3.5 Knowledge (Ravenloft) skill check

[tomokaicho]

Maybe this has been done to death elsewhere, but all I can find by searching the forum is comparisons of Knowledge (Ravenloft) to Knowledge (The Planes).

The Ravenloft Campaign Setting gives a description of Knowledge (Ravenloft) but nothing of what information you may get at specifics DCs. Any leads?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I'll probably be off by a wide margin, but how about this?

__________

A very high DC gives you vague info on the existence and scope of the Dark Powers - but nothing specific EVER. 30+

High DC lets you identify a specific individual as a Darklord, and you know a Darklord is a being of great Evil which suffers an ironically appropriate curse.. 25+

High DC reveals some of the plane's mechanics: Darklords exist and the domains are intrinsically connected to them. Maybe add rough info on border-closure. 20+

Moderate DC reveals something is VERY WRONG here; this plane behaves differently from the way it should in several ways. 15+

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Nicely done but I have some recommendations

A very high DC gives you vague info on the existence and scope of the Dark Powers - but nothing specific EVER. 30+

Knowledge used to make experiments or create a device involving mistways similar to the mistway created by the FoS using Hizzoner and similar experiments like creating a darklord etc. or creating a device to escape the demiplane similar to the Rift Spanner. Even deducing soem information on Darklords to find their weekness (Mordenheim's and Adam's connection and how it can be used against them etc)

High DC lets you identify a specific individual as a Darklord, and you know a Darklord is a being of great Evil which suffers an ironically appropriate
curse.. 25+

Knowledge of a specific Darklord's or darklord's henchmen (who's doomed in Ravenloft characters) powers, curse and background information?
Knowledge of powers of powerful Ravenloft artifacts.

High DC reveals some of the plane's mechanics: Darklords exist and the domains are intrinsically connected to them. Maybe add rough info on border-closure. 20+

Finding clues for Identifying the darklord through deduction involving information of the land he/she rules but not the identity of the darklord just clues.
Identifying that someone who has failed a powers check?
How extraplanar creature powers or reality wrinkles behave.
Knowledge of a Ravenloft artifact legends and information?

Moderate DC reveals something is VERY WRONG here; this plane behaves differently from the way it should in several ways. 15+

Spell alterations in the demiplane, body alterations by a DP gift maybe?
History of the Demiplane of when each domain appeared?

[SkiBird]

The basic structure of 3.5 skill DC's is 10 (for really easy questions), 15 (for basic questions), and 20-30 (for really tough questions).

A second way to determine DC would be to use a monsters HD to determine difficulty (DC = HD + 10). A use of the skill in this way might shed light on a creature's special powers or vulnerabilities. [For Mist Horrors and the like]

The first thing I would do is sort of make a list of the meta-knowledge that is applicable to the campaign setting and rank them by easy/basic/hard.

A rough list, in a rough order:

Easy
Innocence (as a concept, and what it means in these dark realms)
Outlanders (that they exist and that the mists brought them here)
Islands and Clusters (as a concept)

Basic
Variations in Magic Rating (if used)
Mistways (number of, locations/destinations, reliability, etc)
Domain Borders
Sinkholes of Evil
The Unspoken Pact (regarding divine casters)
The Smothering of Reason (as in, the Lamordian effect on magic, perhaps better suited to be a Knowledge [Arcana] check)
I forget the term ... the thing that makes folks in RL rationalize supernatural things away.

Hard
Conjunctions, Grand or otherwise (what they are or perhaps the specifics of why/how they happen)
Grim Harvest/Requiem (^^ samesies)
Powers Checks (that they exist, and that poor choices corrupt, etc)
Creation of Domains (false histories, etc)
Dark Lords (existence, creation, true nature, etc)
Escape? (rumors of portals/gates/etc)

Impossible
The Dark Powers (other than knowing they exist, application of the skill should stay in the realm of conjecture and speculation. My two coppers would be that a dice roll shouldn't ever give one a leg up in this regard)

[Mephisto of the FoS]

That's even better...

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I have a PC in my campaign who's designed as an ultimate scholar, maxing out knowledge and knowledge-related feats. She once spent about 2 months in study of the Mists near Neblus, along with several her followers from the Leadership feat (mostly students, librarians, and the like), after more months of study in the University libraries of Port-a-Lucine and Il Aluk, and then made a Knowledge (Ravenloft) roll specifically focused on what she could learn about The Mists. This was how I summarized her findings:
http://themistway.com/RL-S18-Mists.html

(with help from the community via this thread:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... f=1&t=5306
)

[Rock of the Fraternity]

A very useful template.