Character knowledge about DnD IG

[Darker_Thought]

Hi there,

I'm curious about how much from the Canon DnD books our played characters would know about different Lore?

Let's take the "Ilithids" as an example. With an Epic Caster with High Lore.. Whats the limitations of our characters knowledge upon this race?

Do we have any Guidelines?

Friendly regards;
Darker

[Ork]

There is no limitation, but I will say this: a great player feints ignorance for the sake of a story. Your character doesn't need to be a Mary Sue that knows every tidbit of lore, and in fact that would be boring for everyone.

[NMan7496]

For my wizard, what I do is I picked a couple areas where she is very well read (for her: dragons; the planes; and general Faerûn history, specifically focusing around Cormyr), a couple areas where she is ignorant (for her: areas beyond Faerûn, like Kara-Tur; abberations; and the Underdark), and then (since she has a very high lore) she has general knowledge in other areas. In the areas where she has general knowledge is, my general rule of thumb is, unless she has no way of knowing that bit of information, if I know it off the top of my head, then she knows it.

Additionally, since she is not native to Arelith, she only knows the Arelith history that she's been told of, or that she's read in the Arcane Tower.

Even amongst scholarly characters, there should be gaps in knowledge, some gaping. In real life, a professor of history likely doesn't know mich about physics and vice versa.

Despite being able to use magic, I personally don't think that a wizard should be any more all-knowing than a mundane scholar. Magic, in my mind, is an area of study much like history, physical sciences, and social sciences.

[CookieMonster]

As much more as you like, if you enjoy it. No one will tuen their nose to a scholar that has a lot of knowledge to share.
However, my honest advice would be to use it wisely and carefully. Don't take any offence because I am not saying you would or you will but, no one likes being dictated to from a know it all. I recall being reprimanded IC and OOC for not knowing where on the map my Character came from before Arelith. I have seen numerous instances of people being told they are wrong or wrong to do something because it is not DnD identicle or something taken from a forgotten realms wiki page.

[Straxus]

See, I like this idea. I have been playing forgotten realms for over 25 years, pnp, online, and most recently before EE on roll20.

I have DMed, I have taken one character to a godlike status, turned him into a 1/3 multi-chromatic Dragon, 1/3 Human, 1/3 Tarrasque


Don't ask, the process took three years and a dew notebooks of spells that were used, potions and such, as well as a detailed outline of everything else I did.



Throughout the years, I was fascinated with learning the complete geography of Faerun. The peoples, and the monsters... much like my real life, I never dwindled on one particular spot... I know a lot of nothing about everything.

I haven't used any of that in this game.

I wouldn't mind expand iij ng my backstory a bit to include small pieces here or there. That would really be the extent, as this server allows us to create a new beginning of sorts.

I have said my piece.

For my wizard, what I do is I picked a couple areas where she is very well read (for her: dragons; the planes; and general Faerûn history, specifically focusing around Cormyr), a couple areas where she is ignorant (for her: areas beyond Faerûn, like Kara-Tur; abberations; and the Underdark), and then (since she has a very high lore) she has general knowledge in other areas. In the areas where she has general knowledge is, my general rule of thumb is, unless she has no way of knowing that bit of information, if I know it off the top of my head, then she knows it.

Additionally, since she is not native to Arelith, she only knows the Arelith history that she's been told of, or that she's read in the Arcane Tower.

Even amongst scholarly characters, there should be gaps in knowledge, some gaping. In real life, a professor of history likely doesn't know mich about physics and vice versa.

Despite being able to use magic, I personally don't think that a wizard should be any more all-knowing than a mundane scholar. Magic, in my mind, is an area of study much like history, physical sciences, and social sciences.

[Xerah]

NMan7496 laid it out pretty well. If it helps, when you start your character, write down:

1 Area of Expertise (keeping in mind you're still low level)
3 Areas of good knowledge
3 Areas of average knowledge
3 Area of gaps of knowledge

My first wizard, an archmage of the old arcane tower, for example:

Exp - Artifice/engineering (and it gets better throughout her character arch)
Good - Transmutation (goes hand in hand with above)
Good - Lantan history (she grew up there and was a gnome)
Good - Math/physics/science theories and development of those
Average - Conjuration
Average - Illusion
Average - Gond worship
Gaps - Spell schools outside of her focii (this allows me to pass those stories to another character and take a backup role)
Gaps - Combat and fear of it (hence her desire to make a golem suit to hide from it)
Gaps - Traditional magical theories (I RPed her as her magic was exploiting the weave to power her devices)

Doing something like that allows you to focus your character, know when to pass things off to someone else, and gives you a basic outline of how you can RP learning some new things.

[Void]

Hi there,

I'm curious about how much from the Canon DnD books our played characters would know about different Lore?

Let's take the "Ilithids" as an example. With an Epic Caster with High Lore.. Whats the limitations of our characters knowledge upon this race?

Do we have any Guidelines?

Friendly regards;
Darker

There should be areas your character knows and areas that he/seh doesn't know.
Even 100 lore won't make you omniscient. Also keep in mind that even a 0 lore character can achieve 20 on the lore (skills don't auto succeed by the way), if he/she takes 20 on it (by holing up in a library, most likely).

