Knowledge (monster) skill - how would you do it?

[Renaissance Man]

Forgive me if this subject has been covered before. One of my players, thinking himself clever, has made the study of monsters an integral part of his character's background. He is clearly bent on metagaming - a nasty habit, but one which I think can be regulated. To that end, I have drafted the following:

Knowledge (monsters) (Int; Trained only)
Check: DC 10 - really easy questions; i.e., that which is common knowledge (DM's discretion)
DC 15 - basic questions within area of expertise (see below); i.e., physical description, relative toughness, special qualities, preferred habitat and organizational habits, etc.
DC 20 to 30 - really tough questions within area of expertise; i.e., specific attributes (HD, AC, etc.) - rendered into terms that the character would comprehend, of course.
Special: the player must specify the type of monster (as per the ranger's list of favored enemies) as his area of expertise when the skill is selected. Skilled checks (DC 15 and above) can only be attempted for monsters within the character's area of expertise. The player can select a new type of monster for every five skill ranks he has in this skill.

Does anyone else use something similar? If so, how has it played out in your game?

 

[Liquide]

Our group use the Knowledge Skill like this

Knowledge(Monster Type)

Monster Type is what it sounds like, from Abberation to Undead.

DC10-14: Common man's knowledge about the particular kind of creature.

DC15-19: Actual habits and behaviour of the creatures in question.

DC20-24: Actual weaknesses and powers of the creatures.

DC25+: Anything obscure not covered by the above

 

[der_kluge]

As a player, I'd be completely comfortable with both sets of rules.

 

[Painfully]

Not only would I make them choose a monster type, but I might limit knowledge to creatures he has had an opportunity to have contact with. It would make sense to offer this only to classes who have exposure to those monster types, like rangers, druids, or hunter-types of classes. And possibly to wizards or clerics for outsider types of creatures or magical beasts, constructs, and such.

Make it appropriate to the class, and the locale. Use the character's background to make it appropriate. Ask the player where his knowledge comes from. He may very well learn the details and habits of these creatures from books, but certainly if the creature was at all dangerous, those books had to come at a very heavy cost and are by no means easy to come across.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Check out the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press. They have such a skill detailed out, and even an adventuring scholar PrC.

Each monster entry also has a list of common, uncommon, rare, etc facts that would act as a really good guide for you to use.

Add that to the fact that its an extremely well-done monster book, and its just what you need. When I get home, I'll try and post up an example of the lore results given with a monster description, and the DC's of the skill involved.

 

[incognito]

I use Know (monsterous) in my game

All players have it as a class skill. They also get 1 free rank per level.

The DCs are set on a per monster basis. "famous" monsters or common (animal, etc) monsters have lwoer DCs.

Example:
Ape (animal): Base DC = 10
Orc (common humanoid): Base DC = 10
Zombie (Common undead): Base DC = 15
Medusa (Famous Monst humanoid) Base DC = 15
Otyguh (rare, odd abberation) BAse DC = 20

Templates add at least +5 to the DC.

I allow a skill check as a free aciton at any time during combat.

If the charactes make the base DC, they know the base CR, DR, SR, the 'type' and the Name of the creature, and ONE 'question' (avg AC, HD (but not hp), Stong save, weak save - if any, one special ability. etc.

by every 4-5 they beat the DC, they get another Question

 

[Crothian]

I really like the skill as presented in Monsternomicon.

 

[Fenris]

The first thing that popped into my mind in seeing this skill is the fact that the sources of information (old books, talking to "experts") would be notoriously unreliable. Great way to derail the players even with a good check.

That said I would like a skill like this, preferably worked in with the rangers favored enemy or wilderness lore. This skill would be invaluable and appropriate with homebrew monsters or where Players already "know" the entry.

 

[Ravellion]

you might find some useful answers here:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32236

Rav

 

[Ravellion]

That link given, I'll gladly still repost my post in that link, in order to help those with an aversion to the general discussion forum.

I myself detest Knowledge: monster. The skills are already there, for the most part in knowledge: Nature (beasts, animals, humanoids, giants, plants), history (mostly general unreliable info, same as local), Arcana (magical beasts, constructs), Dragons (duh!), undead (as found in Defenders of the faith, otherwise use Arcana for undead as well), and planes (outsiders).

I hate Knowledge: Monsters. With a passion. It would be like inroducing a skill "perceive" or "observe", completely overlapping with spot, search and listen.

Rav