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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 633725" data-attributes="member: 3146">Re: Hmmm...Sounds like a really lame idea to me. You end up codifying in skill points and rolls something that really doesn't fit the mechanic very well.If Thorgar the fighter/barbarian fought a band of trolls that had wandered in from a far away swamp and lost all of his group except one on the way into town, he probably knows what trolls are and what they're like. He may even have noticed that all of them got up again except the one the wizard burned to a crisp with his fireball. However, Thorgar only has int 9 and Creature Lore is a cross class skill for him, he can't get a rank this level (only half of one). Consequently, when he and his new companions meet the band of trolls on the way out of town, according to the rules, Thorgar ought to act as if he knew nothing about these monsters--especially if he rolls poorly on the check. His new companion the cleric won't know anything about them either despite having tended the wounds of farmers and merchants who escaped from them and heard their reports--he's not any good at monster lore (it's not a class skill and he only gets 2 skill points/level so he can be good at concentration and know about his religion or trolls but not both) and trolls are unusual around here. It just ends up being silly.Now I've seen people use a level check mechanic (d20+character level) which might be good in such situations (d20+character level+int bonus) in order for characters to know about monsters they haven't faced before. But the knowledge skill mechanic is entirely the wrong mechanic for this.</blockquote>

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