knowledge checks, making me hit often and hard.
It's an extra layer of bookkeeping; you have to remember to do it or you've wasted the feat; the fluff is kinda weak. Take the feat if you expect your caster to be fighting monsters with weapons regularly. OH! Spells with ranged touch attacks! This feat benefits combat casters enormously!

[Chronos]

That sounds similar to what the Archivist can do with his Dark Knowledge class feature. Except that only applies to "unnatural" sorts of creatures (undead, oozes, outsiders, etc.), but gives the bonuses to everyone in the party.

[Cuddly]

Doesn't the knowledge thing cap after a certain amount, though?

[edit]
I meant for the archivist, but yeah, knowledge domain caps at +5 at a check of 36.

[tyckspoon]

+5 with a 36+ check result, if Realmshelp has it correct.

[jcsw]

A useful thing for getting a higher knowledge check is the Collector of Stories skill trick (Comp. Scoundrel) which gives a +5 to any trained Knowledge check when you use it. (If you didn't know you can only use a skill trick once per ten minutes out of combat or once per encounter in combat)

[Cuddly]

Is that a named bonus?
Ah, competence.

Hmmm..... I could trade out two skill points to pick it up, or keep hanging on to the magic item that gives +5 comp. bonus to a knowledge check 3/day.

[jcsw]

Take the Open Minded (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#openMinded) feat, spend 2 skill points on the Collector of Stories skill trick, then spend the remaining 3 points into random knowledge skills so they become trained? A bit overdone but still usable.

Additionally, at low levels the absent-minded (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm#absentMinded) trait in UA gives a +1 to all knowledge checks at the expense of spot and listen, useful at low level campaigns since it's "free".

I made a low-level (level 6) knowledge bot a while back, so I used a lot of these tricks to get more skill points.

Samuel Artikan, Level 6 Human Archivist
Archivist 6
Chaotic Neutral

HP: 26

Abilities: Str: 10 Dex: 12 Con: 10 Wis: 14 Int: 19+1 Cha: 10

Saves: Fort: +5 Ref: +4 Will: +7

BAB: +3

AC: 11 Touch: 10 Flat-Footed: 11

Skills:
Concentration: 9
Spellcraft: 9+8
Knowledge(The Planes): 9+13
Knowledge(History): 9+8
Knowledge(Geography): 9+8
Knowledge(Arcana): 9+8
Knowledge(Religion): 9+8
Knowledge(Nature): 6+8
Knowledge(Architecture and Engineering): 5+8
Knowledge(Nobility): 0+7
Knowledge(Local): 0+7
Search: 3+7
Decipher Script: 1+7
Skill Tricks: Collector of Stories: Gain +5 to any one trained knowledge check

Feats/Class Features:
[Level 1]Master of Knowledge: Gain +1 to all Knowledge Checks
[Level 1 – Bonus from Archivist] Scribe Scroll
[Level 1 – Bonus from Human] Skill Focus(Knowledge(The Planes))
[Level 1 – Flaw] Breadth of Knowledge
[Archivist 1] Dark Knowledge – Total of 5/day, As a move action make DC15 Knowledge Check to gain +1 Bonus, DC25 Knowledge Check for +2, DC 35 for +3 while fighting a particular race
[Archivist 1] Dark Knowledge Tactics – Attack Rolls while fighting that race
[Archivist 2] Loremastery(The Planes) - +2 bonus to Knowledge(The Planes)
[Archivist 4] Still Mind - +2 Bonus on Saves vs Enchantment
[Level 3]Knowledge Devotion: Once per encounter per creature type use appropriate knowledge skill to gain bonuses to attack and damage rolls against that creature type. (See Comp. Champion)
DC Bonus
15 +1
25 +2
30 +3
35 +4
>35 +5
[Level 6] Touch of Healing – Reserve, Heal 3 Damage per Level of Conjuration(Healing) Spell
[Flaw] Murky-Eyed – Reroll concealment miss chance twice and take worse result
Items:
Headband of Intellect +1 – 1000gp
Telescoping +1 Shocking Staff of Cure Moderate Wounds(15 Charges) with Firmament Stone Attachment, and Wand Chamber (With wand of Desiccating Bubble(15 Charges)) – 11230gp 300(MWStaff)+8000(Enchantments)+20(Telescoping)+11 0(Firmament Stone)+100(WandChamber)+(2x3x15x15)(CureModerateWo unds)+(2x3x15x15)(DessicatingBubble)
Spellcasting:
Level 0 4/Day – All Cleric Spells, Know Direction, Find Temple

Level 1 6/Day – Obscuring Mist, Magic Weapon, Command, Cure Light Wounds, Divine Favor, Detect Secret Doors, Camouflage(Comp. Divine)(10min/level, +10 Hide)

Level 2 5/Day – Shatter, Aid, Cure Moderate Wounds, Brambles(Comp. Divine)(1round/level, touched wooden weapon gains +1Bonus, deals piercing and bludgeoning damage, and deals +CL in damage), Find Traps, Spider Climb, Nature’s Favor (1min/level, +2Luck to attack and damage rolls per 2 CL)

Level 3 4/Day – Protection from Energy, Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic, Phantasmal Decoy(Comp. Divine, See Entry), Magic Vestment, Fly, Entangling Staff(Comp. Adv., See Entry)



He's also got a crazy staff.

[Chronos]

The Collector of Stories bonus also only applies to checks "to identify a creature or to learn its special powers or vulnerabilities". You could probably justify Dark Knowledge or Knowledge Devotion as being "checks to learn a creature's vulnerabilities", but it'd be up to a bit of DM interpretation.

[UserClone]

How else would you define those? It seems pretty easy to interpret them that way.

[Chronos]

I think the intent was for knowing things like that trolls are vulnerable to fire and acid. Just having that knowledge doesn't inherently give you any bonuses to attack or damage, but it might lead you to get your alchemist's fire out.

[FMArthur]

When you make Knowledge checks that high, the DM pulls up a chair beside himself for you where you can see all of his notes.

[drengnikrafe]

When you make Knowledge checks that high, the DM pulls up a chair beside himself for you where you can see all of his notes.

One knowledge check of 96 gives you all the info you could possibly want for that category. If you make this check for dungeoneering, you could probably get a complete map of every dungeon, and the stats for every monster in every one of those dungeons, and the treasures they probably have within a 500 mile radius, but you wouldn't get planar knowledge on your dungeoneering roll.

[jcsw]

Of course, if you got checks of 96 for all the knowledge skills...

Wait, isn't that what the omniscifier does?

[Hal]

The table for Knowledge Devotion only goes to 36+.

As a DM, would you grant higher bonuses (boni?) to a player with a higher modifier, such as the OP?

[Recaiden]

Of course, if you got checks of 96 for all the knowledge skills...

Wait, isn't that what the omniscifier does?

I believe the omniscifier gets an infinite knowledge check in everything, drowns himself, and has someone else/contingencies cure light to survive. Also known as, you know everything, ever.:smallwink:

[jcsw]

As a DM, would you grant higher bonuses (boni?) to a player with a higher modifier, such as the OP?

For me, as long as they're not using some cheesy way to attain high knowledge checks such as the previously stated Omniscifier, I'd be fine with it. Especially with the Archivist's dark knowledge, since he'd be helping the whole party, so the others won't feel outshined. (Although if they can get out outshined by a knowledge-bot they deserve it)