Elder-Basilisk
First Post
DocMoriartty said:
Whoever said that a world where all PCs except barbarians are literate is a world where the average person is not? In any event, it's simply chronological snobbery to suppose that knowledge was born with the public education system. The kind of knowledge that we're discussing--folklore, etc survives quite well in traditional societies. Just because the Auca of South America were illiterate didn't mean that they couldn't pass down information about how to deal with evil spirits.
Now, given that it is generally considered to be at least as reasonable to believe that evil spirits, vampires, werewolves, etc have never existed in the real world as that they have, I think it's safe to say that such knowledge has not been vital to the survival of the Auca, the Transylvanians, or anyone else. Yet, the persistence of such knowledge even into times that hold it to be completely useless for practical purposes is a documented fact. In a typical D&D world, OTOH, I think that it would be quite obvious that only a madman would not believe in evil spirits, vampires, werewolves, etc and that basic knowlede about their habits and vulnerabilities--how to drive them off or protect one's children from them--would be vital to the survival of any people. Consequently, I think it's safe to say that knowledge of indigenous creatures would be a part of the general knowledge of any culture just like when to plant, how to hunt, and what preparations should be made for the birth of a baby are part of nearly all real-world cultures.
Adventurers, however, are another class of people. They're nearly universally literate. They are wealthy. They travel extensively. They associate together. They would know not just the standard ways each culture deals with their indigenous monsters but also how other cultures they've encountered have dealt with theirs. Like the Renaissance humanists (before the invention of the printing press, BTW), they could probably be expected to receive information from remote lands and trade descriptions and theories with their friends. In such an environment, I would expect any adventurer of enough experience to have magic armor and a magic weapon to know most of the common resistances present at low CRs. As they advanced in level, they would probably learn of the high CR resistances. If Mordenkeinen and Melf talk business, after all, they probably discuss something more than how to deal with orcs.
Even assuming a largely illiterate world without any printing press or magical means of duplicating books, it would be reasonable to expect adventurers to know of most resistances.
