D&D 4E NPC behaviour and knowledge in 4ed

[rob626]

In our own world, we have myths about the amazing abilities of the Minotaur to navigate mazes. If I were to run into a minotaur (stay with me here), I would reasonably assume that trying to lose him in a maze is not a good option.

As a counter-example, a paladin daily power is to cause the targetted creature damage every time it attacks. If the creature does not attack then there is no damage.

So when the paladin uses this ability- "Vile creature! The pain you visit on others shall haunt you unto the grave!"- does the creature know that he has been cursed by whatever divine power and can act on that knowledge or does the creature have to experiment to find out it has been cursed? Is there some bone-deep knowledge imparted by the divine power that lets the target know his plight? I am thinking of both the Mind-Flayer and the Iron Golem.

Similarly, how much knowledge legitimately falls under "reasonable knowledge of how the world works"? Does the average kobold understand that most guys in plate are going to swat them like bugs if they try to be "shifty"? How much of player and non-player abilities fall into the common knowledge/lore of the world? Do the legends of our fantasy world include how paladins punish those that harm others (daily power)? Or speak of how mighty warriors train to protect their comrades with tactical shoving matches (iron tide)?

What level of game knowledge do your NPC's and PC's have? What world knowledge would you consider relevant and common vs what would be considered basically unknown?

 

[Xethreau]

In before lulz

-edit-
How did you get this to appear as an update anyway?

 

[Henry]

This was posted under the 4e news -- there is a glitch that does allow this (I'm not sure of the circumstances that allow it) but let's all please double check where we're posting things first. Thanks.

 

[1of3]

Does the average kobold understand that most guys in plate are going to swat them like bugs if they try to be "shifty"?

I had to answer that question as well, as I tried Oakhurst. (Fine adventure. )

I compared that situationen to the Mageslayer feat from 3E Complete Arcane. (The feat prevents cast on the defensive.) It states explicitly that casters threatened with that feat realize its effect from the opponent's manner of fighting.

So my kobold's did not try to be too shifty.

 

[FadedC]

Seems like many monsters (particularly soldier types) have defender like powers too to punish people who either don't attack them or who try to shift away from them. I might assume inteligent monsters have some idea they may be next to a defender who will punish them for shifting/moving away/attacking somebody else, but they don't know the exact details (since the PCs are "special" and presumably unlike anything they have ever fought). So I might have the kobolds reluctant to make superficial shifts that won't accomplish much, but I might still have one take his chances and shift to flank only to find he gets smacked for doing this.

Edit: One thing to consider is what your going to tell your players if they are next to a monster that punishes them for shifting/etc. Keeping things consistant is always good.

 

[Intrope]

Special:Even though this ability is called a challenge, it doesn't rely on the intelligence of language ability of the target. It's a magical compulsion that affects the creature's behavior, regardless of the creature's nature. You can't place a divine challenge on a creature that is already affected by your divine challenge.

I'd assume from this, that the challenged creature grasps the nature of the challenge.

Naturally, that doesn't imply every creature would immediately understand every effect they get hit with.

 

[Surgoshan]

How about this: Reasonably intelligent creatures should grasp the implications right away. Animal intelligence would get it after being hurt by it. Mindless automata just plain won't get it.

 

[small pumpkin man]

I'm fairly certain for marks in particular the creature knows what the consequence of their actions are, the entire point of them is to make the creature think twice about attacking other creatures/party members, if they don't know that they have penalties to do so, there's no disincentive.

 

[hong]

This was posted under the 4e news -- there is a glitch that does allow this (I'm not sure of the circumstances that allow it) but let's all please double check where we're posting things first. Thanks.

It's not really a glitch, I don't think. The News forums (including 4E News) are set to allow everyone to post to them, and that includes starting new threads. The software has just been hacked so that new threads there show up on the front page.