Losing My Religion (Skill Check)

art by Woong Seok Kim

One area of consternation I've seen in a few places on the internet is the fact that a wizard will likely have a better chance at succeeding at an Intelligence (Religion) skill check in 5e D&D than a cleric will. To some, Religion is the key skill that encapsulates a cleric's area of expertise. (Indeed, some even argue that clerics should get the Expertise feature for the Religion skill!) It does not make sense to them that the occult-minded wizard would have more knowledge of religion than a member of the priestly class.

I disagree with that position, but I also have some easy solutions.

I disagree that this is an issue because I think many people haven't really thought much about what the Religion skill represents in D&D. Religion is not about knowledge of the particularities of a single, specific faith; rather, it represents knowledge of all religions, their lore, and their histories: "Your Intelligence (Religion) check measures your ability to recall lore about deities, rites and prayers, religious hierarchies, holy symbols, and the practices of secret cults."

A priest should know most everything (save for some hidden or especially deep-cut lore) about their own religion. But I'm not convinced that a priest often knows much about other people's religions. They're specialists in their own faith, but likely unconcerned or unread in the faiths of others. Ask the average Catholic priest how much they know about Shintoism and see where it gets you.

On the other hand, wizards are usually scholars who read widely and deeply. I would expect a wizard who is proficient in the Religion skill to be more like a scholar of world religions: knowledgeable about religion as a comparative area of study, even if they have specific niche interests within the field. Ask a professor of world religions about Judaism, and no matter what tradition they were raised in they will likely know something of value.

Of course, if you don't agree with what I have written above, there are some simple workarounds to get you where you want to go without necessarily adding Expertise to the cleric:

• Don't have clerics roll Religion checks on matters of their own faith. They shouldn't need to if they're recalling common knowledge because this is the world they live in.
• Use the optional rule that lets you mix and match ability scores to skills. Tired of those high Intelligence wizards having better chances of succeeding at Religion checks? Let clerics use their Wisdom scores instead. It's there, waiting for you, in the rules.