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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6594140" data-attributes="member: 97077">Basic Rules, page 61: "An Intelligence check comes into play when you need to draw on logic, education, memory, or deductive reasoning. The Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Intelligence checks." Basic Rules, page 58: "The DM calls for an ability check when a character or monster attempts an action (other than an attack) that has a chance of failure. When the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results." "If the total equals or exceeds the DC, the ability check is a success—the creature overcomes the challenge at hand. Otherwise, it’s a failure, which means the character or monster makes no progress toward the objective or makes progress combined with a setback determined by the DM." Therefore, if a player wants to know something about a monster, he must tell the DM that his character is taking a fictional action to draw on logic, education, memory, or deductive reasoning to learn or recall something about a particular monster. Then the DM must decide if the outcome of that fictional action is certain or uncertain. If it is certain - say, because it's a common monster or the character's background and experiences would reasonably make them knowledgeable about it - then the DM can just give them the information. If it is uncertain - say, because the monster is rare or obscure or the character's background and experience would not reasonably give them knowledge about it - then the DM asks the player to make an appropriate ability check, usually Intelligence. Almost any Intelligence-based skill can apply depending on the nature of the monster and the approach the player has stated for his character. For example, the acolyte cleric might try to recall something in his or her religious texts that referred to the monster (Religion). Or an observant rogue might watch how the monster does its thing, deducing from its behavior what its strengths and weaknesses are (Investigation). The DC of the check varies, depending on the character's approach and the rarity of the monster and obscurity of information about it. If you only ever use 10, 15, or 20, however, it'll work fine. But what does success and failure on an ability check mean? The most common binary stakes are you either know (success) or don't know (fail). I, however, find that terribly boring and prefer to offer something on failure and sometimes a setback. So here's an easy go-to: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Success: The character identifies the monster, its type, and some lore about it that can be used to deduce its motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. If the player beats the DC by 5, the character also knows the monster's resistances and vulnerabilities and abilities.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Failure: The character identifies the monster and some lore about it that can be used to deduce its motivations, strengths, or weaknesses.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Alternative Failure: As per Success, but the character's sudden revelation leaves him or her frightened until the end of his or her next turn. (Use this basic alternative failure condition as a model for variations on this theme.)</li> </ul>As with all stakes, I recommend making them transparent before the roll so the player knows what he or she is getting into when making that check. Some reasonable negotiation is acceptable. Finally, if a player knows information about the monster, they can just say their character knows it and justify that knowledge in any reasonable way they like. However, since there is no guarantee that the DM hasn't changed the monster's stat block, it's smart play to confirm one's assumptions with in-game actions.How do you handle them?</blockquote>

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