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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Negative Zero" data-source="post: 153336" data-attributes="member: 3794">in a somewhat similar manner to Magus_Jerel, i fail to see what the fuss is all about here. what's the big deal in letting a mage character use his skill at a relevant time? particularly in this case where, other than making the player feel good about succeeding at a check, it has no real effect on the game.as has been said before, without a readied action to go with it, knowing what is being cast won't profit him/her anything. save perhaps giving them a few extra seconds to contemplate their imminent death, or a few extra minutes to think about their next move (which can likely save game time later on when his/her turn comes around).so what's the point about arguing (what seems like a silly point to me anyway) whether a character can mentally process info that he/she's likely seeing, at the time that they actuall see it? lets not forget that attempting the skill doesn't mean that you automatically succeed.to address one of the original Qs by Xar, a 1st lvl mage can very easily have read/heard about magiks that he wants to learn how to cast someday. study of magic isn't limited to arcane magic only either. the roll that you make, is to determine if your character has in fact had enough exposure to this spell so that he/she can identify what it is by seeing someone casting it. bad roll? sorry, you've never come accross this spell before. or, you've never come accross it cast quite this way before.now, i fail to see how one extra die roll and a few seconds worth of words can "hopelessly [slow] down combat". as for the mystery, well, isn't that the point of taking knowledge skills? to get rid of some of the mystery? it's the DMs job to create mystery, and the players' to solve it. it's done quite often with a die roll. it's up to the DM to create more.i still say though, who cares when the mage understands what he sees. what's the difference between him knowing now, or in a few seconds time? it's not like he can do anything with it. so where's the argument? ~NegZ</blockquote>

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