D&D 5E Monster infomation in combat - free action ?

[the Jester]

Hi all !

When the heroes enter a combat and want to know information about the enemies (keywords, strengths, weaknesses etc) do they have to do the skill-roll as an action or is this a free action ?

I don't allow it at all.

If the monster is something that "everybody knows" about, I tell them what they know. (Everyone knows about goblins in my game.) If it's something a specific pc would know about due to their class, background, or race, I simply tell them. (All dwarves are familiar with tappers, a type of undead from waaaaay back in the "Dwarvish Point of View" article in Dragon Magazine in the 1e day.) Otherwise, nope.