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Message: <blockquote data-quote="raleel" data-source="post: 6410071" data-attributes="member: 21664">Me? I'd probably give it to everyone, and I probably wouldn't even hide it. If someone asked, I'd probably tell them. Then again, I've come off of 13th Age recently where the whole DM secrecy thing is actively discouraged.and why? Because a large portion of the wizard's abilities are based on singular things he can't see, and he has a choice. Rogues and fighters? not so much. They hit AC almost all the time. They have very few abilities that are going to be substantially hindered. And really, if they did, I'd probably say something about it.Simply a different style of play is all.Right, and I'm not saying that things that are completely new to the CHARACTERS when they meet them shouldn't be like this. But there is a pretty large raft of knowledge in a world already. No one knows that ogres are dumb? that seems rather absurd. No one knowing that flumphs are dextrous? That seems totally reasonable. I might point out, Investigation is the skill here. It is, quite literally, "Poring through ancient scrolls in search of a hidden fragment of knowledge". this sort of thing is, quite literally, "discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse." It's about using your intelligence based character's intelligence for knowledge that you the player don't have. It is not always going to work, but it will sometimes (at least in my games).For you. not necessarily for anyone else. Heck, maybe for LOTS of people, but there are portions where this is not fun, and just frustrating <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />certainly. and these are all valid things. let me give you an example that doesn't involve intelligence - I played a warlord back in 4e with an 8 wisdom. I got a lot of crap from one player (a quite intelligent guy, and one of my best friends, and a long time player). He argued that I shouldn't be doing things that are patently stupid. I'm like why? I've got an 8 wisdom - thinking things through and realizing consequences is not really his strong suit. He's just barely above "moron" on the risk assessment quotient.Sure, me as an extremely experienced player KNEW that some of these things were likely to get me killed, but I also knew it was possible, and it was driving the other players forward for more risky, but ultimately more rewarding play.ended up being a really great character, very memorable, and largely because I ignored my own abilities here.Sure, and I don't mean to imply that there should be no mystery. Even the best scientists run into unexpected things pretty regularly (aka daily, maybe hourly). They simply don't have all the parameters. That's why things like nilbogs exist <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />More to the point, you, as the DM, can introduce that stuff. Using it on goblins seems like a waste for their base stats - use it instead on that the mystery is in who is controlling them, etc. The DM has all these things to work with. Heck, going and getting information on a newish thing is a great adventure in and of itself.oh yea - without any appropriate knowledge or skill. If I'm playing a 10 int Folk Hero fighter, azer are just not going to be in my realm. However, saying "azers are dwarf-like, tough and hardy, and are native to the elemental plane of fire" that the wizard read in a book might give them the idea that they are resistant to poison and isn't metagamey at all. In fact if they got the Made, not Born section, that would be a good hint that they are actually as much construct as organism. It is simply a matter of degrees, and can help reinforce the wizard as an academic researcher and purveyor of knowledge.My point with the numbers above isn't that you should give them the numbers (although I personally have little problem with it), but rather picking your spells smartly is going to have a LARGE impact on your effectiveness. The aforementioned ogre has a 6 point shift between Con and Int. That's going from them saving on an 8+ to a 14+ - BIG difference and make the PLAYER feel a bigger impact, and reinforce what a high intelligence means.</blockquote>

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