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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8058725" data-attributes="member: 97077">It's not a good point. Max is conflating thinking and knowing and thereby having the DM claim dominion over what a character thinks and by extension what the character attempts to do, both of which are the player's role. Intelligence checks are for resolving tasks to recall and deduce (when those tasks have an uncertain outcome and a meaningful consequence for failure), but the DM can't call for any ability check unless the players have described what they want to do e.g. "I try to recall the weaknesses of trolls based on my life growing up near the Trollhaunt" or "I try to deduce if trolls are vulnerable to fire based on available clues.""I try to hit the troll with a lit torch" does not require an Intelligence check before the action declaration can be deemed valid. That's a pure authoritarian power grab by the DM. However, a player so inclined could - before attempting to hit a troll with a torch - try to recall lore about the weaknesses of trolls, possibly make an ability check at the DM's behest to resolve the task, fail, then decide to attack with an arrow instead. Or the player can choose to have the character attack with the torch anyway, taking a risk that this is a good tactic against this troll right here and not a bad one because the DM changed the stat block.</blockquote>