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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7833854" data-attributes="member: 12731">Various points:As I understand it, the intention is to create a "mini game" where you can spend actions in combat to gain bonuses in the form of "puzzle pieces" - Pathfinder 2 combat is often described as being a "puzzle" where the solution is to find out what tactics (individual attacks and actions, as well as sequences of them) work best and what tactics to avoid.Do you find that fun? Do you use it?If you allow characters to find out pieces of the puzzle (i.e. monster info) out of combat (such as by visiting a library in the dungeon) there is no real cost (since the cost is measured <s>chiefly</s> only in actions, and it is only in combat you have limited actions).Next issue is value/worth. Since the Recall Knowledge isn't automatic and only provides a single puzzle piece ("one of its best-known attributes") you could potentially waste several rounds before finally learning that piece of the puzzle you wanted.How does this interact with abilities that let you make additional (OOC) Recalls? The Bard feat True Hypercognition lets you make five Recalls with a single action. How am I ever going to come up with five useful puzzle pieces, let alone often enough to justify taking the feat? A feat like Dubious Knowledge basically tells me "go and prepare a list of wrong facts so you can dish them out at a moments notice". Don't you find that... completely unplayable? Automatic Knowledge gives you one free Recall a day. Again, giving off the notion the GM has this large stack of index cards prepared ready to give out snippets...Then there's the details. Things like "For example, Arcana might tell you about the magical defenses of a golem, whereas Crafting could tell you about its sturdy resistance to physical attacks" (page 239) or"Paralyzed Condition: You have the flat-footed condition and can’t act except to Recall Knowledge [...]" suggest (at least to me) a highly balanced finely calibrated subsystem of handing out puzzle pieces in a measured manner.Except the GM gets zero help with this. Are you supposed to prepare each monster beforehand or come up with things like "well, while Recall Knowledge for a Golem is generally Arcana, its physical resistance is Crafting" on the fly? For each monster? And how many puzzle pieces are there? And what are the puzzle pieces for a given monster anyway?To answer the question upthread: failure means nothing in particular, but critical failure means you learn something wrong. Does this mean I need lists containing stuff like "A Troll is vulnerable against cold"?Then there's the elephant in the room: the... artificiality... of it. What do you think of the notion that you can basically only find out monster facts while fighting them? (Again, if you can just read this in a book, that's much MUCH cheaper action-wise) Doesn't this mean the whole system falls apart for you?When can you attempt a Recall Knowledge action, exactly? Sure, if you see the monster fighting your friends. But what about when you spot it from a distance? Or after the fight, when you poke it to make sure it's really dead, or when you loot its belongings?Questions questions... (And we haven't even begun discussing houserules!)</blockquote>

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