problem with using knowledge skills to gain information about monsters

[IcyCool]

I've done it rather simply like so:

"Your roll is going to give you 3 pieces of information. What specific things do you want to know?"

I explain to the player that the things they can ask for are all bits of information from their stat block. So if the player wants to know how many HD the monster has, what it's spell resistance is, and if it darkvision, he gets to know all of those things. If the player wants to be lazy and just have me give him some useful information, I'll pick out a few things that would be relevant to their situation and vague them up a bit before dispensing it (i.e. "You know that trolls heal quickly, but that fire or acid slows that down quite a bit. You also know that if they get both claws on you, you're in for a world of hurt.")

 

[Klaus]

Do you have a link for that?

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/tt

All of the Know Your Enemy articles.

 

[frankthedm]

Do you have a link for that?

http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/tt/20060905a
http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/tt

A Peek Behind the Rules Curtain
So how do designers determine the Difficulty Class for Knowledge checks about creatures? The following is excerpted from Monster Manual IV:

The description of the Knowledge skill indicates that in general, the baseline DC of checks to identify monsters and remember one bit of useful information about their special powers or vulnerabilities is equal to 10 + the monster's HD. Every 5 points by which the check result exceeds the DC yields another useful piece of information (PH 78).

As a general rule of thumb, a DC 15 check or higher will reveal all of the base creature's type and subtype traits as defined in the glossary. This often includes information about energy resistance or various immunities. For instance, a DC 15 Knowledge (arcana) check reveals that dragons have high hit points (12-sided HD), all good saves, and have darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision. They eat, sleep, and breathe.

Information specific to the creature, such as its type of damage resistance, spell-like abilities, or immunities come with the high DC check results.

 

[cmanos]

WotC is putting out Knowledge charts for the MM monsters in its website, and since MM3 they have included those in monster descriptions.

Really? About time. Will have to see if I can find these charts...

 

[Kae'Yoss]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/tt

All of the Know Your Enemy articles.

Thanks to you and Frank!

Note that some of the other articles also have stats for some critters (something fiendish).

I transferred the data I found into an Access database - I'll have to work some more on it, so you can more easily select a specific critter, and maybe make the thing a little prettier, but it should be useful even so.

Anyone interested?

 

[blargney the second]

Anyone interested?

Oh hell yes!
-blarg

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Here you go!

Don't be shy with suggestions.

 

[blargney the second]

Nice! It's easy and quick to use.

As for feature requests:
1) The combo box for selecting monsters is a little friendlier with an "ORDER BY Creatures.CreatureName; "
2) Hyperlinks to the original WotC articles would be nifty. (Maybe on the text box that displays the monster's name?)
3) A printable report for the selected monster would be *wicked*.
4) A field that indicated the sourcebook & page number would be helpful. I can't remember where Advespas come from...

Overall, me likey very much! How can I know when you make updates to it?
-blarg

 

[Harm]

It's a good system and a nice showing for skill points. Don't be afraid to give your players info for it, but also don't be afraid to change up monsters a bit. Theres no reason every monster of type X is exactly the same any more than every PC of level X is exactly the same. One useful peice of knowledge might be "You're pretty sure you've never read about an ogre thats this big before."

 

[Himoura]

with a good knowledge (ie pass and then maybe some more) check my DM will often give out things like "It has fast healing" but not how much or he'll says it has "damage reduction - magic" but again not how much or we might find out a weakness like "its weak to cold" and we have to use this information as best we can. Generally though after a round or 2 we can work out how much damage reduction it has or possible even how much fast healing it has.