Theme Knowledge

[Joseph Norris]

According to the book on Theme Knowledge:

You are an expert in one particular field of study, and your passion for the subject shows. Choose either Life Science or Physical Science and then choose a field of specialization. If you pick Life Science, you can specialize in bioEngineering, biology, botany, ecology, genetics, xenobiology, zoology, or another field of biological science. The DC of skill checks to recall knowledge about your specialty is reduced by 5.

So, does that apply to recalling information about creatures you identify with Life Sciences?

If that is the case, then wouldn't it break down as follows:
constructs - bioEngineering specialization
aberrations - xenobiology specialization
animals - biology specialization
humanoids - biology specialization
monstrous humanoids - biology specialization
oozes - xenobiology specialization
plant creatures - botany or ecology specialization
vermin - zoology specialization

Otherwise, where would this specialization apply?

FYI: I applied xenobiology to aberrations and oozes because xenobiology (contrary to science fiction) is the study of biological systems and biochemistries that differ from the canonical DNA-RNA-20 amino acid system.

[Claxon]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking about or trying to get at...but there is a handy chart that tells you what skills creatures fall under.

For instance, Constructs (magical) fall under Mysticism or Constructs (technological) fall under Engineering. No constructs fall under Life Sciences.

Aberations do fall under Life Science, but I'm not such what specialty it would fall under (if any).

What I gather from your post is that you're trying to figure out how to make the bonus from the Scholar Theme (IIRC) useful? Is that correct?

Personally I gave my Scholar Android Technomancer Physical Science specialization in Hyperspace ("The Drift"). I'm not sure if it will be useful or not, but the character is also a worshiper of Triune so it makes sense to me.

In general it seems like your trying to make Life Science able to identify all creature types, which it definitely can't do.

[Joseph Norris]

Correct, I'm looking for when that bonus actually would actually matter...clarity.

According to the Life Science...
IDENTIFY CREATURE
You can use Life Science to identify aberrations, animals, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, oozes, plant creatures, and vermin.

I only added Constructs since androids fall under that category and they are bioengineered creations, but the rest are from that list (same order too).

[Xenocrat]

My impression of scholar theme specialization is they are quite narrow, rarely going to predictably help, and are very dependent on your campaign and your GM. Xenobiology seems like the easiest one to argue can help with creature identification, but risks being ruled very narrowly to avoid being overbroad

[Claxon]

I'm of a similar opinion Xenocrat.

My guess is that the specialty bonus should probably be pretty limited in scope and probably shouldn't apply to identifying all information about a creature.

For example, it would make sense that if you got a blood sample and you specialized in Genetics you would be able to identify what creature it came from but you might not know much about that creature, it would depend on your relevant skill to identify the creature normally.

I do agree that there should probably be some more examples on guidance on this topic.