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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6595553" data-attributes="member: 6677017">I like to make an Intelligence (skill) role on my side of the screen when the party first encounters a creature. I'm not sure how I'm finally going to end up doing it, but provisionally I've been allowing about 2 rolls per party (everyone gets to apply their own mod to the result of one die or another). To shake it up I'll just decide which roll applies to who. I set the basic DC first, based entirely on how rare or obscure I feel the monster is in the world. (The CR thing in 3e bugged me--dragons have high CR, but are well-known creatures.) I generally have one value to know what the creature is, and then for every 5 points higher you get more information about it. I don't think I've ever set the basic "what is this?" value higher than 20, but I have used a good number of 20s for aberrations and such.If the players ask me in particular, I will sometimes allow them to make rolls to determine specifics.I often use this particular monster-skill association:Arcana: Aberrations, constructs, elementalsHistory: Humanoids, dragons, giants, monstrositiesNature: Beasts, plants, fey, oozesReligion: Celestials, fiends, undeadI entertain proposals for using different skills, and I'm generally a pushover in that respect.I also allow languages known to substitute as skills for the purposes of granting proficiency bonus, and would also likely allow background related information (a solider in a nation warring against hobgoblins gets his proficiency bonus to know things about them).Once characters learn information in-character they are assumed to remember it. If the player completely forgot something their character learned, I'd probably allow them to make a roll to have their character remember it.I like players to keep their personal knowledge and their character knowledge separate--it increases world immersion and adds to the value of character creation choices. So far, my players have all been completely fine with that. In fact, they seem to enjoy it. Some of them are new enough not to know much about the monsters, but even the experienced players seem excited to ask "what do I know about this creature?" rather than just trying to apply their player knowledge to it.</blockquote>

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