What are the useful Knowledges for a Bard in PFS play?

[Vandur Last]

Hi im new to Pathfinder and i will soon be joining the Pathfinder Society games at my local store. Im going to play a Bard because i like the idea of playing a "skill monkey" character, but dont really like the sneaky Thief type and also enjoy some buffing and healing.

Im going to be a Human with 14 intelligence so that gives me 9 skill points to play with. Because of the way that Versatile Performance works it means that there are many skills that i am trying to avoid, such as Diplomacy/Sense Motive and to a lesser extent Bluff/Intimidate.
It is very UNCOOL that at lvl 1 a bard is going to be useless at the Skills which are intended to be his strong points later on. However i just cant make myself waste the skill points on things that are going to be replaced just one level later.

Anyhow so this means im trying to fill out some of the Bards extensive "class skill" list to unlock the +3 bonuses instead. I think im going to end up with about 2 or 3 points to spend on Knowledges. I dont really know which ones are going to be called upon most often in the early stages of PFS though. I was thinking between History and Nature itd be fairly wide coverage.
At later levels i will probably put points into all of them, but hopefully by then i might know more about what happens in the game most often.

[Carbon D. Metric]

My top 5 in order.

Local
Religion
Nature
Planes
Dungeoneering

[TGMaxMaxer]

My experience with PFS is low as well, but out of the 20 scenarios i've been in... it breaks down thusly.

History, Geography, Nobility, and Local are mostly pre-adventure extra information. Some Arcana, planes, religion here as well.

Monster ID: pretty important to know what to use/not use when you fight a creature, as without the skills you don't know what DR/special attacks to look out for(although my personal opinion is that you should be able to make them untrained just for monster ID at 1/2 char level, you've been around the block a bit)

Dungeoneering: aberrations/oozes-little, Planes: outsiders/demon/devils-major, Nature:plants/animals/magical beasts-moderate, Religion: undead-Major Local: Humanoids-major.

Checks/noticing specials: Engineering, Arcana, Religion, Dungeoneering, Planes. These are extra information given once you actually get to the mission site usually, little things that clue you in to the backstory/goings on.

Anyways, my two copper at least.

[BltzKrg242]

Over the course of the first three levels, put a point in ALL of them.
Then let your Bardic Knowledge do it's job.

BUT:
Local, seems to be the most common if you are running above ground adventures and/or city style adventures.
Dungeoneering if you are going underground.
Nature if you are wilderness.

Nobility if you intend to run a Kingmaker style campaign comes into it's own.

So if you know which of these will be prevalent, keep at least that one at full points.

[Jiggy]

Religion will pay off throughout your career - PFS loves undead, at all levels.
Planes will pay off in mid- to high-level scenarios, as demons start to become favorite baddies.
Arcana isn't too far behind - slightly less frequently used, but the golems and other oddities that you identify tend to be loaded with weird abilities that make IDing them very helpful.
Dungeoneering or nature will come up occasionally, but not much.
Some of the others will get you info to help you prepare for a journey sometimes.
I don't think you'll ever use Engineering.

[Jiggy]

@BltzKrg242: He said this is for PFS.

[BltzKrg242]

So he should have an idea as to where to tailor his knowledges.
Bonus.

[Vandur Last]

Thanks all. Yeah as i said its for PFS but i havent really played it before so i coudlnt really predict what would be useful.

With your information im now leaning towards Local and Religon for general adventuring clues and identifying undead. The following level i should have a few more discretionary points, where ill fill up the rest starting with Arcane, nature and Dungeoneering.

thanks all!

[EvilMinion]

To get the most out of the Lore Master class ability at level 5, one should at least try to get a single rank in all knowledge skills by then (as you need to have a rank in them to use the ability).

Otherwise, local and religion certainly seem like good spots to start.
Though nature and arcana sound good too.

[MassivePauldrons]

Jiggy wrote:

I don't think you'll ever use Engineering.

I had the party wizard construct a super accurate map of a Aspis Consortium Warehouse not 1 session ago. Bagged me a cool 2 Prestige Points for that hotness.

[Caderyn]

I know of at least 3 places where know: Engineering would save people alot of damage, it might be the rarest knowledge skill but knowing stuff like the ceiling is unstable and how to shore it up, or that there has been a build up of explosive gases meaning throwing alchemist fire will cause us all to take 10d6 damage, and other similar issues mean while rare its essential to pass when you need to roll it.

[Finlanderboy]

Engineering comes up more then you would think in PFS. My character has it ans so far it helped me once and my teamates 4 other times. So about once every 3 games so far.

[Theconiel]

Ah, the beauty of Bardic Knowledge...
In my experience, Local, Planes & Religion are used most, but I have yet to hear a player say, "Boy, I wish I hadn't taken that rank in...."

[Lord Pendragon]

You might also consider the chances of other PCs in your party having the same skills. While nothing prevents you from also taking them, I think it benefits the group more to have at least one person with every knowledge skill, rather than several with the same one.

With that in mind, Arcana and Religion are almost certainly going to be covered by someone else, in my experience. Local and Nature possibly. And History and Engineering, less likely.

[Take Boat]

Anything you use to identify a monster is a good choice.

Geography and History come up now and again to give you background info, especially at the start of scenarios. They're OK.

Engineering comes up once in a while, generally in relation to things collapsing on top of you, which is something I'd like to know about before it happens.

Nobility is something you might plausibly not roll even once.