Monster Knowledge Checks - quick question


Rules Questions


What action does it take to make a Monster Knowledge check?

How do people decide what exactly composes "a bit of useful information about that monster?" Is that one subheading in the Bestiary entry? Do you let the player decide which one, or do you decide what they need to know most?


The action under the skill listing is "none." It may take a second for your character to convey what he knows to the rest of the party, but when you make the check, you have the knowledge.

For the "what is useful" part, there is no exact science here. The entry gives an example of "special powers" and "vulnerabilities." I would give the players one piece of that type of information for success and each plus 5 as the entry states. Immunities and resistances also seem like good choices. As for how to decide, I would go with a quasi-random choosing, but I may pick a specific piece of information for cinematic reasons. That's my two copper.


I generally go with defenses and immunities for just passing (oh and trademark attacks like basilisks gaze, fire breath, etc)and then add additional info as you get higher up the passed by X scale.

Silver Crusade

When considering what piece of information to give the PCs, I generally think about how common the knowledge is. The first thing they'd learn would be the thing that was most known about the creature. This probably means special abilities that they use alot would be first, as even an observer would know about them. DR is probably next, as any random militia/city guard that has had to fight one would know if it had one and how to bypass it (if possible). Immunities/resistances would be next, since you would probably notice if the thing seemed immune to fire or cold (even if it was only sufficiently high resistance). Things like "it's vulnerable to resurrection" are probably high check information only, unless it is such an important piece of knowledge that anyone encountering them should know it. Basically, the likelihood a person is to learn about an ability from experience combined with how useful that information is determines how easy it is to have "heard about that somewhere."


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Here is a post on our House Rules on Knowledge checks that my gaming table seems to work.

Knowledge is Power

Hope it helps!

Segallion


Segallion - That's an awesome system. Will definately add that to my game.

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