Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9724582" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I take the view that it narrows down with time, and can be nailed down well before the monster itself actually appears, within certain boundaries.Example: Party is stalking a monster they don't know the identity of, they just know that it's been hunting and killing people in an area. It's actually a magically-mutated bulette that has higher AC than normal due to having had metal plates fused into its skin, but these metal plates make it more vulnerable to lightning, cold, fire, and piercing damage, while making it more resistant to acid, thunder, slashing, and bludgeoning damage.Step 1, the party collects reports from others who have been searching. This allows them to eliminate several plausible candidates from the list; this is not positive evidence, but it is strong negative evidence for what the creature isn't.2: Party wizard conducts a scrying ritual which detects residual magic. They learn that the creature has a detectable magical aura of transmutation, due to the fact that it was produced by fusing metal into the body of a creature.3: At the site of a battle that injured but did not kill the creature, the party finds a small scale pried off of the creature before it killed all of the targets. The Druid is able to examine its physical structure and conclude that the creature naturally has metal plates for skin.4: The party ranger tracks the beast to a spot where it has eaten some of its prey. They roll only middling on their knowledge checks, so they believe it's a bulette, but they aren't sure--it's behaving oddly for a bulette, perhaps, but the teeth-marks look just right.5: A lone survivor is found...but it's a child. The child's wizard mother tried to blast the creature away with thunder wave but it didn't work. The child's bard father stabbed it with his flame blade magical weapon...which made the creature shriek in pain, distracted and enraged, thus allowing the child to escape to a place the bulette couldn't reach. The child was too scared to get a good look at the monster and thus describes it in terms too general to identify otherwise.Etc., etc., etc. Point being, nothing has directly appeared in play, but the players have gotten lots of very good evidence for what kind of creature it is and why it would be like that. As they gain more, more of what the monster is becomes fixed in place. At step 5, for example, it would be unacceptable for the GM to make the creature actually weak to thunder and resistant to fire.</blockquote>

Verification