I think some of the stuff that players know about the game mechanics need to be some sort of ingame knowledge also.
I dont use classes as a Real ingame thing a class is somthing on the sheet. But yes i think monsters with more than animal int should act as smart as is reasonable and in character.
The issue, of course, is how the monsters know what class someone is.
If you allow this, the you should be able to fool them into bad tactics. A simple hat of disguise makes the fighter look like a wizard....
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Yes and no.
Knowledge local will allow opponents to know weaknesses and strengths of a PC's apparent race. Knowledge about classes is not a part of the equation.
You can't figure out what class a bandit is with a knowledge local check, though if the bandit is an elf, you may be allowed to know elves all have proficiency in longswords and bows, for example.
Of course, once someone uses class abilities, adventurers or opponents that should logically know about classes could extrapolate what class they are dealing with. Granted, knowing the difference between a wizard and a sorcerer might not be possible without finding information on the individual in particular (diplomacy to find information in the city where the being lives, for example). Such information is more investigative in nature, and not something that can be done with a quick knowledge check.
Smart monsters know about classes (some take class levels after all), yet this still won't tell them if the PC in armor is a fighter, cavalier, or warrior in specific without investigating the individual.
The DCs of the knowledge checks are based on the total CR of a creature, and get more difficult the more advanced the creature is. It makes no distinction between racial and class considerations, so yes, Knowledge is the skill that you would use if you wanted to size up a creature with class levels. A CR 15 gnoll barbarian is a harder Knowledge check than a CR 1 gnoll.
The GM would be perfectly justified in making the DC 15 + CR as normal for rarer enemies, or maybe even 20 + CR.
As for NPCs? What's good for the goose...
Though it's not RAW, it seems natural that the Disguise skill should foil most Knowledge attempts, so if someone is Disguised their disguise may foil the attempt if the disguise cannot be seen through. For example, if someone tries to identify a wildshaped druid, they likely won't get accurate results unless they beat the disguise DC or can otherwise ascertain knowledge that this is not actually an animal.
The DCs of the knowledge checks are based on the total CR of a creature, and get more difficult the more advanced the creature is. It makes no distinction between racial and class considerations, so yes, Knowledge is the skill that you would use if you wanted to size up a creature with class levels. A CR 15 gnoll barbarian is a harder Knowledge check than a CR 1 gnoll.
We have always played that racial effects -- do gnolls have darkvision? -- are based on the base race, not on class levels. It makes little sense little sense that I'd know that a 1st level gnoll commoner has darkvision, but be unsure about a 10th level gnoll cleric, and further that would lead to metagaming, because I could infer information about an opponent's level from facts that I didn't know. ("Well, if this creature were CR 5 or less I'd know about its darkvision, but since I don't, it must be 6+")
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Yeah, sure. Usually at 5+Cr instead of 10 since PC Class Humans are pretty common. It'd probably be a slightly higher DC for non-corebook classes or races.
It's Knowledge (Local) though, which is actually pretty rare among monsters, Disguise can probably fake them out on what class you are, and they only know generic stuff about the class, not which choices you've made (so they get nothing about a Wizard's spell selection or which Rage Powers a Barbarian has, just that Barbarians have Rage Powers and a vague idea of the Wizard spell list)...so the utility is a lot more limited than what you can get about a species of creatures who all have the same abilities.
With a high enough DC check (15+CR for a unique creature) and, say, knowing your name they might be able to get specific Rage Powers, Feats, Spell Choices, etc. But most probably wouldn't bother.
We get to ID monsters because the game treats most monsters as their own individual class.
If you ID a gnoll cleric vs a gnoll barbarian vs a basic gnoll you'd be told the gnoll stuff + whatever it was wearing and makg your own conclusions based on that- because knowledge checks are for racials not for class things.
So a check vs my human would tell the creature all the human'y things plus whatever i'm wearing and it could try to figure out what those meant.
Human in full plate with a longsword and a shield with a symbol on it.
Check for human, check for holy symbol.
Holy symbol check tells them the deity involved, and they piece it together to mean.. err
A fighter who follows the deity, or maybe a melee cleric.. or was that a paladin? or a barbarian in mithrul full plate with a "liberated" shield who liked to swap between sword/board and two handing the sword when he rages.
Bard? magus? rogue? ninja?
A sorc? or a wizard? or a witch?
They may be able to make checks once combat is on and folks are doing their part- but even then absent someone using a special ability it can be difficult to tell one from another. (the paladin, cleric, barbarian and fighter all swing the same unless someone starts smiting, raging, or casting spells..)
just my .02
-S
It is a given that PC's will metagame what class a foe is as soon as they hear one snippet of mechanic used.(not saying this is wrong) If the NPC is intelligent enough, i see no reason for them not to be able to do the same. What is good for the goose...
For what it's worth Lincoln, i agree with the meat of your post above mine. I doubt i would give away what class a particular NPC was unless they had some pretty obvious tells hanging on them. Once the Class Features are actively being used and observed...seems fair to me at that point.
*Edit* also, as a general opinion thought followed by a data fact. The higher level a character is, the easier it should be to get a class associated with them with general information. Being level 11 or higher automatically qualifies you in Legend Lore for example.