Blog (A5E) Level Up’s Monsters: Ecology

In another post, I talked about the updates we’re making to monster stat blocks in Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Today, I want to talk about the changes we’re making to the rest of the monster entry.

RPG bestiaries generally accompany a monster’s game statistics with an essay about the monster’s appearance, ecology, lore, and place in the world. We’re doing that too! I hope that most of our monster descriptions will include a twist, re-interpretation, or story seed that you haven’t seen before and that you’ll find useful. But our monster information isn’t limited to these (hopefully inspiring) essays.

Level Up’s Monsters: Ecology — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

In another post, I talked about the updates we’re making to monster stat blocks. Today, I want to talk about the changes we’re making to the rest of the monster entry.

www.levelup5e.com

 

[Lefi2017]

I like the idea of lore checks but they should happen before the battle and require research. 1-week reach = a roll 1-week addition research ad a +3 to the roll. The in-battle role seams to be insane often also it should require the moster typ rolls skill checks from tarshas

 

[dave2008]

I like the idea of lore checks but they should happen before the battle and require research. 1-week reach = a roll 1-week addition research ad a +3 to the roll. The in-battle role seams to be insane often also it should require the moster typ rolls skill checks from tarshas

Did it say the roll was in battle? I didn't look that closely as I just assumed you make lore rolls before the battle.

 

[Lefi2017]

Did it say the roll was in battle? I didn't look that closely as I just assumed you make lore rolls before the battle.

I'm torn how much the pcs should know without research about monsters. Also don't you have the frequent meta-gaming question when a player encounters a monster the first time how much do I know about that monster (vampire).

 

[dave2008]

I'm torn how much the pcs should know without research about monsters.

Well, we play with a lot of downtime. My PCs can only level-up when they spend downtime to train, study etc. So the assumption is that some amount of research is done at this time. So the lore roll, if required, it the result of the prior general research. If the truly research before hand and have enough time, there really isn't a need to roll, the just figure out most if the info (depending on the lore and resources available)

Also don't you have the frequent meta-gaming question when a player encounters a monster the first time how much do I know about that monster (vampire).

Sure, but if it gets in the way I just remind my players their characters wouldn't know that and they understand. However, because of my point above, that doesn't come up very often. Our general assumption is that players have common knowledge of most monsters.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm torn how much the pcs should know without research about monsters. Also don't you have the frequent meta-gaming question when a player encounters a monster the first time how much do I know about that monster (vampire).

Even the average human (non-gaming) on Earth has heard legends about vampires, ghost and goblins so in a world where such creatures are real why would you presume that common folk dont also tewll similar ‘ghost’ stories or that adventurers havent picked up a few more tales by hanging out in the corner of taverns or in their random downtime research?

 

[tetrasodium]

Even the average human (non-gaming) on Earth has heard legends about vampires, ghost and goblins so in a world where such creatures are real why would you presume that common folk dont also tewll similar ‘ghost’ stories or that adventurers havent picked up a few more tales by hanging out in the corner of taverns or in their random downtime research?

I frequently answer about creatures by referencing things from plays and such the PC saw to add flavor and at times even mislead .... "you remember seeing that one phiarlin play where the revenant needs to be staked through both eyes with a pine stick and have other mouth filled with pine ash so it doesn't rise again tomorrow" type stuff. Eventually they build up so much misleading "I guess it worked so let's do it again" that they don't even blink when they encounter a differently "custom" monster and occasionally do unneeded things like burning a doppelganger body cause they as players weren't sure if needed
edit:They may have been under the impression that doppelganger they killed in one round had troll-like regeneration or needed a specific weapon material like daelkyr or something to kill due to a really bad knowledge check followed by a chorus of everyone else at te table wanting to make it too, I don't remember beyond being surprised and ammused at burning the body