Serious Skills: Arcana

Let’s look at the mechanical abilities that Arcana gives you.

Magical Knowledge: Make an Arcana check to recall a useful bit of magic-related knowledge or to recognize a magic-related clue.
You must be trained in Arcana to remember information about the Far Realm, which requires master knowledge (DC 25) at least.
Common Knowledge:This includes the kind of general information that is commonly known about a given topic.
Expert Knowledge: This includes the kind of specialized information that only an expert in the field of study could possibly know.
Master Knowledge: This includes the kind of esoteric information that only a master in the field of study could possibly know.

No action is required to make this check – you either know it or you don’t.  If you succeed, you recall a useful bit of information in your field of knowledge or recognize a clue related to it.  DCs for Arcana checks used this way are as follows:

Common	10
Expert	20
Master	25
Paragon	+5
Epic	+10

Monster Knowledge: Make an Arcana check to recall information about Fey, Elemental or Shadow creatures. Arcana is also used for constructs. Again, no action is required to make the check and the DC you pass determines the type and amount of information you receive.

Name, Type, Keywords	10
Powers	20
Resistances, Vulnerabilities	25
Paragon	+5
Epic	+10

Detect Magic: Your knowledge of magic allows you to sense the presence of and identify effects of spells in the immediate area.

• Identify the power, power source and keywords of a conjuration or zone that you can see or otherwise detect at DC 15+ 1/2 power’s level as a minor action.
• Identify the category and name of a ritual that you can see or otherwise detect at DC 20 + 1/2 ritual’s level as a standard action.
• Identify the power source, name, and keywords (if applicable) of a generic magical effect (not a power, magic item, or ritual) at DC 20+ 1/2 effect’s level as a standard action.
• Detect the presence of magic, its power souce and location (if within line of sight) at DC 20 + 1/2 of effect’s level after 1 minute of concentration. You can sense magic within burst (5+level) regardless of physical barriers but you must have line of sight to pinpoint the exact location. Otherwise, you get only a direction.

You may not attempt any of these checks again until after an extended rest except for the conjuration/zone, which you may attempt again after a short rest.

What activities tie easily to Arcana?  Who are the types of people who train in Arcana?

Arcanists: Once again, we begin with the obvious. Then again, saying ‘arcanist’ in the D&D world is sort of like saying ‘scientist’ in the real world. What kind of scientist are you? A chemist? A biologist? A psychiatrist? A theoretical physicist? Ask yourself the same question about your Wizard. What ‘branch’ of magic caught your attention? Abjuration? Conjuration? Illusion? Artificing? In the same way that one has to pick up some physics and chemistry to be a medical doctor, so does your Swordmage or Bard have to learn something about all the branches of magic in order to excel in his or her chosen field. Add some mechanics to your roleplaying hook by seeing if your DM will trade you a +2 to your chosen field of study in exchange for a -2 in a field you didn’t care as much about.

Witch-Hunters and Wannabes: Not everyone who is trained in Arcana can cast spells. Some characters don’t have the aptitude to actually manipulate magical energy with any precision. The best they can do is identify it or sense it. Maybe your character wanted to be an Artificer but flunked out and ended up in Fighter college. You have the knowledge gained from your short stay at the academy and continue to study on your own, but you’re no caster. You’re a wannabe. On the other hand, if arcane magic is somehow illegal or frowned upon where you come from, you might just know enough to find and recognize arcanists so you can deal with them, but refuse to participate in the foul craft yourself. Dark Sun just BEGS for this application, for example.

Traders and Collectors: Merchants and hobbyists have a vested interest in making sure their property is valuable and authentic. While these folks aren’t necessarily interested in the finer points of summoning theory, they’re going to want to be able to tell what a magic item does and if it’s been forged somehow. A little Arcana training can go a long way here.

Travellers: It may be that your Arcana training isn’t training at all, but rather the collective sum of your personal experience, oral tradition and old wives’ tales. This works particularly well if you took Arcana for the monster knowledge checks.

The actual rules mechanics already provide a pretty solid sensory foundation for the Arcana skill so what we want to consider here, really, is perspective, not just perception. What happens when you have another sense that much of the populace doesn’t? How do you act when the music plays just for you and the unwashed masses go about their business each day blithely unaware?

Much of this depends on how your DM handles the perception of magic in your world, or if (s)he doesn’t, how you fill in those gaps. For instance, when Rincewind sees the brilliant octarine spectrums of the Discworld, it provokes a certain type of feeling. When Harry Dresden opens up his Third Eye to the magical residue and spirits of Chicago, though, it’s a much more disconcerting and maybe sinister experience. If the sensing of magic is a generally pleasant thing, your Arcana-trained character may be haughty and dismissive of those who lack the ability to do so. A character with a strongly Good bent might feel compelled to teach or at least explain the sense to others but if the students are simply not talented enough, (s)he might feel quite alone and weird. On the other hand if magic is alien and jarring, perhaps your character would just as well not have to do it often and be loathe to share the secrets gained. (S)he might even view magical affinity as some kind of curse, a constant reminder of the chaos and ugliness lying just beneath the surface of what everyone else thinks is reality. The gestalt of what arcane energy looks and feels like is quite malleable across the realms of fantasy fiction. Finding out – or creating – the experience of sensing magic in your campaign setting can be a useful tool for fleshing out your PC’s personality and perspective.

This is jumping ahead a few installments, but it’s relevant here and I’m going to say it over and over and over again so you might as well get used to it now. Diplomacy is overused! Use Diplomacy to negotiate, flatter, spin or otherwise manipulate existing facts, not introduce them into the scene. If you want to tell the general that he doesn’t have enough applied phlebotinum to fire the arcane Maguffin cannon, you don’t need any special oratory ability. What you really need is a solid technical understanding of the magic involved, and that’s Arcana. If he gets mad at you for pointing out his error, THEN let the Bard Diplomacize him. Knowledge skills like Arcana, Dungeoneering, Nature, History, Heal and Religion can and should be used to allow a character to explain an advanced concept to a lay person as part of a social encounter.

Also, not all social skills need to involve talking. Need to occupy the attention of many small children while the grownups talk? (LFR’s DRAG1-1 – I’m looking at you.) Prestidigitation and an Arcana check. Provide appropriate sound effects – like the sound of clashing metal and shouting – to accompany and punctuate your warlord’s brilliant strategy explanation? Ghost Sound and an Arcana check.

Finally, WotC has included many purely mechanical ways to sneak that Arcana skill into your social encounters. Arcane Mutterings, a Lv. 2 Arcana Skill Power, is a personal favorite of Quinn’s, letting you roll Arcana in place of Diplomacy, Bluff or Intimidate. Almost all of your Bardic Rituals, including Lullaby, Glib Limerick and Anthem of Unity all run off Arcana checks. A few useful rituals aren’t even Bardic, like Seek Rumor which effectively gives you Arcana in place of Streetwise. Furthermore, that Arcana skill can initiate social encounters in some very strange places, such as with dead bodies (Speak With Dead), with objects (Object Reading) and across insanely long distances (Battlefield Elocution, Spirit Fetch). To some extent, the Arcana-trained character may feel a little bit more like the telephone than the caller, but (s)he still has an important role to play in social encounters.

Hope you enjoyed that breakdown of Arcana!  Next up: Bluff.