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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6160237" data-attributes="member: 17106">I would say that most parties know some information about most monsters they are likely to encounter. Remove those qualifiers, and it becomes a ridiculous overstatement.Given core rules, a party of four characters, and an on-CR monster, one party member is fairly likely to have the appropriate Knowledge skill maxed. If the DM does not allow untrained Knowledge, the players likely have taken one rank in every worthwhile Knowledge, as min/max guides recommend, to circumvent that. The odds of a character failing a trained skill check against a DC of 10 + CR are small. If the characters' level and CR are the same, the three skill points over their level, their Int mod, any other bonuses they have, and their die roll put together merely need to equal 10. If the trained character fails or if no one is trained, the party has three or four chances to roll well. I assume that if the check is made, a death attack will be part of the first level of information revealed regardless of how you parse it. I assume that if one character makes this conclusion, he can quickly relay it to others as a free action.Thus, a party of four level 6 characters that spot a Medusa that is greater than 30 ft. away from them will almost certainly realize that it has a gaze attack they should avoid before they get within range. Thus, it is not fair to assume that a party of characters exposed to it will all have to make saving throws against it. If it sneaks up on them or if they are exceptionally ignorant, this could happen, but is not all that likely. Most SoDs other than the (non-core) banshee are close range or touch range, most SoD monsters are limited in mobility and intelligence and several SoDs can be avoided by averting one's eyes. This is important in mitigating the overall threat levels of SoDs, and not everyone in this thread is willing to account for that.My assumptions regarding knowledge checks, DCs, and interpretations shift this scenario incrementally in the PCs' favor in most cases.Either way, I think this conclusion is entirely reasonable, and does not indicate that every single person has access to detailed cryptozoological information.In general, players should do that. I see no problem, however, with a player doing something clever on occasion. If the roll justifies it, he gets rewarded. If not...nothing ventured, nothing gained. In any case, I think it's for the player himself to decide what his character could reasonably think. How many great stories have unimpressive people making one key insight or saying one trenchant phrase? Heck, that's a JRR Tolkien special!I think it's simply a consistent enforcement of the heart of the d20 system: your bonus is how good you are, the DC is how hard the task is. If you beat the DC, you accomplish the task. The bonus and DC numbers determine the chance of that happening. I think that is perfectly adequate and does not need an exception for trained only skills. Even given the conceit of trained only skills, I think Knowledge skills are some of the least appropriate skills. As any ENWorlder knows, people can recall a lot of random factoids even outside of their expertise.</blockquote>

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