When is it Okay to Metagame

We've all heard it before, and each side of the fence has their own arguments.  In tabletop, especially roleplaying games, it is firmly looked down upon and considered a true anathema to the story, but what if I told you there are ways that you can Metagame in either Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder without having your party, Dungeon Master, or real-life players begin to choke you and be considered a good player.  These solutions can be found in core rulebooks.

1.) The Diviner

Divination spells focus dominantly on the principle of detection, identification and location.  The problem comes down to that Divination is not a popular spell line to choose as either a Sorcerer or Wizard, because those classes tend to focus on more combat-utility spells instead of pure utility spells.  This is partially due to the Dungeons and Dragons schema shifting from a "role"-playing experience to "roll"-playing, which was present in 3rd Edition and extended through 4th Edition.  Divination spells inherently are not aggressive in the Arcane spell list, containing spells like Detect Magic, Read Magic, Identify, Detect Thoughts and Clairvoyance.  The strength of the Diviner is that they have immediate reactions that allow you, the player, to gather information quickly about items, locations and people.  With the ability to gather quick information, identify spell effects and auras with little to no effort (Arcane Sight) and spying (Prying Eyes, Arcane Eye). The downside to a Diviner is that you do not have access to real information gathering spells like Augury.  Augury, which will be explained later, allows a player to ask a divine being a yes or no question with varied success. 

2.) Thy Holy Beacon

Clerics, unlike Sorcerers and Wizards, can gain information through spells through spells like Augury.  These spells allow the Cleric to gain information about certain actions like: "Are the Bosnians planning to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand?" The answer...nothing.  The cleric would need to cast Commune to find out any information about that question.  Augury on the other hand can be used to justify where to go in an adventure, like posing the question: "Will this path take us to great wealth?" The answer, weal, woe or nothing.  The Augury can also be used to ask about friendship with NPCs: "Does this NPC want to invest in our adventure?" Again, this can be answered with weal, woe or nothing.  Commune does what Augury does, except better and not vague.  Depending on the successful roll, your information comes from different planes or even your deity, that give a certain Yes or No.  If the roll is low, there is a chance you could be lied to, but that is unlikely.

3.) Knowledge, Profession and Craft

Sometimes when your party is drawing straws about how to open a door or get through a puzzle, Knowledge, Profession and Craft checks can sometimes garner information that your character would know.  For example, you are a Fighter who has knowledge Engineering and a former profession in carpentry.  The fighter would certainly be able to figure out how to get a door off hinges with enough time or he might be able to direct the Wizard where to use his Disintegrate spell to the best use.  The fighter would probably also know how well support beams are working in a mine, how to test stones in walls to find a spot.  That would be especially true if he had taken Craft (Stoneworking) creating a synergy of all of his former class knowledges.  This also allows your character to roleplay and "roll"-play, because you had built a backstory where his craft, profession and knowledge are built on synergy.  Another example of this would be a rogue who travels with bards.  The rogue would probably be the pickpocket and wants to be good at hiding his intentions, so he has taken Perform (Comedy) and acts as a clown through a crowd, bumping into them, falling over and quickly stashing their coinpurse.

4.) Gather Information and Learning from NPCs

"Give me your money! My knife is haunted!"

Sometimes you need a spy, sometimes you need a player that can work inside of a network of goons for hours on end and your rogue vocally states that he or she doesn't want to be endangered.  What are you going to do?  Why do you think villains are so great at gaining information?  They hire lower level PCs or NPCs to visit, socialize in areas of high interest and have them return information back to them. A Thieves' Guildmaster might use street urchins and orphans to get information about new pickpockets in town, the Guildmaster might also use one of his lower-tiered associates to become friends with barmaids who then gossip all the good news in hopes of learning about adventurers who had just came back with a huge cache.  Players are also allowed to do this, the problem is, is that it takes time and you have to be able to trust your hireling to do what he was hired to do.

Conclusion

While your party Dungeonmaster may or may not agree, freely metagaming certainly is frowned upon, but you are free to use anything that makes sense to your character and how he or she knows information.  Paladins can detect evil on objects and individuals with varying degrees of success. Wizards can eventually identify an item so well they learn the history of the magical item like who the previous owner was and who made it.  Clerics are essential to the fold, both for their powerful healing spells, buffs and information gathering. Being able to know whether or not to trust an NPC like a king, lord or even the barkeep can be the springboard of a new adventure.  So when you are looking through your spellbooks, remember Wizards, Sorcerers and Clerics, sometimes it is nice knowing something your Dungeon Master didn't want you to know.