New to DM, question about PC and NPC

[Lorden]

Do you let players know the level of a monster they might combat or come across ? Or do you keep it from them and let them learn the hard way :-)

Same for friendly or neutral NPCs they might interact with in towns, etc.

Wondering what the right way to handle this is

Thanks for any input

[Quatar]

No.

In my games I handle it this way (it rarely comes up however), but I don't think there are strict rules on it:

For monsters they might be able to make Knowledge checks and figure out if they're (much) weaker, about as strong, (much) stronger than they are.

For Humanoids a Sense Motive or maybe just a Perception check may give you insight into their power.

[Lorden]

Thanks, I was asking because I was reading about some open adventures where players might stumble upon things that are way out of their league, and was wondering how it should be done.

[Kimera757]

Lorden wrote:

Do you let players know the level of a monster they might combat or come across ? Or do you keep it from them and let them learn the hard way :-)

Same for friendly or neutral NPCs they might interact with in towns, etc.

Wondering what the right way to handle this is

Thanks for any input

No. That's metagaming on the part of the players.

They might be able to guess, though. If there's a local brawler who wins almost all the fights, they may suspect this guy is a higher-level fighter (or barbarian) then them.

If there's a local wizard who once impressively burned someone who was rude to them to death, maybe the spell they cast was meteor storm? In which case, they're about 17th-level!

The high priest can cast Raise Dead, so they're probably 9th-level or above. They're not known for healing miracles in the midst of combat, so they probably can't cast Heal and are thus probably not 11th-level.

The local barkeep might seem more watchful and wary than you might expect. Perhaps they're an army veteran, a criminal or a spy?

(On the same lines, if you're trying to hire a thief, you have no good idea of how skilled they are. It's not like they have a good resume. You might have to test them. Etc.)

[Lorden]

Yep, makes sense, thanks for input

[Ranaul]

Here's a piece of advice no one mentioned. If you are GMing to a group of new players and they come across a monster that is much more powerful it is completely okay to just say "You guys have a feeling that this is thing is pretty tough."

[Rynjin]

Enemies? Hell no. They don't need to know that 90% of the time.

NPCs? Depends. If it's someone they're unlikely to encounter in a fight and they're a merchant/crafter I'll say what level they are to give a good indicator of what kind of things they'd be able to craft.

That said, if they wander into a random lich at level 3 or summat, I'll probably have them make a Wisdom check with a DC of 5 or so to sense that "This guy could do things to you that would make your skin crawl. Assuming you still had skin at the end of things."

[Snowtiger]

This reminds me of the time our rogue decided to do something stupid...

this was a ancient greek setting

we come into a room and something is wrong realaty seems to be falling apart we see 6 hooded figures in a circle around a small orb that when my sorc used detect magic the dm asked me to do a save to keep from getting knocked on my ass. my idea was well maybe i can pick it up with mage hand and try and get it over here in the confusion as the group attacks them.

the rogue says why would you want to touch that thing you dont know what it could do to you?! *5 min rant* anyway we attack and in the middle of fighting evil clerics the rogue decides im going to grab the item and run... Nothing happened then as the fight is going on he takes a weapon he was given by the clerics of Poseidon that gave us this mission and decides to call Poseidon and Hades (the cript we where in was under a temple dedicated to Hades) to destroy this artifact me the clearic and the bard all go what?! and the dm raises his eyebrow and says "are you sure you want to do that?" he goes yes i want to do it this is whats causing the problem i want to destroy it! the dm sighs and says roll me will saves.... everyone... there is a loud bright explosion the rogue who made his save flew across the room and was impailed by his own trident everyone good and bad was knocked prone our cleric was given 2 negative lvls and rendered blind.(he failed his save) the orb was fine the rogue was on deaths door after the battle ended and we had the orb the rogue grumbles why dont we just leave it here i dont want the dam thing! the dm starts laughing and everyone in the group turns to him and says are you sure you want to do that?!.... he has not lived it down

but i rather enjoy reading explosive runes for the articles...

[Adamantine Dragon]

Lorden, there is an in-game mechanic that is used by PCs to gain knowledge about the NPCs and monsters they encounter. That is the "knowledge" skill.

In the event that the party encounters something and the players want to investigate its strength, relative to themselves, they can make a "knowledge: local", "knowledge: history" or other applicable knowledge check.

For common monsters (ogres, dragons, orcs, kobolds, etc.) a knowledge roll shouldn't be needed. It should be relatively obvious what level of difficulty they present.

In my own campaign world there are many places with unusual threats where the local people have literally put up signs warning strangers of the threats. There is nothing wrong with the party finding a sign saying "Beware! You are entering an area known to be inhabited by were-wolves!" Or similar warnings.