|
Background: I am GM'ing a Shattered Star campaign, and I am adding a Cloistered Cleric Party Companion NPC to help with knowledge skills, translations, and healing. Ultimate Campaign just arrived, so I thought I'd give the character a drawback. I then noticed an interesting interaction between the Drawback Meticulous and the Cloistered Clerics's Breadth of Knowledge. I am of two views on this interaction.
My question: Does the Drawback: Meticulous affect normally disallowed Untrained Skill Checks granted by a Class feature such as the Cloistered Cleric's Breadth of Knowledge?
The applicable rule text:
Breadth of Knowledge: At 1st level, a cloistered cleric gains a bonus on Knowledge skill checks equal to half her class level (minimum +1) and can make Knowledge skill checks untrained.
Meticulous: You plan and prepare everything in detail, and aren't good at improvising when things don't go as planned. You take a -2 penalty on skill checks for skills with which you are untrained.
**
VIEW 1: Yes. Breadth of Knowledge simply makes knowledge skills like climb or stealth. If you don't have a rank in the skill, it's untrained. -2 to the skill check. A drawback is a drawback.
VIEW 2: No. A class feature like Breadth of Knowledge is a kind of training, since normally you wouldn't be allowed to make an untrained knowledge skill check at all! The drawback shouldn't negate a class feature like that.
Normally, I would probably go with view 1 if one of my players mentioned it; however, this NPC's purpose is to be a non-combat knowledge monkey. I am going with view 2 for this NPC. In a couple of levels, the question won't matter anyway.
I'm mostly asking to see how different GM's would rule on this. What is your view on the matter? A related question, how often do you GM's bend the rules a little for an NPC?