What do some of you think about players having the monsters loaded up on their hero lab while they are fighting the monster.
Personally I don't like it. It's one thing to be fighting a monster, and remembering some stats from when you ran the beasty or read it, but having it there right in front of you. Seems a little well wrong. I won't say its a breach of Table Trust, but its close. I do expect them to look up the monster when they get home, and that's fine.
Would it be wrong to not remind them of knowledge checks anymore and to switch the stats up. Giving a monster higher DEX than normal, there by pumping the AC up one or two. Perhaps even trading in a spell like ability for another one of the same power level.
I would outright ban this, and if it continued I would take serious action against it. This destroys verisimilitude and is the worst kind of meta gaming. There is an entire section of skills in the book to determine what the character knows. I wouldn't even expect my players to look up stats between sessions, although I suppose I wouldn't be nearly as annoyed that way. When I play, even if I know something about a monster, if my character doesn't, I try as hard as I can to not act on it. Sometimes it can't be helped, and that's ok. It's part of the reason I like to make characters with lots of knowledge skills. I find meta gaming this extreme to be against the spirit of the game and under no circumstances would I ever allow it at my table.
But, with all that said, that's just my thought on the subject. I'm not sure how you feel about it, and your players certainly seem to like it. If this is what works best for you, keep doing it. But you came here presenting as an issue, and I think disallowing this will improve your games.
Dislike isn't strong enough. Hate would be more like it. But I don't want to make to many waves. Although I think there adult enough to handle be saying NO for this.
I was asking mostly to get an idea of what others thought on the subject.
If you are having problems with players abusing hero lab, ban those players from using it. Make them revert to PnP for their characters. Hero lab is a tool, and if you players can't stop cheating with access to that tool, either ban the player or ban the tool.
If one of my players beats the required knowledge check for a monster by more then 20, I often just let them look at the monsters beastiary-entry. They are not allowed to share the info out of character though, and the free action speaking limit at my table is 6 words per round.
A player who didn't beat knowledge DC + 20 looking at the monsters stats is plain cheating.
I don't worry about the length of the words but I do make them wait until their turn to talk. I normally just hit the important parts of what the monster is and its immunities, DR , AC comes later. If of course they get the roll.
This gives me a good idea. One of the players is a DM on our alternating weeks but he seems to be weak on Monster rules. I should have the monster types on hand for them to look up when they get a high roll with the knowledge. Then give out my normal infromation.
I don't get that these guys are overtly trying to cheat. They are both excited to be there and want to learn the game desperately from someone who has been running for a little longer than them. I suspect this comes from a sense of wanting to learn a few tricks and to understand the rules behind the monsters. One is running and another wants too in the future, but neither shows signs of the classic 'player-calls-dm' power trip.
Over all I need to control the amount of metagaming I bring to the table as the GM joining in the fun of the Players. Each form of entertainment is very different. Saying that the Giant has +17 to hit, Power Attack, and does BLAH BLAH damage is in a since metagaming and is a mistake on my part. I also have to watch any pontential metagaming I do while playing in the other game.
This coupled with an explanation of the violation of trust and reduction of mystery and excitment and I think they will stop. To match I will find ways for them to still have the fun of looking something up, ie rolling really high on there knowledge.
Then the rules support the play and the play supports the rules.
It seems like you know what to do. Just be clear that this is not how the game is meant to be played, and it's a lot more rewarding to figure out what to do in-character than cheap OOC gimmicks like this.
Ya, I posted just to see if my thinking was out of line. Looks like it isn't to far off track here.
and your last point is head on Jack.