CapnZapp made a post about the issues with Recall Knowledge in the GM experience thread and suggested there be a separate discussion.
While he can speak for himself, I agree with his points that the Recall Knowledge action and use is pretty light on the rules where as most other parts of the rule set are pretty specific.
Recall Knowledge. (Core Rulebook page 239)
For 1 action, the GM makes the roll in secret and you get...
Critical Success You recall the knowledge accurately and gain additional information or context.
Success You recall the knowledge accurately or gain a useful clue about your current situation.
Critical Failure You recall incorrect information or gain an erroneous or misleading clue.
Core Rulebook page 505 has more info on using it to identify a monster
Success: Learn a troll has regeneration and its stopped by acid or fire. Or a manticore's tail spikes (lets be honest probably will fire off in the first round and the PC will figure it out anyways).
Critical Success: Demon's Weakness or the trigger for a creature's ability.
Which skill to use is additional complexity.
Page 505 has an example of identifying a Hag. The Hag type creature is an Occult skill, but they are humanoid so Society would work, but at a harder DC. If you use a Lore skill its easy or very easy. Great example but it would be better to just give us the rules!
Is the 1 action cost in encounter mode good or bad?
Lastly there was discussion of the 50% success rate being too low for players to be using an action.
Presuming you are trained in a skill with a 16 in your skill's ability at 1st level you'll have +6. to beat a DC 15. 60% chance of failure so 50% is about right if its more of a boss monster a couple levels higher which you'd consider using an action on vs scrub minion monsters.
While he can speak for himself, I agree with his points that the Recall Knowledge action and use is pretty light on the rules where as most other parts of the rule set are pretty specific.
Recall Knowledge. (Core Rulebook page 239)
For 1 action, the GM makes the roll in secret and you get...
Critical Success You recall the knowledge accurately and gain additional information or context.
Success You recall the knowledge accurately or gain a useful clue about your current situation.
Critical Failure You recall incorrect information or gain an erroneous or misleading clue.
Core Rulebook page 505 has more info on using it to identify a monster
Success: Learn a troll has regeneration and its stopped by acid or fire. Or a manticore's tail spikes (lets be honest probably will fire off in the first round and the PC will figure it out anyways).
Critical Success: Demon's Weakness or the trigger for a creature's ability.
Which skill to use is additional complexity.
Page 505 has an example of identifying a Hag. The Hag type creature is an Occult skill, but they are humanoid so Society would work, but at a harder DC. If you use a Lore skill its easy or very easy. Great example but it would be better to just give us the rules!
Is the 1 action cost in encounter mode good or bad?
Lastly there was discussion of the 50% success rate being too low for players to be using an action.
Presuming you are trained in a skill with a 16 in your skill's ability at 1st level you'll have +6. to beat a DC 15. 60% chance of failure so 50% is about right if its more of a boss monster a couple levels higher which you'd consider using an action on vs scrub minion monsters.