I am considering playing a Lorekeeper Shisk with Shisk Lore and Dig Up Secrets. This got me wondering what would a great, versatile group of Lore choices that are likely to come up in your typical adventure?
What would you take and why?
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I think the whole point of Lore is that there isn't a universal answer to this question. The advantage of using a Lore is that the more specific it is to a given application the lower the DC is. But if you want some examples of how you should use Lore:
Lore: The region my adventure is in.
Lore: The organization I'm going to be fighting.
Lore: The most common monster type for this campaign.
Lore: The final boss of this chapter (assuming retraining is on the table)
Lore: Relevant skill to the theme of my campaign, such as Warfare, Piloting, or Sailing.
Lore: Skills you want to use but have a bad ability score in. (Generally this will be limited to mental skills, but exceptions may apply.
Lore: Stuff out of my player's guide.
Lore: Terrain prevalent in the area.
Lore: City we are based in.
The difficulty with a list like this is that it is also based on the GM running the game. How much weight and use does Lore skills get?
The only truly "versatile" lores are Bardic, Gossip and Loremaster.
And those that don't tend to get the benefit of the DC reduction because of how versatile they are-- at least, not as much.
Warfare Lore can have some utility in many campaigns: recall knowledge on armor styles/types, fighting techniques, tactics, weapons, etc. Battle Planner is niche, but can be useful as well.
Lore about the settlement or terrain the campaign is based around, or a topic related to the central theme for the campaign, are usually decent choices; possibly Underworld Lore, if the character wants better information about criminal activity.
I like Undead Lore and Fiend Lore.
Those are solid choices because not only are those common enemies, they run off wisdom based skills.
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I like Undead Lore and Fiend Lore.Those are solid choices because not only are those common enemies, they run off wisdom based skills.
That's a good point, that on an Int > Wis PC one might want to shift some Wis-based Recall Knowledge checks over to Int, at least if expecting to use it often enough as in these examples.
I like Undead Lore and Fiend Lore.
A good, more specific lore is Ghost Lore (or perhaps more generally, Spirit Lore). Undead lore will not readily do what this does, because specific ghosts each have a way to be put permanently to rest, and that kind of knowledge would only require a really high DC roll without a specific lore skill. Also, with Ghosts it is definitely worth an action to recall knowledge.
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I like Undead Lore and Fiend Lore.A good, more specific lore is Ghost Lore (or perhaps more generally, Spirit Lore). Undead lore will not readily do what this does, because specific ghosts each have a way to be put permanently to rest, and that kind of knowledge would only require a really high DC roll without a specific lore skill. Also, with Ghosts it is definitely worth an action to recall knowledge.
Yeah, but
1) Occultism is INT based, so you don't get the ability score priority.
2) More importantly, putting ghosts to rest is so dependent on the history of that specific ghost knowledge checks probably won't cover it anyway. You're better off using Diplomacy to try and get the ghost to tell you what it needs.