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My players, having captured Tsuto and read his journal, was curious as to what a "quasit" was. I granted the one asking the question an appropriate knowledge check. I set the DC at 17 (15 for rare creature, +2 for base quasit CR), and she rolled a 19. I told her that a quasit was a type of demon and they are often found serving wizards.
Honestly, this was the first time that a player has used knowledge to determine creature abilities, so I don't have a base line as to whether I gave her enough info. I was debating whether or not to actually set the DC at 12, but figured that the players wouldn't necessarily know, nor were they in an area that had quasits flying around on a regular basis.
What would you set the DC at? What type of info would you give your player based on that player rolling a 19 at whatever your DC is?
Thanks!
Sounds about right you I always do that you don't start getting details beyond fluff til you hit DC+5 or higher each tier up gives just a bit more info at DC+20 or so I would let them see the stat block or atleast read it to them.
I find the following paradigm works well for me:
Base DC (10+CR) = Creature name, subtype, and one question or simple ability.
For example, "A quasit is an evil outsider. You seem to recall that they can fly."
Each +5: One additional question from the player. Examples include:
- What kind of attacks to they have?
- Do they have damage resistance, and if so, what overcomes it?
- Do they have poison or disease?
- Do they have spell-like abilities?
As Varin said, at DC+20 I just hand 'em the Bestiary and let them read.
So with a 19, your player would have learned that a quasit is a flying evil outsider, and I would have given either the DR or the spell-like abilities for the +5.
I've only had it come up once, but on a successful check, I'll try to provide a detail that is significant to them at the time of their question, given context and/or intent. For example, out of any sort of context, such as hearing the word from Tsuto, I'd say almost exactly what you did: flying evil outsider often serving wizards. That provides some key data: they fly, and are usually pretty weak. Beating the check a bit more, I might provide "demon" or its DR. My reasoning on not readily giving out info on "demon", "devil", whatever is that I can't keep this stuff straight myself, so I imagine a low successful check means that the character has heard of them, but people don't really know the difference between devils and demons (except say, in Cheliax). Not to mention "demon" or "devil" itself is a good deal of information. If this seems harsh, I am usually pretty nice about other things, so it balances out. I hope.
But say the PCs are actively fighting her. The same question, "what do I know", I'd provide tactical data, such as how to bypass DR, or what energy resistance she has, i.e. a useful piece of information they don't already have. Higher result is another piece of intel. If they're facing a flying creature, and ask, "what is it," I'm not likely to say, "oh, that's a quasit, a flying creature, often serving wizards as familiars." So any existing knowledge is kind of like a bonus to the check, without actually being a numerical bonus. Seeing the thing in action is more likely to stir up the brain: "oh, I've heard of these things: cold iron hurts them," or whatever.
Not sure how RAW-compliant this is, but I like it. It's only come up once, however. Well, a successful roll has only happened once, anyway, and in fact, I think it actually was pertaining to Erylium.
Edit: When a battle starts, I don't tell them what they're fighting unless it's pretty obvious. Instead, I describe the creature briefly. And lately, I've taken to reading the descriptions listed in the bestiary below the stat block - I quite like them.