Study: match a question to a knowledge skill

SRD 5.2.1 · Actions

At the table

1. Identify the clue, source or remembered subject being studied.
2. Choose the relevant Intelligence skill with the GM: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature or Religion.
3. Explain what information a success supplies, and distinguish learning a fact from detecting a concealed object with Search.

Example decision

A character has already found a coded note and now tries to work out its cipher. Which skill does the Study table suggest?

Investigation, because the task is interpreting a cipher.

Ciphers are listed under Investigation in the Study knowledge table. Finding the hidden note could have been a separate Search task, but deciphering the note asks for understanding information already available. The same object can support different tasks without making those tasks interchangeable.

Watch for this mistake

Do not use creature type as the only reason for a roll when the question is about something else. The table gives areas of knowledge, including creature categories, but the actual question and accessible source still determine what the character is trying to learn.

Ask the table

What fact are you trying to recover or infer, and which source could contain it?

Source rule

When you take the Study action, you make an Intelligence check to study your memory, a book, a clue, or another source of knowledge and call to mind an important piece of information about it. The Areas of Knowledge table suggests which skills are applicable to various areas of knowledge.

Source: SRD 5.2.1, 189. Online guide.