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What exactly is common knowledge
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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2084418" data-attributes="member: 3146"><p>Actually, I'd say there are quite a few sources of questionably useful information and the more likely a player is to be intimately familiar with the 3.5 system, the more likely he is to have those bits of disinformation floating around in his head.</p><p></p><p>The really obvious ones, starting from most recent are:</p><p>D&D 3e--specific setting that you're not using. (Frex, a demon! We can't hope to bypass its DR without sarishan steel when playing in the Realms or, perhaps more likely "we'd better get a holy weapon or we can't touch it" when playing a character with a sarishan steel greatsword in Arcanis)</p><p>D&D 3e, Neverwinter Nights version</p><p>D&D 3e monster manual</p><p>AD&D 2e Baldur's Gate version</p><p>AD&D 2e house rules from an old campaign</p><p>AD&D 2e add-on books</p><p>AD&D 2e monstrous compendium</p><p>AD&D Monster Manual</p><p>OD&D stuff</p><p>Way before my time stuff</p><p></p><p>Tangential information can sometimes creep in from other systems too:</p><p>Rolemaster</p><p>Gurps</p><p>etc.</p><p></p><p>There's also just plain being mixed up. If your DM describes the foe to you, it can be easy to confuse, say a succubus blackguard with an Erynies fighter. Better hope you weren't counting on electricity to bypass the "erynies" energy resistance. In short, it doesn't help to know that demons generally have energy resistance to most everything and that devils are immune to fire and have resistance to everything else EXCEPT electricity if you don't know whether you're fighting a demon or a devil.</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, it's fairly easy to become confused about your various rules of thumb or to apply them. For instance, bebeliths are demons, but don't have any SR or energy resistances. But, since you know that they're demons, it's easy to assume that they do. Or, similarly, my rule of thumb for DR is: weak demons=cold iron or good, moderate demons=good, strong demons=cold iron AND good. But is a Hezrou a strong demon or a moderate one? Similarly, off the top of my head, I couldn't say whether the Gelugon is the top tier moderate devil (DR 10/good) or the bottom tier strong devil (DR 15/good and silver).</p><p></p><p>And all that is still, as they say, easy to forget at the table. I write a fair amount of D&D stuff (mostly RPGA, but I've got a credit on Goodman's Games Wizard strategy guide now) and have DMed quite a bit, so I unavoidbly know a lot of stuff about monsters. If I didn't, I'd be forgetting to apply DR when my PCs applied the beats to my monsters. But, in a recent game, I completely forgot that devils were immune to fire and blasted a group of them with an empowered fireball. Perfect execution (airburst over their heads, including the relevant portions of the wall of ice and (iirc) all three of the bone devils, but missing the PCs right next to them (and not taking much time at the table either--"I cast fireball, centered here") but it was mostly wasted because they were immune. And there I was, thinking, "it's only Fire Resistance 10." After that, I stopped being lazy and had my PC make a knowledge check to be sure about all that stuff. So our memories are another potential source of disinformation--even good memories.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 2084418, member: 3146"] Actually, I'd say there are quite a few sources of questionably useful information and the more likely a player is to be intimately familiar with the 3.5 system, the more likely he is to have those bits of disinformation floating around in his head. The really obvious ones, starting from most recent are: D&D 3e--specific setting that you're not using. (Frex, a demon! We can't hope to bypass its DR without sarishan steel when playing in the Realms or, perhaps more likely "we'd better get a holy weapon or we can't touch it" when playing a character with a sarishan steel greatsword in Arcanis) D&D 3e, Neverwinter Nights version D&D 3e monster manual AD&D 2e Baldur's Gate version AD&D 2e house rules from an old campaign AD&D 2e add-on books AD&D 2e monstrous compendium AD&D Monster Manual OD&D stuff Way before my time stuff Tangential information can sometimes creep in from other systems too: Rolemaster Gurps etc. There's also just plain being mixed up. If your DM describes the foe to you, it can be easy to confuse, say a succubus blackguard with an Erynies fighter. Better hope you weren't counting on electricity to bypass the "erynies" energy resistance. In short, it doesn't help to know that demons generally have energy resistance to most everything and that devils are immune to fire and have resistance to everything else EXCEPT electricity if you don't know whether you're fighting a demon or a devil. Furthermore, it's fairly easy to become confused about your various rules of thumb or to apply them. For instance, bebeliths are demons, but don't have any SR or energy resistances. But, since you know that they're demons, it's easy to assume that they do. Or, similarly, my rule of thumb for DR is: weak demons=cold iron or good, moderate demons=good, strong demons=cold iron AND good. But is a Hezrou a strong demon or a moderate one? Similarly, off the top of my head, I couldn't say whether the Gelugon is the top tier moderate devil (DR 10/good) or the bottom tier strong devil (DR 15/good and silver). And all that is still, as they say, easy to forget at the table. I write a fair amount of D&D stuff (mostly RPGA, but I've got a credit on Goodman's Games Wizard strategy guide now) and have DMed quite a bit, so I unavoidbly know a lot of stuff about monsters. If I didn't, I'd be forgetting to apply DR when my PCs applied the beats to my monsters. But, in a recent game, I completely forgot that devils were immune to fire and blasted a group of them with an empowered fireball. Perfect execution (airburst over their heads, including the relevant portions of the wall of ice and (iirc) all three of the bone devils, but missing the PCs right next to them (and not taking much time at the table either--"I cast fireball, centered here") but it was mostly wasted because they were immune. And there I was, thinking, "it's only Fire Resistance 10." After that, I stopped being lazy and had my PC make a knowledge check to be sure about all that stuff. So our memories are another potential source of disinformation--even good memories. [/QUOTE]
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