Smite good!

[James McMurray]

An intelligence of 3 is not "comparable to human intelligence". An intelligence of three is at the very low end of the retarded range. Even with a 3 Int, a rat would still require some sort of trainging to be able to recognize holy sysmbol. It isn't as if the things have any ranks in knowledge (religion).

 

[smetzger]

An intelligence of 3 is not "comparable to human intelligence". An intelligence of three is at the very low end of the retarded range. Even with a 3 Int, a rat would still require some sort of trainging to be able to recognize holy sysmbol. It isn't as if the things have any ranks in knowledge (religion).

You could give them an untrained Knowledge (religion) check to notice that a symbol is a religious symbol say DC 10; then another Knowledge(religion) check DC 15 to know that the symbol is for a good deity.

 

[magnas_veritas]

You could give them an untrained Knowledge (religion) check to notice that a symbol is a religious symbol say DC 10; then another Knowledge(religion) check DC 15 to know that the symbol is for a good deity.

It would feel right to have them recognize a paladin. I mean, heck, they've got that whole aura of righteousness thing going, and they're fairly recognizable. Maybe a cleric, too, but I'm not sure.

And, for anarchic creatures, monks would just tick them off too much.

Brad

 

[smetzger]

It would feel right to have them recognize a paladin. I mean, heck, they've got that whole aura of righteousness thing going, and they're fairly recognizable. Maybe a cleric, too, but I'm not sure.

And, for anarchic creatures, monks would just tick them off too much.

Brad

There is nothing in the rules that indicates you can recognize someones class by looking at them.

 

[Li Shenron]

I thought that , to use a Special attack, you needed to first fulfil the criteria i.e. with smite good you would need to know that the creature is good. Now if a creature has the ability but has no way of determining that the enemies alignment is good then how could they ever use such an ability.

In the Smite Evil Paladin's ability description it indeed says he can use it agains a non-evil creature, and the daily use goes wasted. I think it was written exactly for the case when the Paladin is not sure if the foe is evil, but wants to try anyway the Smite Evil.

How could I use this ability without unrealistically targetting the good players and yet not undermining the only good ability of an abyssal rat.

Together with the other good suggestions in this thread, you may also consider the monster/NPC to use his Smite Evil just as any PC uses an ability when he doesn't know if the foe may be immune: they may wait to get a clue, or just try before it's too late to use it. If your monster has Int 3, at most you can make it wait until he feels in greater danger (e.g. after he gets the first hit, or when he's below 50% HP), then use it against the PC who just hit him. Or just use it as first attack, against the closest PC.

If you find yourself in a situation where the monster may target 2 or more different PCs, you (DM) know who is a better target but the monster itself does not, don't be afraid to roll randomly.* After all, that's what also players do sometimes .

BTW, I do the same as a player (Cleric): if 2 friends are dying, and I fail a Heal check to know who's closer to death, I roll a dice to decide who I heal first. I don't like abusing the fact I know exactly how many negative points they have.

*but more easily you can go for the closest PC

 

[magnas_veritas]

There is nothing in the rules that indicates you can recognize someones class by looking at them.

And there's nothing in the rules that says you can't decide that someone's a (class) because they just look like every other (class) they've seen. "Well, the guy in heavy armor carrying two weapons is a fighter, the perpetually upset guy in light armor and carrying a greataxe is a barbarian, and the absurdly-calm chick wearing no armor and carrying no weapons *has* to be a monk!"

Mechanically, to get accurate information*, that'd mostly use Sense Motive, though recognizing obvious holy symbols would be a Knowledge check. I wouldn't make the Knowledge DC very high, since knowing that your deity's enemy's symbol shouldn't be very hard. The Sense Motive DC should be a bit harder, but I'd make it easier based on the target's level...a higher-level paladin will be more paladiny than a lower-level.

For less-sentient creatures, I admit, it might be problematic.

Brad

* - Edit: PCs and DMs can decide all they want without rolling. But use the die roll for veracity, barring any amazingly obvious actions (the bard singing, the cleric turning the undead, etc.).

 

[Darkness]

I wanted to have the players happen upon a group of abyssal rats but I thought it might be unfair for me to just target specifically the good guys when there would be no way for the rats to know.

Make one of the rats a blackguard and also give it psionic ability so it can telepathically convey to its compatriots which of the PC detect as good.