Planetology

The planetology proficiency gives the character knowledge of the relationship between living organisms and their environments on a planet-wide scale. Rather than focusing on small-scale interrelationships, such as how the soil type, amount of available moisture and pollination combine to produce a grove of trees or a field of grass, planetology studies how all things affect one another. Planetologists would study how the elements that produced the trees or grass also produced other plant life, what they all had in common, and how differences in any of the elements produced variants in the type of growth the land could support. Further, they would study what insects and animals were likely to live in any given terrain and how each part contributed to the continuing cycle of growth, death, decay and regrowth. Then they would consider the various problems faced by the ecosystem — the excessive heat, lack of moisture, and effects of defiling magic in determining how best to preserve the planet and keep it from further harm.

The planetology proficiency grants a little bit of knowledge about a great number of things. In some cases, knowledge of the usual structure of land masses might give the character a clue as to which direction water might be found, while familiarity with various ecosystems might suggest what sort of predator could be encountered in various terrain types. In any situation involving knowledge that the proficiency might grant, the DM should roll a d20. On a roll of 1, the character remembers some wildly inaccurate information (something that could cause a serious inconvenience if acted upon, but nothing truly deadly), on a 2-10, no knowledge is gained. On an 11-15, some small bit of information is known or can be remembered, on a 16-20, the character remembers some very pertinent piece of information which may be quite helpful. The information to be gained is up to the DM.

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