Hello everyone, and welcome to another in a series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of: Knowledge
The knowledge domain is described as “You are a scholar and a sage of legends. In addition, you treat all Knowledge skills as class skills.” – while the latter part isn’t a particularly “in-character” way of phrasing it, the character who picks up this domain is clearly someone who makes a study of many different fields of interest. I think that in many ways, it wouldn’t be wrong to call someone like that a renaissance man or polymath – this person makes EVERYTHING into a study of its own, whether they then use that knowledge for personal gain, or merely as a subject of intense interest to them.
The powers given are Lore Keeper – which allows you to use a touch attack to gain information about a creature, similar to rolling a Knowledge check against that creature, revealing information about. This could be especially lethal when combined with certain Inquisitor abilities.
Secondly, you get Remote Viewing which is simply clairvoyance/clairaudience. Works exactly like the spell though with a much shorter duration.
Spells:
The spells you get with the Knowledge domain are as follows:
Comprehend Languages
Comprehend Languages is one of those spells that many pick up, but a lot do not read. And the problem is actually spelled out in the name. COMPREHEND. Meaning your communication isn’t two-way. Combine that with having to touch the person you wish to understand, and you could run into real trouble if you try to talk to someone whose culture or religion forbids touching. (And yes, GMs, that IS a legitimate ruse 😉 ).
Detect Thoughts
This spell is an oddity and something for Game Masters to be aware of. The reason for this is in the description of the spell, in that it allows the user to read “Surface Thoughts.” It is up to the GM to decide how deep a thought goes, but the idea that you cannot read complex thoughts is important. So for example, while you could probably read hostile intent and deceit in another person, you’d not be able to determine exactly when and where that person was planning to ambush you, but you’d know that they’re up to no good. Also, bear in mind that animals with intelligence 1-2 have only simple thoughts like “food, sleep, reproduction, fear” and so on.
Speak with Dead
This spell allows you to ask questions of a corpse, though it can only answer from the information that it knew while it was alive, and the corpse must be mostly intact for it to work. While it is a popular trope as well, it is NOT possible for the caster to have a conversation with a corpse. It is only questions that can be asked.
Divination
This gives you a useful piece of advice, again as a reply to a specific answer, regarding an event within the next week. As the spell points out “The advice granted by the spell can be as simple as a short phrase, or it might take the form of a cryptic rhyme or omen.” – this is where the GM gets to shine, and put in some foreshadowing. Especially as it also points out that the answer might change if the caster doesn’t act on the information.
True Seeing
Also known as the “Bane of Illusions,” this spell allows you to see things as they really are. It allows you to penetrate illusions, see invisible and ethereal creatures and observe polymorphed creatures and objects in their true form. It is the friend of anyone who suspects they’re being duped. It is important to note that it cannot penetrate non-magical disguises and solid objects, however, only those of a magical or supernatural nature.
Find the Path
This enables you to find any specific location (though it must be a prominent one) and it will unerringly lead you there through the most direct physical route. It is a bit of an odd spell at such a high level, but the reasoning is actually simple. This is because it allows the PCs to “skip through the dungeon” and go the most direct route, avoiding as many accidental encounters as possible. In short, it makes adventuring safer, but things a little more boring around the gaming table.
Legend Lore
This is probably one of my own favorite spells, as it allows the Game Master to drop hints and background on an item, location, or creature. It’s great for filling in those plot holes that players sometimes think there are in an adventure. This is especially prevalent in some of the older adventures (though many new ones suffer from it too); giving a ton of information and cool background story, but not providing the players with any way to obtain the information, leaving the GM as the only one “in the know.” That said, in a homebrew, it can be a bit problematic if you haven’t had time to consider the history of the spell’s target. In that case, fall back on the fact that it takes a LONG time for the spell to be cast, especially if the player is not in the location where the target is, which can give you a bit of breathing room (in many cases, until next game session) to come up with the information you want the players to obtain from the spell.
Discern Location
Basically a more powerful version of Find the Path, it also allows you to find specific people or locations, and it bypasses most ways of protecting one from being noticed, so anything short of Mind Blank (an 8th level spell) is ineffective against Discern Location.
Foresight
Finally, we come to the one spell that allows you to predict the future. Foresight allows you to foresee the immediate future, and as the caster you gain some mechanical abilities: You are never surprised or flat-footed. In addition, the spell gives you a general idea of what action you might take to best protect yourself and gives you a +2 insight bonus to AC and on Reflex saves. These last few abilities only work if you cast it on yourself, not on others, but you can still warn them against any dangers, removing the surprise and flat-foot risks. Regrettably though, it does not provide oracular abilities to the caster.
New Deity
Mimir
The Rememberer, Guardian of the Well of Wisdom, The Wisest
Alignment LN
Worshipers bards, skalds, poets, judges, librarians, wizards, rune-casters, and anyone seeking knowledge or wisdom.
Cleric Alignments LG, LN, LE, NG, N
Domains: Knowledge, Law, Magic, Protection, Rune, Trickery
Sub-domains: Deception, Education, Judgement, Legislation, Solitude, Thought
Favored Weapon: short sword
Symbol: a disembodied male head, usually bearded and with long hair
Mimir was once a full being, but was used as a bargaining chip between 2 warring factions of gods, where he was supposed to provide the other side with intelligent advice. As it turned out, it was a deception, and he was murdered by the cheated side, who sent back his disembodied head.
Not wanting to lose his wisdom and insight, they preserved his head and reanimated him.
While this might have left him somewhat disappointed with them, he still continued to provide advice for the fellow gods, though he will now extend his insight to anyone, and allow them to drink from the Well of Wisdom, provided they can pay the high price.
His clergy focuses heavily on learning and teaching, often running schools, colleges and other institutes of learning as part of their temples.
The clergy of Mimir do NOT provide teaching for free but will adjust the price to fit the student, so that it’ll be a genuine sacrifice to that person, as part of proving that he or she is dedicated to learning.
A typical day for a priest of Mimir starts shortly after dawn, with a communal breakfast and a reading of a select passage written by a prominent worshiper of Mimir, usually an honored member of the temple. Sometimes, these have even included the summoning and channeling of the spirit of that writer. This is followed by a day of teaching, tutoring or research, and ends with another meal with another lecture.
Traveling clergy are supposed to teach the worthy when they encounter them, but when not possible they are to keep a journal with the information they’ve learned, which they are supposed to pass on to others.
I hope you all enjoyed this week’s look at the Knowledge domain. For the next installment, we’ll be looking at the Law domain.
Kim Frandsen
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