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How to Handle Monster Knowledge Checks
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<blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6992858" data-attributes="member: 6778044"><p>I would say yes. Just as much as people in our world know that a rattlesnake is poisonous. We might not all be able to tell the difference between a coral snake and a king snake, but we probably know they may be dangerous as well. I suspect most people that can't identify a particular snake will probably treat them as if they are potentially venomous.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I definitely recommend tweaking monsters, particularly the ones that would be less well known. Also, there's no reason to tell players specifically what they are fighting. My players tend to refer to corporeal undead as skeletons or zombies. It might be a wight, or some other variation of those types, but essentially it's a walking skeleton or a walking corpse.</p><p></p><p>But something else that comes to mind is to ask what difference does it make? For example, if your players really didn't know that trolls could only be killed by fire or acid, that might be an interesting encounter the first time they meet one, but otherwise it won't matter. Why does that initial encounter matter?</p><p></p><p>To me, I think the only time that it makes a difference is if the creature is so difficult to kill that it requires a quest to determine its weakness and figure out how to defeat it. I know that in the description of many of the towns and cities of the Realms they have silver arrows in their armories to fight lycanthropes. </p><p></p><p>Which ultimately leads back to the point that if it doesn't really matter, then why worry about it? If a player has read the MM and knows a special weakness, so be it. If it's important that the encounter have a unique weakness that must be discovered, then change it.</p><p></p><p>I have cave trolls that aren't particularly vulnerable to fire or acid, but will turn to stone in sunlight. Nothing new, and in regions where they might be encountered the locals know this. Otherwise it just becomes a tougher monster to put down for good.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilbranteloth, post: 6992858, member: 6778044"] I would say yes. Just as much as people in our world know that a rattlesnake is poisonous. We might not all be able to tell the difference between a coral snake and a king snake, but we probably know they may be dangerous as well. I suspect most people that can't identify a particular snake will probably treat them as if they are potentially venomous. I definitely recommend tweaking monsters, particularly the ones that would be less well known. Also, there's no reason to tell players specifically what they are fighting. My players tend to refer to corporeal undead as skeletons or zombies. It might be a wight, or some other variation of those types, but essentially it's a walking skeleton or a walking corpse. But something else that comes to mind is to ask what difference does it make? For example, if your players really didn't know that trolls could only be killed by fire or acid, that might be an interesting encounter the first time they meet one, but otherwise it won't matter. Why does that initial encounter matter? To me, I think the only time that it makes a difference is if the creature is so difficult to kill that it requires a quest to determine its weakness and figure out how to defeat it. I know that in the description of many of the towns and cities of the Realms they have silver arrows in their armories to fight lycanthropes. Which ultimately leads back to the point that if it doesn't really matter, then why worry about it? If a player has read the MM and knows a special weakness, so be it. If it's important that the encounter have a unique weakness that must be discovered, then change it. I have cave trolls that aren't particularly vulnerable to fire or acid, but will turn to stone in sunlight. Nothing new, and in regions where they might be encountered the locals know this. Otherwise it just becomes a tougher monster to put down for good. [/QUOTE]
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