Consulting the Sages - a Poll by Edition

[Wiseblood]

I see a sharp decline in finding a sage in 3e and 4e. Dice4hire is right knowledge skills are too good in those editions to bother with sages.

I wonder if this is good or bad. A downside would be it eliminates an opportunity/requirement for RP and on the up side it eliminates an opportunity/requirement for RP.

Seeing a sage cuts the crap of a bad roll stalling the players. It also eliminates the sometimes awkward back and forth exchange between DM and players as to what the characters know. The players have a threshold of information that they want before they take action. The DM doesn't want to eliminate discovery by revealing all. Sometimes a throw of the dice can get in the way.

Finding a sage can certainly cut into the time some players would rather be bashing heads or advancing the story through action.

Some players can't see past their character sheet.

 

[Piratecat]

We've done this multiple times across different campaigns. It lessened in high-level 3e, since the PCs had better divination spells than anyone we could hire, but other than that? It's always remained a great way for the DM to feed us information.

 

[Stoat]

I wouldn't use the word "Sage," but my players frequently try to gain information about the dungeon/adventure/whatever.

Usually they go about it by speaking with the locals. "Hey, what do you know about the haunted castle up in the hills?" If an NPC gives them a quest, they always interrogate the NPC about any expected opposition. "Tell us about these 'devil creatures' that kidnapped your daughter."

Which, frankly, makes more sense to me than going to "a sage". Why would an old guy in a tower know anything about the monsters in the local dungeon? Far more likely that the town guard, traveling merchants, and local hunters would have an idea what perils to expect there.

 

[Sammael]

Which, frankly, makes more sense to me than going to "a sage". Why would an old guy in a tower know anything about the monsters in the local dungeon? Far more likely that the town guard, traveling merchants, and local hunters would have an idea what perils to expect there.

It's his job. Basically, the sage is an information broker; he acquires information from all those who have it and is willing to part with that information for a price. His role is to be a one-stop-shop for information gathering: instead of spending several in-game days running around town looking for clues, the PCs can go to a sage, spend some cash, and learn (most of) what they need to know within minutes.

One of the reasons why sages aren't more popular is money. PCs are loath to pay for anything, and consultancy is no different. On the other hand, a sage who parts with knowledge for free isn't very realistic; at the very least, he should demand equivalent information in return. On the upside, sages can be great quest-givers, since they know a lot, but aren't really in the mood to go adventuring themselves.

Another reason is the perception of time flow: while the PCs may have to spend days, even weeks (of in-game time) hunting for info, their players usually get away with a few skill checks and some light role-playing.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I've almost always had a player who played a sage. In other words, a player character with extensive knowledge and/or the resources to research stuff.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I give out background skill points and players tend to take a good amount of knowledges. Occasionally this sort of info comes out through powerful NPCs who are not sages, but I've rarely seen players consult NPCs for knowledge and never in the context I would call a "sage".

 

[Deset Gled]

I've only seen groups try to contact a sage when it has been previously established in the adventure that one exists. If the DM doesn't purposefully expose a learned person to the group, there is not an expectation that one can be found easily.

Also, I would like to note that when I first started reading this thread, I thought it was about The Sage rather than sages in game.

 

[coyote6]

For the various editions, I answered never/sometimes/-/sometimes/-, where "sometimes" mostly has values of "rarely".

 

[Hussar]

Appologies for the confusion with the "The" instead of "a".

Well, currently, we've got 35 votes. Still pretty early. It does look, at least at very first blush, that this is somewhat edition specific. 1e has a fair bit more sage consulting than later editions. At least as a percentage.

I do think there is a very good point about knowledge skills in 3e and 4e. Why bother going to the local sage when your handy knowledge monkey probably knows the answer.

 

[Dausuul]

The groups I've played in, and DMed for, don't usually have generic sages to consult. We look for specific information from specific people about specific things.