Someone doesn't know their enemies

[Trickstergod]

Ugh.. so let me get this straight: you need a DC15 Knowledge Arcana check to even know what the frag it is?! Not to know its traits or abilities, but just to be able to say "That is a pseudodragon".

And people wonder why I think using knowledge skills to ID monsters is ridiculous. Maybe if they upped all the skill points for all characters to at LEAST 4+Int per level.

A first level wizard with a solitary rank in Knowledge (arcana) has at least a 45% chance of identifying the dragon, assuming a 15 Intelligence based off the standard point buy.

That's not "ridiculous." That's "completely reasonable." And it's not like the pseudodragon fills a niche like, say, a raccoon - where it's going to be commonplace and recognizable on sight. One look should tell people "dragon," but that's about it without, say, a DC 15 Knowledge check.

Not to mention that a pseudodragon could be mistaken for a young dragon. How many different types of mice can you identify? Beyond just "mouse"?

And, no, the check shouldn't necessarily give its unique traits; just like with a raccoon. How many people honestly know that raccoons like washing things because it feels good, or that you really should avoid their scat (above and beyond the norm)?

And by the time the wizard isn't some novice schlub - level 4, at the least - that Knowledge check becomes a flat-out 50%. With still just one rank in Knowledge (arcana).

The flub on the faerie wings is one thing, but the DC itself? Entirely reasonable. Outside of some of the more absurd of campaigns, a pseudodragon isn't the equivalent of a raccoon or mouse or beaver.

 

[Henry]

For that matter, I know people who wouldn't know a hamster from a gerbil, because they've never seen one before - much less a Chinchilla! So it's not a cray idea. Heck, I never use the common names for monsters unless the PCs have either (A) run into them before, or (B) use a Knowledge check to ID it. I'll describe them first.

 

[amethal]

For that matter, I know people who wouldn't know a hamster from a gerbil, because they've never seen one before - much less a Chinchilla!

When I first got my chinchilla, someone in work asked me whether I was going to take it for walks or whether my wife would be walking it

 

[diaglo]

When I first got my chinchilla, someone in work asked me whether I was going to take it for walks or whether my wife would be walking it

i'm walking my chinchilla right now. IYKWIMAITYD

 

[Shade]

I'm far more bothered how the lowest knowledge check for creatures reveals all type and subtype traits. I can see how a DC 13 check could reveal that a dretch is a demon, for example, but not all demon resistances and immunities, as the new format seems to imply.

 

[Alzrius]

I especially love how the art for the pseudodragon is right at the top of the page there, showing it's draconic-style wings.

 

[Kormydigar]

nor does it appear that the writer did.

ROFL