History Local
The character is a storehouse of facts about the history of a region the size of a large county or a small province. The character knows when the ruined tower on the hill was built and who built it (and what happened to him), what great heroes and villains fought and fell at the old battlefield, what great treasure is supposed to be kept in a local temple, how the mayor of the next town miraculously grew hair on his balding pate, and more.
The DM will provide information about local sites and events as the character needs to know them. Furthermore, the character can try to retell these events as entertaining stories. Once the subject is chosen, he can either make a proficiency check and, if successful, add that tale to his repertoire, or actually tell the story to other characters. If the character succeeds in entertaining them, the player need not make a proficiency roll for the character, since he has succeeded. The character can tell these stories to entertain others, granting him a +2 bonus to his Charisma for the encounter. But telling stories to hostile beings is probably not going to do any good. A character with the Obscure Knowledge Advantage gains a +3 bonus to the skill check.
A barbarian with this proficiency must specialize in the legends and lore of his homeland. An oral historian, the barbarian can recite from memory a plethora of information concerning events, characters, and locations from bygone eras.
For dwarves, this proficiency is a little different from the standard Local History. A character with this proficiency is only knowledgeable about dwarf history. This is chiefly concerned with lineages and events affecting dwarves. It deals with the founders of the clans and strongholds, and traces the descendants to the present. The battles and events of clan and stronghold are known, as well as the fates of those who have left to establish new homes or who perished while adventuring.
The extent of geographical knowledge is dependent on the campaign background. Those who have had no contact with the world above may be totally ignorant of what lies on the surface, but will have extensive knowledge of their own stronghold. Those whose relatives have established new strongholds or are members of such strongholds would have knowledge of the area between the two and some knowledge of the geography surrounding them. Even so, most dwarves, unless they live in close proximity to other races, have a very hazy idea of where the sea is, for example.
While a character with this proficiency knows dwarf history, his knowledge of the history of other races is minimal. If humans fought a great battle against each other, a dwarf who did not live with humans is not likely to have heard of it. If the battle involved dwarves he would probably know of it. If it involved dwarves from his own stronghold or clan, he would have extensive knowledge of the events leading to it and the course of the battle. As with some other dwarf proficiencies the exact extent of an individual's knowledge is determined by his background.
The local dwarf history proficiency may be used to entertain other characters. When so engaged, he gains a +2 bonus to his Charisma while dealing with dwarves. With other races he does not gain the bonus, because dwarf stories tend to be dull, slow moving and overly concerned with who is related to whom, their places of origin, and all of the places the heroes' ancestors founded along the way. Trying to tell a dwarf story to hostile beings is likely to incite them to violence. Orcs will not be impressed, even with the best-told dwarf tale.
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