Re: the aboleth thing.
There are only two ways a character could say something like "But aboleth's can't control people from this far away!"
1. The character learned this in game. If that's the case, then there's no problem. There's no need for an automatic baseline because the DM gave the character the answer actually in use in that actual campaign.
2. The player read the monster manual and is assuming that his character knows this piece of out of character information. This is NOT acceptable without DM permission. Even if the character has like 20 ranks in Knowledge: Stuff about Aboleths, the player should still be checking with the DM rather than bringing in information himself. And while I think it might be an interesting campaign to run a mystery type setting where the information in the Monster Manual was open to PCs and the players were trying to solve the mystery by using the MM as a reference book, I don't think the whole game should be designed that way just because someone might try to do that. I think its more reasonable to assume that things get handled the normal way- in game information, adjusted and filtered by the DM.
In any case, when being concerned about the baseline of information your players hold, its usually best to make that baseline a genre rather than encyclopedic knowledge of aboleth behavior. Robin Laws explains it best. Teach your players what kind of movie they're in. Then make sure that your game conforms to the expectations of that movie. Are you in a Hong Kong kung fu flick? Then the solution to aboleths is probably a massive brawl that leaves half the city leveled. Are you in a in a cthuloid horror flick? Then the solution to aboleths is to run far away screaming. Teach the players the genre, and they'll fill in the details without you having to go through the rather risky process of assuming that your players can derive the species of a creature using mental control from the radius of its mind powers without the use of in character knowledge placed in the game by the DM.
There are only two ways a character could say something like "But aboleth's can't control people from this far away!"
1. The character learned this in game. If that's the case, then there's no problem. There's no need for an automatic baseline because the DM gave the character the answer actually in use in that actual campaign.
2. The player read the monster manual and is assuming that his character knows this piece of out of character information. This is NOT acceptable without DM permission. Even if the character has like 20 ranks in Knowledge: Stuff about Aboleths, the player should still be checking with the DM rather than bringing in information himself. And while I think it might be an interesting campaign to run a mystery type setting where the information in the Monster Manual was open to PCs and the players were trying to solve the mystery by using the MM as a reference book, I don't think the whole game should be designed that way just because someone might try to do that. I think its more reasonable to assume that things get handled the normal way- in game information, adjusted and filtered by the DM.
In any case, when being concerned about the baseline of information your players hold, its usually best to make that baseline a genre rather than encyclopedic knowledge of aboleth behavior. Robin Laws explains it best. Teach your players what kind of movie they're in. Then make sure that your game conforms to the expectations of that movie. Are you in a Hong Kong kung fu flick? Then the solution to aboleths is probably a massive brawl that leaves half the city leveled. Are you in a in a cthuloid horror flick? Then the solution to aboleths is to run far away screaming. Teach the players the genre, and they'll fill in the details without you having to go through the rather risky process of assuming that your players can derive the species of a creature using mental control from the radius of its mind powers without the use of in character knowledge placed in the game by the DM.