Pulling data from source books (which are aimed at DMs) is not a good idea, it is best to rely on IG knowledge. However if you do want to throw piece of trivia from the books, it is a good idea to say "I heard", "some say", "some books say", and not present it as an absolute truth. This way you're retelling a rumor, and its validity is uncertain.

Regarding knowledge, I'd try to corellate it with level required to fire a scroll:
http://wiki.arelith.com/Skill_changes
And I would use bands of 20.

In case of illithids, that would be character specializing in underdark. I'd go this way:

0 lore: Illithid? What's that?
20 lore: I heard of such monsters, they're said to live in realms below and control minds.
40 lore: I heard that creation of new illithid requires a horrific rite.
60 lore: There are cities of mindflayers, the books say they're down below in place called lowerdark which is hard to reach and is very dangerous....
80 lore: The books say, that there are other things dwelling in the realm of lowerdark, ancient, amphibian and intelligent. They're called...

Basically you'd reach expert knowledge at 80, but you won't know an answer to every question.

[Kuma]

A lot of this lore and stuff is compiled by PCs, too, and in in-game books.

(i will say on the specific topic of illithids though their origins are NOT known by anyone outside the illithid race)

[chris a gogo]

To be honest I dislike use of source books to a large extent as your character is brand new and should know bugger all other than it's trade(warrior,wizard etc..)

Want to be a expert of the planes then go travel them take others with you and make IC assumptions on what you find when there.

Want to be an expert on mind flayers travel the lower dark and conduct studies of them maybe even ask a DM to drop a little spice onto the group to give your character a chance to get an insight into the life cycle.

When players do this it's fantastic.
Or.
You can read a book and claim your character knows everything you do.

[NauVaseline]

I roll my eyes everytime I see a 'know everything in the multiverse' PC
makes me feel like they're avatar-playing

[Void]

A lot of this lore and stuff is compiled by PCs, too, and in in-game books.

(i will say on the specific topic of illithids though their origins are NOT known by anyone outside the illithid race)

I largely treat things that are obviously copy-pasted from external sources as OOC knowledge that is not actually there. This largely applies to deity books.

[Exordius]

My character tends to be a know everything but he is not generally using that knowledge or sharing it unless prompted to. When you have read quite literally every d&d book ever published it can be difficult to remember not to reference them when the topic comes up lol.

[Kuma]

A lot of this lore and stuff is compiled by PCs, too, and in in-game books.

(i will say on the specific topic of illithids though their origins are NOT known by anyone outside the illithid race)

I largely treat things that are obviously copy-pasted from external sources as OOC knowledge that is not actually there. This largely applies to deity books.

that's actually a very good point. those sorts of copypaste books were meant to aid players unfamiliar with the setting.

i could make a very good case for the removal of "Deity: x" books entirely from the matrices and vendors, tbh.

[Seven Sons of Sin]

a great player feints ignorance for the sake of a story.

[Darker_Thought]

Agreed. Knowing that the Ilithids do not have a real origin in this time/multiverse or that The Aboleth's are older than the Gods themselves would be quite a bit of god-moding for a mortal to speak of.

Thank you everyone for the many replies to this. It's a narrow line to walk at times but there was some great responses ^^

[The GrumpyCat]

Also putting it out there - sometimes having information that is /wrong/ (so long as it's not too egregious or silly) is also good, as it can instill rp from various angles.

For example:
'Our people, the Drow, were cast out of the sunlight after Lolth rebellion against Corellon. She saught to save our people from the humans and dwarves that rampaged across it, but he saught to give it to them. He was too powerful and half the elven race down. Now we floursh down here, and our surface cousins writhe under the lash of lesser beasts above'

I mean - the statement is entirely incorrect. But it's a reasonable thing for a (relitivly uneducated) Drow to believe (especialy given the indoctronation). And it opens up conversations between them and others to be 'put right'. For opinions to be shared. Ect. Just an example of how being wrong (so long as, at least ooc, you know you are wrong) can be a source of interesting rp.

[Irongron]

Also putting it out there - sometimes having information that is /wrong/ (so long as it's not too egregious or silly) is also good, as it can instill rp from various angles.

My character has seen enough low level summoning to be convinced of the existence of a Plane of Infinite Badgers.

[Void]

Also putting it out there - sometimes having information that is /wrong/ (so long as it's not too egregious or silly) is also good, as it can instill rp from various angles.

My character has seen enough low level summoning to be convinced of the existence of a Plane of Infinite Badgers.

"Infinite Badger" sounds like a great name for some terrifying eldritch abomination.

[CookieMonster]

Also putting it out there - sometimes having information that is /wrong/ (so long as it's not too egregious or silly) is also good, as it can instill rp from various angles.

My character has seen enough low level summoning to be convinced of the existence of a Plane of Infinite Badgers.

"Infinite Badger" sounds like a great name for some terrifying eldritch abomination.

We have exploding Cows, don't give the Devs more ammo to terrify us.