D&D 5E Impossible Ability Test

[jrowland]

DMs right. Even if he's wrong. Talk about it, and if he holds firm, deal with it or find another game.

 

[SkidAce]

Hmmm, I think I'll list all my monsters by rarity, using the DC class guidelines in the PH.

 

[el_stiko]

If the elf is a scholar, and the creature wasn't born yesterday, maybe they had read about it. That triggers the test, unless the DM is in a blocking mood. Players block DMs back by leaving their campaigns when they resort to dickery.

 

[txshusker]

If he thinks there's a slim chance of knowing anything, he can always increase the DC. A character having zero knowledge of the world in which they live or the chance that they had not heard stories of creatures in a taproom seems a bit harsh to me.

 

[doctorhook]

Please stick to one thread per issue. TY

Not sure, but is there more than one thread for this? Alternatively, are you a moderator now? Be friendly, son.

EDIT: My bad. I see now that there is, in fact, two threads about this. Have an XP for your trouble.

A character having zero knowledge of the world in which they live or the chance that they had not heard stories of creatures in a taproom seems a bit harsh to me.

Don't forget books. The character is question is a scholar, so reading about something she'd never seen is completely reasonable.

 

[guachi]

The DM is well within his rights to say you don't know anything about a monster. If it's a scholar, perhaps he could get a roll at DC 25 with disadvantage if it was a rare desert monster. If, say, the roll was at +7 he'd still have a 2% chance of knowing. Does that seem high or low for a rare desert monster? If he was at +8 he'd haev a 4% chance. Neither of those chances seem particularly out of the ordinary.

As a DM, I often rule that I roll for the player if I don't think he should know how effective he was at doing something. Example, a player rolling a 20 + bonus on Perception can deduce that there really isn't anything to find but if I roll in secret all he knows is that he didn't find anything, not that there wasn't anything to find.

In the case of a scholar, I'd probably take a moment to come up with a DC and a rationale behind it and let the player roll.

 

[nomotog]

If it was up to me, and it's not, I would allow the roll. I always let my players try. It is just more fun that way. If it was something like a creature so rare that literally no one has seen it before, then your roll might simply confirm that and offer you no information.

 

[guachi]

In addition, one might have various levels of success. Perhaps making a DC 15 check gives the knowledge the monster lives in the desert. DC 18 - the monster is a rare desert creature. DC 20 - it's a rare nocturnal predator that lives in the desert, etc.

 

[I'm A Banana]

We are having a problem with our DM. He suddenly stated that a scholar elf could not even roll a test to try and recognize a creature from the desert because he had never been in the desert. What do you think about that? The discussion exists because we have a policy of house rules: they have to be agreed upon by everyone. But he's saying this is not a house rule. It's his interpretation of the book. So: Should someone who studied Religion and is proficient in Religion be able to roll a Religion test to try and identify something related to religion? Or does it depend on his background (the descriptive part, as in "I lived near a forest")?

The book is pretty explicit about it being your DM's call. There's nothing in the books that says your DM has to do any particular thing. Your DM can kill everyone tomorrow with Tiamat if he wanted. And all house rules are core rules. If you don't trust your DM to be fair about it, I might suggest getting a new DM.

Depending on what I was going for with the encounter and what I knew about the character's origins, I might not allow it, either. A rare or specialized monster out of the depths of the desert being encountered by some cloistered nerd who can't get his nose out of a book to see the beast in front of his face? Yeah, he might not know anything about that creature. If I wanted it to be mysterious, unusual, exotic, and special, I wouldn't even ALLOW the check, since it works counter to the fun I'm trying to deliver.

But if it's just some random encounter with some random sphinx or something, I probably don't care that much.

 

[Henrix]

The good way to handle it would have been to set a ridiculously high DC and just say that the character didn't recognise it, without explanation.
(Or thought it was something else, which is much more fun.)

As it is, talk to each other about how you want the campaign to run.

It is perfectly ok, and a lot of fun, with a campaign where the characters do not get all the information handed to them at the drop of a die.

It is a matter of how you expect things to work. Not a matter of house rules or not.
But not much to get riled up about.

Talk about it and leave it behind you. Remorse does not make the game more fun for anyone.