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<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6178690" data-attributes="member: 27160">This just reminded me of something I do that seems to work well: &quot;passive&quot; knowledge.Basically, the rules give knowledge DCs required to get info about monsters &quot;in the field&quot;. I generally allow a &quot;take 10&quot; style &quot;passive knowledge&quot; on these, but I adjust the DCs a bit (RAW they start at 15 for Heroic, 20 for Paragon and 25 for Epic monsters - I change that to 15+Level/2 to give a more smooth scaling; there are exceptions for &quot;rare&quot; monsters occasionally, too).This typically means that, in a skill someone has trained, they get some idea of what a same-level monster is and what it can do, but not what its vulnerabilities and weaknesses are. Lower level monsters they might get its weaknesses, higher level typically just gives a name if someone is trained in the appropriate skill (otherwise zip...)This makes Arcana, Religion, Dungeoneering and Nature particularly useful. In cities and towns I do something similar with Streetwise, too - &quot;those guys are just a group of longshoremen, but those guys are wearing street gang insignia and look like trouble...&quot;Edit: the advantage of using knowledge &quot;passively&quot;, for me as DM, is that I can check what the PCs will know &quot;for free&quot; beforehand and make notes on my encounter record sheet. They can use a minor action (per the rules) to ask for more, but of course they only get more if they roll more than a 10.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 6178690, member: 27160"] This just reminded me of something I do that seems to work well: "passive" knowledge. Basically, the rules give knowledge DCs required to get info about monsters "in the field". I generally allow a "take 10" style "passive knowledge" on these, but I adjust the DCs a bit (RAW they start at 15 for Heroic, 20 for Paragon and 25 for Epic monsters - I change that to 15+Level/2 to give a more smooth scaling; there are exceptions for "rare" monsters occasionally, too). This typically means that, in a skill someone has trained, they get some idea of what a same-level monster is and what it can do, but not what its vulnerabilities and weaknesses are. Lower level monsters they might get its weaknesses, higher level typically just gives a name if someone is trained in the appropriate skill (otherwise zip...) This makes Arcana, Religion, Dungeoneering and Nature particularly useful. In cities and towns I do something similar with Streetwise, too - "those guys are just a group of longshoremen, but [i]those[/i] guys are wearing street gang insignia and look like trouble..." Edit: the advantage of using knowledge "passively", for me as DM, is that I can check what the PCs will know "for free" beforehand and make notes on my encounter record sheet. They can use a minor action (per the rules) to ask for more, but of course they only get more if they roll more than a 10. [/QUOTE]

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