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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7497087" data-attributes="member: 97077">Found some time thanks in no small part to [MENTION=1207]Ristamar[/MENTION]. Which I'm happy about because I didn't want you to think I was just ignoring the effort you put into this post.Good policy.I'm not here to defend the design of D&D 5e. It works and it's fun enough in my opinion.I think it's helpful to get rid of the idea of "knowledge checks" when thinking about D&D 5e. They don't exist like they did in other editions. Intelligence checks are not tests to see what a character knows. It's a test to see what he or she can recall or deduce from what he or she already knows. It's therefore on the player and to some extent the DM to establish what the character knows to justify recalling the lore or deducing something useful from available clues. (That's the goal and approach.) The system doesn't do this for them.I would say the example of play that you posted isn't ideal, but I do agree with your later statement that the player did effectively state a goal and approach. I would have asked the player to be a little more clear with statements of action and not to rely on questions, but there's enough information there for the DM to adjudicate in my view when taken in context. [MENTION=1207]Ristamar[/MENTION] covers this well in his response to you (q.v.).</blockquote>