Skill: Intelligence or Wisdom

For every knowledge skill you pick up, your character is well versed in one field of study. These usually denote scholarly fields where most of your studies from from reading, but exceptions are always welcome when they come up and fit the campaign world.

This skill is always written as “Knowledge: Type” on your sheet, and the categories we’ve played with so far are listed below. Feel free to ask your DM about your own knowledge ideas, too.

Earth Magic: The character has studied one of the setting’s spell books, in this case the “brown” book from Hobbs on immortality. This turned out to be the Earth element book. Unlike other uses for knowledge, gaining it for a magic element has an actual application: it allows you to create spells one column further to the right. It also infuses the spell with the casting type native to the element…in this case, spells are cast through magical glyphs, runes and sigils. Weaker spells require the caster to trace the symbol on the target, or to have the target be in possession of the writing. The most powerful earth magic spells work like the anime “Death Note,” where you simply write a name and a target anywhere in the world instantly feels the effect.

Fire: A good example of a blue collar, trade skill knowledge that uses wisdom instead of intelligence, Graham the fireman used this to not only navigate flaming structures better, but even to make molotov cocktails. A practiced awareness of what will catch flame in what order, what effect heat will have on the environment, and where not to stand.