Serious Skills: Dungeoneering

Dungeoneering Knowledge: Make a Dungeoneering check to recall a useful bit of knowledge about an underground environment or to recognize a underground hazard or clue.
Common Knowledge:This includes the kind of general information that is commonly known about a given topic. (Example: finding cardinal directions underground)
Expert Knowledge: This includes the kind of specialized information that only an expert in the field of study could possibly know. (Example: recognizing a dangerous plant)
Master Knowledge: This includes the kind of esoteric information that only a master in the field of study could possibly know. (Example: spotting a change in depth or construction style)

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 Dungeoneering checks used this way look pretty much like every other knowledge skill:

Monster Knowledge: Make a Dungeoneering check to recall information about Aberrant (Far Realm) creatures. Again, no action is required to make the check and the DC you pass determines the type and amount of information you receive.

You can also make a Dungeoneering check to Forage underground for food and water. A DC 15 (±5 at DM’s discretion for circumstance) takes care of one person for one day where a DC 25 (±5 at DM’s discretion for circumstance) cares for up to 5 people.

So… this is Nature for caves? That hardly seems right. I mean, a single Nature skill is good enough to let you survive in searing deserts, frozen tundras, verdant forests and barren savannahs but you don’t know what to do when you walk into a cave? Is this just niche protection so the Ranger is forced to bring along some buddies when he goes adventuring?

As it turns out, I’m convinced that Dungeoneering is in fact a very clever skill that suffers from horrible elucidation in the source material. Back off from 4E for a second and think of the Elder Scrolls series or some other similar game where the concept of a true ‘dungeon’ is a bit more intact. A dungeon isn’t just a series of caverns – it’s a tomb, a temple, a ruined city, a sewer system or a labyrinthine wizard’s tower. It’s something designed by an intelligent entity for a purpose. There are secret doors, traps, dead ends, decorations, and furniture. In other words, a dungeon is created and so Dungeoneering is really Engineering in disguise.

Look at this list of engineering branches and consider just how many of them fit well into the Dungeoneering umbrella. Recognizing architecture is Structural or Construction engineering. Find your way through a sewer or similar maze by knowing common patterns of construction is Civil engineering. Setting or understanding traps is Mechanical engineering (DMG pg. 85 for those of you playing along at home. Dungeoneering is second only to Thievery as a countermeasure.) and possibly Electrical or Computer depending on how the trap is designed. Mining generally falls under Dungeoneering and, if you’re willing to stretch the definitions a little bit, knowledge of screwed-up, tortured aberrant creatures could be considered Genetic or Biomedical.

That glimpse of insight gives us a few more uses for Dungeoneering that don’t necessarily require you to have ground over your head as well as under your feet. As the skill pertains to created structures and situations, it makes a really nice de facto Crafting skill for those of you who miss that from earlier editions and don’t want to deal in rituals and martial practices. Ditto for Technology if the campaign wants to include stuff like gunpowder or early true sciences. You can also think of it as an Un-Nature skill due to its similar function but opposite attitude to the Nature skill. Anything that is bizarre or unnatural but not necessarily magical can be governed by Dungeoneering, such as alien invaders or dream realities. Finally, Dungeoneering is probably the skill you would use to build a battering ram or send a 5-man squad alone into the enemy’s base, making it a solid Martial skill. In fact, I prefer Dungeoneering to History for small-arms tactics due to History’s tendency to see the overall picture rather than the fine details. Think of Dungeoneering as tactics where History is strategy, perhaps. Point being, Dungeoneering has a TON of potential to apply to a broad variety of situations and make good use of your character’s Wisdom score and trained skill slot if you’re willing to think about all the secondary implications of its domain and not just whether you’re underground.

Who are the folks trained in Dungeoneering and why?

With our fresh take on the Dungeoneering skill, it becomes something that not just any random person is going to have a lot of access to. Nature is all around and grants easy access, but to gain training in the most current techniques and cutting-edge knowledge of your culture, you’re going to need more than just curiosity. Obviously Military personnel springs to mind immediately, particularly Officers. If you didn’t gain a formal education, it’s likely you’re a Veteran who has seen more than you may ever have wanted to and survived some pretty harrowing experiences. Inasmuch as Dungeoneering pertains to education and technology, Nobility is likely to have the privilege of learning and is so trained in the skill.

Artisans and Craftsmen are likely to have some Dungeoneering ability; perhaps not so much in the foraging as the traps and architecture aspects. Certain unskilled professions that have to contend with subterranean conditions, such as Miners are also trained just due to experience. On the other hand, Fugitives are likely to take up residence in obscure, dungeon-like locales and Thieves Treasure Hunters need Dungeoneering to explore old ruins and how shall we say.. liberate the valuables locked away therein (pun intended). Other folks who might consider training in Dungeoneering are Historians, Settlers, and Clergy, particularly those who serve deities of death or make raids into old crypts to put down necromancers and their undead.

The actual mechanics of the game have already suggested uses for Dungeoneering as sense – finding food and water, discerning directions, etc. There are two more that I think are worth a mention here outside of what the books delineate. First, I like Dungeoneering as a general Appraisal check to determine the worth of an item based on its quality and durability. You would also need History, Arcana, Religion or the like for certain items but if you’re the type to go traipsing around in dank abandoned catacombs looking for “treasure”, you probably have a pretty good sense of what “treasure” actually looks like versus a (un?)reasonable facsimile. Appraisal of gems and precious metals obviously comes to mind first, but arguments for appraising other art objects could easily be made.

Dungeoneering can also be a fun Danger Sense or Intuition skill. Going into dungeons and coming face-to-tentacle with whatever’s down there is primarily an investigative activity. A good Perception can tell you if things have been moved around or added/subtracted from a locale which you have previously visited and Insight could tell you if a humanoid is being deceptive, but to walk into a room you have never visited before and just know that “something’s wrong?” That’s Dungeoneering at its finest. If you’re the type of DM who likes to hand out secret notes to players, consider handing the ‘you don’t know why you think this, but you do’ clues to the character with the highest Dungeoneering bonus. Whether in crafting, foraging, or investigating, Dungeoneering is the skill most attuned to what could be, not necessarily what is. Allowing a character to really act out of the sort of gut feelings that come with experience in Dungeoneering can quickly add a lot of depth to that character and give a DM an immersive method by which to give the players miscellaneous but necessary information.

Dungeoneering as Social Skill

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