09-09-2021, 07:10 AM
(09-09-2021, 03:29 AM)Gurkagh Wrote: It was suggested by the GM that those of us with stargazer pick up knowledge skills as background skills.
There is a problem with that as most knowledge skills CANNOT be taken as background skills.
As per https://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/background-skills/
The following are Adventuring skills so are off limits as background skills.
Knowledge (arcana)
Knowledge (dungeoneering)
Knowledge (local)
Knowledge (nature)
Knowledge (planes)
Knowledge (religion)
Only the following knbowledge skills are available as background skills:
Knowledge (engineering)
Knowledge (geography)
Knowledge (history)
Knowledge (nobility)
This is the reason the Lore skill exists, yoiu canm take Lore on a focussed area of study as a background like Lore (metalic dragons) or Lore (chromatic dragons) rather than Knowledge arcana.
I understand the background skills don't cover all the Knowledge skills but it does cover Engineering and Geography which are very helpful in a game full of Robots and Alien creatures. Another issue is some characters only have a few skill points so I figured I'd remind the players that background skills are available in this game. A lot of people forget they exist and since Gurkagh and E10 are only 20xp away from their next level it would be something to keep in mind when you both advance.
Lore is a new skill you can take that's also a background skill. The only problem with it is Lore has a very narrow focus. So you'd need to figure out something to focus your Lore on that wouldn't be wasteful. Lore (Torch) might be an idea.
For this game, the background skill Knowledge (engineering) would be helpful with identify a robot’s abilities and weaknesses. Knowledge (engineering) is also used to identify and understand unknown technological objects in a similar manner to how Spellcraft is used to identify the properties of a magic item.
Knowledge (geography) which happens to be another background skill is used for astronomy and to identify alien monsters’ abilities and weaknesses. I'm not sure if you need to have the Stargazer to identify Alien monsters or not. It seems strange to take Geography and suddenly you possibly know the existence of every alien creature in the universe. You don't get that breadth of knowledge with any other Knowledge skill. So I'm kind of leaning toward needing Stargazer to identifying Alien creatures.