In the Gen Con GeneSys adventure, Two of the NPC's have the ability Dark Insight which says that they use Knowledge (Forbidden) to determine spell effects. Anyone want to guess what that actually means?

My thoughts are it has to do with knowledge/connection/pact with demons, devils, or other dark powers.

And through that connection to said dark powers they find new ways to utilize their powers. Whispered secrets that allow them to manipulate their powers to greater effects... but maybe at a cost down the line when those powers want the favor returned.

Mechanically.... they use Knowledge (Forbiden) instead of Knowledge (Arcana) for spell effects like Attacks Blast and Fire qualities.

Are there pregen characters for this? I'd love to run it as a one shot for my group to let them test out the system.

26 minutes ago, WillisRBC said:

Are there pregen characters for this? I'd love to run it as a one shot for my group to let them test out the system.

I believe that would be these I found somewhere https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lVWXc2lIXJSKKXYe5WTYFB0vcLLBba2-/edit

It's a reference to the Spells Effects that state "gains Burn/Pierce/Stun/Disorient/etc with a rating equal to the character's ranks in Knowledge". Dark Insight means that specifically Knowledge (Forbidden) is used to determine those numerics instead of the usual Knowledge skill.

Thanks!

Next Question: In the Magic Rules, under Magic Attack Additional Effects, it has the entry of Blast. It says that the spell gains the Blast quality equal to the character's Knowledge. In the Playtest, the characters have 4 Knowledge skills namely Adventuring, Forbidden, Lore and Geography. Leoric for example can give his Imbued Strike ability the Burn Quality (the sheet says Burn 3). He has a Lore of 3. Does this mean that in this adventure, Leoric uses Lore?

I understand that the adventure may have been finished before the core rules were finished. I'm just trying to piece this together.

Yes sir, the knowledge skill for Magic in the demo game seems to be Lore.

In my setting there will be a specific Knowledge skill that is tied to each specific Magic skill.

Arcana - Lore

Divine - Religions

Primal - Nature

That's what I would have thought too

9 hours ago, Palomarus said:

Yes sir, the knowledge skill for Magic in the demo game seems to be Lore.

In my setting there will be a specific Knowledge skill that is tied to each specific Magic skill.

Arcana - Lore

Divine - Religions

Primal - Nature

Hmm, so you say if someone has 1 rank in Knowledge(Religions) then they get access to Divine magic? What if they just want to have knowledge about religions? I'd just say that having Knowledge (Arcana) is less ambiguous.

36 minutes ago, Morridini said:

Hmm, so you say if someone has 1 rank in Knowledge(Religions) then they get access to Divine magic? What if they just want to have knowledge about religions? I'd just say that having Knowledge (Arcana) is less ambiguous.

No, having ranks in Knowledge (Religions) does not give them access to any Divine Magic Actions. Only having ranks in the Divine skill can do that.

The ranks in knowledge only help increase the potency of certain Magic action effects, like the Divine Health effect for the Augment Magic action increases their Wound Threshold by the number of ranks they have in Knowledge (Religions).

I think they did this to give spell caters another skill to have to sink XP into... so they are not a one skill pony so much. ?

So you are correct, a character can have "knowledge of religions" without having access to divine Magic actions.

But the book talk only about one skill, Knowledge(Divine) is the only thing, while you now seem to talk about a Divine skill and a Knowledge (Religion) skill, which is fine, it's just a houserule, correct?

No sir, if you look at page 210 of the core rule-book the second paragraph under the "Spellcasters" heading reads :

"All spellcasters, no matter what type of magic they use, also need to have a certain amount of knowledge concerning magic and its possibilities. For this reason, your character is going to benefit greatly from having a couple of ranks in the Knowledge skill if they want to be a spellcaster."

And this is further demonstrated in the magical action charts by attaching additional benefits (in the case of the Augment effect Divine Health adding to the Wound threshold of the caster per its ranks in Knowledge) or increasing the potency (in the case of the blast effect for the attack action for example) of certain additional effects for their spells.

And if you look at the Pre-Generated Characters for the Gencon Demo Game, Loric the Arcane Caster has the skill Knowledge (Lore) which is what I assume the knowledge skill linked to the Arcana skill. And it does indeed seem to be the skill that adds to certain effects on his spells.

So it is in fact not a house rule, but RAW from the core.... although you could say it is a "houserule" of sorts that I plan to use the Knowledge skills of Lore, Religions, and Nature for my fantasy settings. As they are not specifically called out in the core rule-book themselves. But I feel I must be close to on the right track seeing as the pre-gens from Gencon have a "Lore" knowledge skill as well.

Hope this helps clarify what I said earlier.

Right, I misread the rules apparently, thanks for the clarification.

Remember the rules are literally.a framework, not gospel.