Knowledge skills (Identifying a creature)

[Raven Crowking]

Personally, I'd make knowledege of wyrmlings more rare than of the Elder dragons, since probably a lot more research has gone into the Big dragons.

In other words, "You are far more likely to know about the things that can hurt you than the ones you can ignore."


RC

 

[iwatt]

In other words, "You are far more likely to know about the things that can hurt you than the ones you can ignore."

RC

RC, we've been in agrrement from the start. My "objection" to your first response in this trhead stems from the fatc that I like to keep my rules simple, and I thought further adjusting by CR would be moer complexity than I would need in my games (YMMV). What I mean is that in the wyrmling example, I'd just shift the wyrmling one rareness category away from the Great Wyrm.

Also, to add a corollary to your statement: "You are far more likely to now about the cool things that can hurt you than the uncool." Since dragons are the coolest beasties in the MM, they would of course have a Rare descriptor (not very Rare or more).

 

[Raven Crowking]

Also, to add a corollary to your statement: "You are far more likely to now about the cool things that can hurt you than the uncool." Since dragons are the coolest beasties in the MM, they would of course have a Rare descriptor (not very Rare or more).

True.

After all, in real life we tend to view the "cooler" dangers as more dangerous and/or more likely to occur, even if this is not the case.

RC

 

[Evilhalfling]

hmm nice, I like disassoctiating the Kn cheks from CR, I might bump up the DCs a little
What would be useful was sometype of guideline for rarity.

Common - seen frequently, mostly animal or very prevalent in area (ie goblins in a area known to be controlled by goblins)

Uncommon - one of the local top predators in an area, travelers frequently warned about them. (i.e.) Ogres, Ghouls, gaint spiders, demon/devil identification (lemure vs drech)

Rare - The impressive and locally famous beasts, monsters that are native to the area, but have not been refered to or previously mentioned in the campign.
ie Dragons in nearby habitats, Sphinx in dessert or barrens, Aboleth in underdark most demons/devils.

Very Rare - WTF monsters - Grey Renders, Purple Worms, Tojanda, beholders, Gotorsti demons

Unique - a monster that the party would have no way of knowing about, possibly on one will ever be seen in the game - ethergaunt, katori, juggernaut, Radient Dragon.

 

[iwatt]

hmm nice, I like disassoctiating the Kn cheks from CR, I might bump up the DCs a little
What would be useful was sometype of guideline for rarity.

You're right...I'll edit the top post and credit you with it.

 

[Evilhalfling]

cool, thanks
no kibbles with catagories? or alternate definitions?

Revised:
Nearly Unique - a monster that the party would have no way of knowing about, new to the world or where only one exists in the world - ethergaunt, katori, juggernaut, Radient Dragon.
Some unique monsters are better known, ie if your world has a tarrasque, and it has ever been awake in recorded history people may know of it.

 

[iwatt]

cool, thanks
no kibbles with catagories? or alternate definitions?

Revised:
Nearly Unique - a monster that the party would have no way of knowing about, new to the world or where only one exists in the world - ethergaunt, katori, juggernaut, Radient Dragon.
Some unique monsters are better known, ie if your world has a tarrasque, and it has ever been awake in recorded history people may know of it.

Well, The advantage of the system is that it allows tyou to keep adding higher levels of rarity. Just bump the DCs by 5 higher .

 

[balthanon]

This is similar to rules that I put together for my campaign(s) regarding knowledge of monsters. I was even going to use something like the tier names, however, I ended up describing the type of information you receive instead. (It has much the same effect, though I made weaknesses a higher DC than special abilities/qualities.)

I had higher base DCs and lower modifiers for the most part, however, there are a larger number of them and some actually reduce the DC. I've just started using them myself, so I haven't had much opportunity to test the DCs, however, just having a system in place makes adjudicating knowledge checks much easier. (They can be seen here, if anyone is interested in comparing.)

 

[iwatt]

This is similar to rules that I put together for my campaign(s) regarding knowledge of monsters. I was even going to use something like the tier names, however, I ended up describing the type of information you receive instead. (It has much the same effect, though I made weaknesses a higher DC than special abilities/qualities.)

Nice system (also very nice presentation ).

I tried to keep the DCs and the modifiers easy to remember. Yours are pretty hard to beat I think.

I liked what you did with spelling out whay you might obtain from the knowledge checks. Do you mind if I yoink part of it?

Basically, I think your system works very well, but is way to complicated for a DM who limits his rules checking in the game to aminmum (like me).

 

[balthanon]

Nice system (also very nice presentation ).

I tried to keep the DCs and the modifiers easy to remember. Yours are pretty hard to beat I think.

I liked what you did with spelling out whay you might obtain from the knowledge checks. Do you mind if I yoink part of it?

Basically, I think your system works very well, but is way to complicated for a DM who limits his rules checking in the game to aminmum (like me).

Not a problem, feel free to take what you like. (And thank you.)

The system I'm using is considerably more complicated than yours. Mine was actually developed with a partial bias towards having easy access to looking it up actually. Most of my DMing is online now, so I have ready access to the pdf on my computer. I have a feeling that as I use it pieces will end up dropped or simplified (it has happened a few times already), but for the time being completeness was more important than simplicity.

When I get back to DMing at the table, I might be stealing a bit of the simplicity of your system.