M_Natas
Hero
So, If something in game came up where a player might know something about it, I would solve it this way:how do you propose we determine whether a char knows something in a fictional world? You cannot very well rely on the player knowing it
You could roll all the checks beforehand and then tell them upfront what they know and everything they will ever find out by all the different checks, but that is rather tedious too
Is it lore I want the PCs to work for, like go to the dungeon of the library? Than the Character doesn't know it.
Is it something I think the Character might know and I don't necessarily need to hit it for game reasons, I see what Skill proficiencies and expertise a character has. I would also incorporate his History and other class and bg features and feats.
Like "hie fast can a swallow fly?" - expertise in Nature? You know it, for all kinds of swallows.
Proficient in nature? Is it something hard to know? A trade secret? No. So you know about swallows and their speed.
No proficiency and no Int bonus? No experience in the nature? No swallow training in your background?
Let me roll a knowledge check against your passive Nature score, maybe you know it, maybe you don't.
Swallow knowledge is common, so I roll a d20 minus 5.
If the knowledge is uncommon, I roll the knowledge check against your passive knowledge skill as a pure d20. If it is rare knowledge, d20+5 and so on. And with rare knowledge and above, characters without proficiency don't know it.
But the rolls are the last resort.