Talk:Knowledge/@comment-50.129.206.6-20120808063241/@comment-5351752-20120808094942

Good question! It's one of the non-mechanic based proficiencies. If you plan on your character knowing great deals of information about the world (magic theory, history, court delegations, law, diplomacy, or anything of that nature) then you want to take knowledge. A greater knowledge score is reserved for people who are absolute geniouses, but that's something that takes commitment OOC as well. If you want your character to be the go to guy on magic theory, you've got to invent and comprehend your own magic theory. Anyone can pick up a staff, but very few people can truly COMPREHEND magic, and that's what knowledge can let you do.

The same goes for alchemy. Most people can sift together some herbs to make a potion, but do you know why they do what they do?

Knowledge is an amazingly important tool. Non-knowledge characters can of course learn anything... But assume an S-class knowledge-naut would be the modern day equivalent of a nano-technology genious or the Nasa scientist in charge of sending a rover down onto Mars using a rocket suspended sky crane. If you tried to explain the pure mechanics behind it, someone who hasn't picked up a book would not get much out of it.