Enemy knowledge of effects?

[Rechan]

If I recall correctly, the rules say that monsters under an effect know the parameters of that effect. A monster affected by Avenging Flame knows that if it attacks, it can't save; a monster under a Divine Challenge knows if it doesn't attack the paladin, it takes damage.

What about effects that are more periphery in nature? Or effects that an enemy is not the target of, but may be effected by?

For instance, the Avenger's "Halo of Fire". The power attacks a target. Then the text says, "Until the end of your next turn, any enemy that ends its turn adjacent to the target takes 5 fire damage."

Or the Avenger's "Avenging Echo". The avenger makes an attack, then "Until the end of your next turn, any enemy that ends its turn adjacent to you or that hits or misses you takes 5 radiant damage."

Are the enemies aware of what's in store if they move adjacent?

Because if they do, then what's the point of taking these powers? Because that means "For a round I won't be attacked"? An enemy being adjacent to your target isn't that great of a benefit; said monster can still FLANK with the target. So, that's a real "situational" power.

Or for that matter, the various effects of the Avenger's class; if enemies know if they hit the Avenger, that he's going to do more damage, then they're simply not going to, and therefore the powers don't come into play. Same with

I feel that, if an enemy is fully aware of the parameters of powers like these, then they are useless because their effects will rarely come into play.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

There are several answers to that:

1) Monsters may KNOW something but that doesn't imply that they are smart enough to work out whether or not the consequences of their actions are tactically favorable to them or not. This would apply to most monsters of animal or less intelligence at least to some degree. It depends on the DM role playing the monster, but it is still a valid consideration.

2) The monster may still feel that the cost is worth it and take the penalized action. Many times it IS worth it for a monster to take the damage/effect anyway. If the monster would have done the same thing if you didn't use the power, then you are still ahead.

3) The monster may be unable to avoid the consequence. If a monster is immobilized, then it can't move away from another monster, etc.

4) The party may be able to FORCE the monster to take the consequence by sliding it or some similar stratagem.

5) The party may be able to arrange things such that the consequence is "the lesser of two evils".

6) Even if the monster DOES avoid the consequence, doing so may penalize the monster or force it to use nonoptimal tactics in some fashion. A monster which doesn't attack because it would take damage STILL didn't attack, so you did gain something.

7) Finally the monster may just plain WANT to attack anyway. It is mad because its lair was invaded and its buddies are dying, so it hacks away at you.

8) Even though monsters know about the powers you use, they don't know your hit points, defenses, class, or what other powers you may have. Thus they may well just decide the best strategy is "kill em quick" even if that means taking damage, and even if that really isn't the best strategy if they had perfect knowledge.

In general I'd look at it this way. The DM already knows what all the powers are and what they do. So no matter what the rules say it is still up to the DM to either act on or not act on the information. By making it RAW that monsters know what powers do it saves potentially endless arguments where players would appeal the actions of the monsters on the basis of "they don't know X, Y, or Z." This just saves a lot of DM grief.

Also there is plenty of logic to monsters knowing this stuff. A) They may have encountered these powers before. B) The power may manifest obvious effects that the monster can sense and use to reason out what the power does. C) The monster may be quite intelligent and well aware of how magic works and simply be able to figure it out for themselves.

So I would not consider such powers to be lessened in value. In fact these considerations are taken into account when powers are designed. It is assumed that monsters will often avoid triggering effects. However in my play I've determined that most effects are not so dire that they are worth avoiding if it means the monster has to stand around and do nothing for a round. Most monsters hit roughly 50% of the time with their main attacks. Unless the attack does mediocre damage the more dangerous monsters are still gaining by trading some damage for a chance to attack.