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Alright, just curious how you guys handle this...
If you make the knowledge DC to know about a monster, how much do you find out? Do you get to know what their resistances and DR are, and their SLAs, and every statistic that the monster has, or do you only get something vague and more appropriate for in-character? I've found the more in-character, vague knowledge results.. example what's on the OGC about behirs...
Knowledge (Arcana)
DC Result
18 This huge monster is a behir, a serpentine creature that can slither like a snake or expand its dozen legs to run upon. This result reveals all magical beast traits.
23 These creatures have a nasty breath weapon in the form of a bolt of electricity. Much like a snake, they are also capable of oppening their gullets to swallow creatures whole. Though somewhat draconic in appearance, behirs are unrelated to those creatures, and typically speak just the common tongue.
28 Close combat with behirs is inadvisable. As well as a nasty bite, these creatures are natural grapplers, can constrict opponents in the coils of their bodies and can inflict multiple rake attacks on grappled foes with their six pairs of legs.
33 Though fearsome to behold, behirs are not necesarily aggressive. They have a similar outlook on life as many animals, are only guaranteed to attack if they feel threatened or are exceptionally hungry. They are also intelligent enough to be able to determine if the foe they face is likely to be stronger than they are. One of the few things they feel passionate about is dragonkind, with whom they refuse to coexist with peacefully. If a dragon moves in on a behir's territory, the behir will either drive it away if it can, or if not then move off to find a new home.
This gives little to no usable combat information about the monster that the player can use. for some of the more complex monsters like demons and devils, who have tons of resistances and immunities, this would be next to useless.
Do you guys give more complete and gamey information, or something more like the above?
You can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster's CR. For common monsters, such as goblins, the DC of this check equals 5 + the monster's CR. For particularly rare monsters, such as the tarrasque, the DC of this check equals 15 + the monster's CR, or more. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information. Many of the Knowledge skills have specific uses as noted on Table: Knowledge Skill DCs.
I usually give out info about the creatures abilities as follows..
Any check = creature type and therefore the creature traits from B1
DC 10 + CR = creature name and one of it's abilities.
DC 10 + CR +5 = For each +5 thereafter I give out an extra ability [covering everything from resistances to SLA's etc].
If the creature is rare then those DC's start out at 15 + CR, and unique creatures start at 20 + CR.
Pretty standard from the core rules.
I then use the following house rule..
Knowledge Skill rolls:
You can make a knowledge roll whenever you like, although some will have a penalty or bonus as follows..
Out of turn [immediate action] -4 penalty.
On your turn [free action] -2 penalty.
On your turn [swift action] .
On your turn [move action] +2 bonus.
On your turn [standard action] +4 bonus.
You may re-try once [with no bonus] as a full round action.
*When I’m trying to recall something I know, the longer I have the more info I’m going to remember.
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It's I believe standard way that players know about monster if they reach the DC, meaning, I usually read them a description of what these monsters do. For every five that they beat DC they learn of the additional ability that monster has.
I do tell my players that a simple monster description can already reveal quite a lot of information.
The general pattern I use is this (which varies slightly from the rule as written):
At the creature DC, I give the name of the critter, type, subtypes (it's an aquatic magical beast; it's a chaotic evil outsider--a demon; etc.). Note that if numerous possibilities exist based on physical appearance (is that a werejackal or jackalwere?) I'll hold off on the Knowledge lore until the creature has demonstrated a few of its defining powers.
For each +5 above DC, I provide two bits of statblock lore (rather than 1, as the skill actually says), typically a special attack and a defensive ability or special quality, plus a sentence or so of "fluff." Languages spoken generally gets included at the CR+5 level. To determine what lore to provide, I go from most significant to most obscure. Take a vampire, for an example. Since it's a template, I generally use CR 10+template modifier to determine the lore DC, rather than the CR of the full templated creature. So, with a vampire, that means that at DC 12 I reveal that it's a vampire and undead. DC 17, it drains blood and is destroyed by sunlight.
I'll sometimes pack extra info info in for really complex creatures (like vampires, actually), because even when giving out lore at twice the recommended rate, the DCs for Knowledge checks can otherwise skyrocket into mythic realms. My version of vampire lore goes up to DC 27 and is densely packed; at a straight 2-per-+5 DC rate those DCs would probably reach the high 40s, just to learn that vampires can command the children of the night and can't enter a house without an invitation.
I actually went through and wrote up lore blocks for nearly every WotC creature back in the 3.5 days (might still be available on their old forums), and I've been updating them as needed for my Pathfinder games.
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Like Mangrum I give name and type if they hit the DC.
But if they get 5+ I ask the players what they want: vulnerabilities, noteworthy powers, and the like. They're the ones trying to recall lore so they decide what they're trying to remember: how to defeat it or how to avoid its horrifying attack.
I decide how much I want to reveal based on the creature and how much it actually does.
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I actually went through and wrote up lore blocks for nearly every WotC creature back in the 3.5 days (might still be available on their old forums), and I've been updating them as needed for my Pathfinder games.
That would be here:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19546370/Monster_Lore_Com pendium