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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aberzanzorax" data-source="post: 5953122" data-attributes="member: 64209">These are good points, and I'd forgotten about them.I even agree, but only to a point.  In my opinion, various knowledge skills should give you an advantage to defeat the beast (in combat or plotwise/storywise). E.G. for a werewolf go get wolvesbane or silver, or simply do detective work in town to determine who the werewolf commoner is. However, if I, an accomplished fighter who has slain several foes of varying difficulties, sees a new monster...I should have at least a general idea of whether it can totally waste me or if it will be a cakewalk. I might not have knowledge of demons or dungeon denizens or whatever...and so wouldn't know that its tentacles can excrete poison...but I should be able to gauge, based on size, apparent movements, and general genre understanding if it is something I'm supposed to be afraid of and run, or if it's something that I'm so powerful that I think is wimpy. I could be wrong, of course. But, there should be some way for me to at least form an opinion without investing book learnin' or study. I wanted to toss out a real world example, but real world examples don't really address heroism (and D&D is primarily heroic fantasy). If I am a skilled knight, tactician, and general badass in the real world...I'm still gonna run from an legion of 20+ guys charging me. In D&D it'd be cowardly for a lvl 10 fighter to run from a bunch of lvl 1 mooks. In D&D it'd be suicide for a lvl 10 fighter to attack a bunch of level 10 soldiers.  Often the story calls for "you're brave because you're competent..but it's still a risk". I'm not looking to quantify the risk totally...but I'm looking for ways that players and player characters can determine if they're competent to attempt the task (informed consent, and informed risk).</blockquote>

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