The Loremaster and Lore

[bjauw]

I have a quick question about the Loremaster's Lore ability. The Core Rule book states that "At 2nd level, a loremaster adds half his LEVEL to all Knowledge skill checks and may make such checks untrained."

My question is about the all-caps word "level." It never states whether it is referring to character level or loremaster level. My gut naturally assumes that it means loremaster level, but that really does little to make a character into a master of lore. Following this logic, by the end of 10 levels of the PrC you would only be adding +5 to a knowledge check.

Adding half of the character level would certainly make a character a lot closer to being a true master of lore.

Is there an official ruling on this somewhere that I have not seen?

[Karui Kage]

I'd go off the last sentence from this, in the Multiclassing section:
"Note that there are a number of effects and prerequisites that rely on a character's level or Hit Dice. Such effects are always based on the total number of levels or Hit Dice a character possesses, not just those from one class. The exception to this is class abilities, most of which are based on the total number of class levels that a character possesses of that particular class."

[reefwood]

I think when a class entry is describing a class feature and refers to level, it probably means the level of the class. Of course, this is just common sense talking cos I don't have any books on hand to back that up. Also, I feel like I've seen the term "character level" used in the book more than "class level" (if at all?), so it makes me think that character level is always stated as character level instead of just level.

As for being a master of lore... this ability does probably give the loremaster higher Knowledge modifiers than anyone else can get, so even if it isn't a ridiculous amount more, it is still more than anyone else... and being able to make untrained Knowledge checks is a nice perk too.

[MyTThor]

reefwood wrote:

I think when a class entry is describing a class feature and refers to level, it probably means the level of the class. Of course, this is just common sense talking cos I don't have any books on hand to back that up. Also, I feel like I've seen the term "character level" used in the book more than "class level" (if at all?), so it makes me think that character level is always stated as character level instead of just level.

As for being a master of lore... this ability does probably give the loremaster higher Knowledge modifiers than anyone else can get, so even if it isn't a ridiculous amount more, it is still more than anyone else... and being able to make untrained Knowledge checks is a nice perk too.

Agree with this, and also think about the fact that it makes every Knowledge a class skill, which will equate to quite a few additional +3 bonuses.