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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5302473" data-attributes="member: 61155">Again, RC, the issue at hand isn't the idea of having signs of a monster's presence available. It is that your argument seems to take that to the extreme expectation that there are never situations where PCs don't come across those signs or find themselves without the knowledge to interpret them correctly.  Such as the comment about Maenar leaving vermin bones behind. Plenty of things eat vermin - does the expectation of the PCs identifying the Maenar rely upon them having a ranger with an incredible Nature skill?  Similarly, is it that unreasonable to assume that some encounters may happen without tons of advance warning?  You keep presenting this as an either/or situation: Either all encounters contain a reasonable footprint that the PCs will have the opportunity to discover and knowledge to decipher, or a game lacks any internal inconsistency.  I don't think it breaks down that easily. I think many outdoor encounters will have warning signs, whether physical tracks or rumors heard in town. I think others could come upon the PCs before they have the opportunity to obtain such knowledge. There are also plenty of reasons why there might be false or misleading rumors, there could be tracks that aren't always easily decipherable, there could be combat elements that there are no real way to predict. (Such as the exact list of what spells an enemy Wizard might possess.)  Sure, there could be reasons and explanations for most such things - a DM could certainly leave as many clues in advance as they desire. But there could also be reasons not to have such things, and I don't think a game lacks consistency if some encounters come without complete warning of what the PCs will face.  We're not saying, "No creature should have a footprint." We're saying that it doesn't seem reasonable to assume that every creature's has one that the PCs stumble upon in advance, and that while the DM can contrive to arrange that as the case, the game - or even the desire for a realistic setting - doesn't require that to be the case.</blockquote>

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