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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hypersmurf" data-source="post: 2898352" data-attributes="member: 1656">This is the first time in the thread that you've included "their PCs have never encountered" as a restriction on what rules they're prohibited from looking up.If I'm playing a fighter, and I (as a player) recognise that the NPC just cast Ray of Enfeeblement, and I know that the first-time-wizard player probably doesn't, I (as a player) would tell the wizard's player "Probably Ray of Enfeeblement", since it's a spell on his character's list.  If the wizard tells my fighter about the spell, I'll happily act on it directly next time it happens.If I'm playing a mid-level wizard, and I (as a player) recognise that the NPC just cast Wall of Fire, I'll assume that my character can act on that knowledge.  It's on my list.  The Spellcraft check, however, might tell me that the NPC actually cast Major Image, or Mordenkainen's Flaming Barrier of Death.  If I don't bother with the Spellcraft check, I'd be startled if I were told that I couldn't look up Wall of Fire, though, since I'm playing a wizard who can cast the spell.If I'm playing a wizard, and I (as a player) recognise that the NPC just cast Wall of Thorns, I'll ask the DM what my +14 in Spellcraft and +12 in Knowledge (Arcana) tell me about it.  Unless my PC's seen my buddy the druid cast the same spell before, and knows how it works already.Identifying a spell tells you what the spell is.  Flicking through the PHB tells you what it might be... and should be filtered through character knowledge.This was the information missing from everything you've said so far.Prior to this post, your policy read to me as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  The PHB contains information the characters don't know, therefore the players can't look anything up.You've since clarified that you don't mind them looking up things the PCs do know.If I'm a mid-level wizard, and someone casts a spell that creates a cloud of mist, I don't feel that it's metagaming for me to assume it's Obscuring Mist, Fog Cloud, Stinking Cloud, Cloudkill, Acid Fog, or Solid Fog... or possibly an Image spell.  Or to look up the descriptions of those spells.  If I succeed at a spellcraft check, I expect to know that it's Stinking Cloud.Now, the potential metagaming issue is if I roll a 25 on my "Identify a spell in place" Spellcraft check, and am told "You don't know what it is".  I can deduce from that that it's probably Acid Fog, since a 25 is sufficient to identify the others.  But the PC is not privy to the number on the d20.But is it metagaming if the fighter attacks the BBEG, rolls a 19 (total 31), and misses, for him to say "Uh, gang, we're in trouble"?  Does the fighter know the difference between a 31 and a 14?-Hyp.</blockquote>

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