Signup
Welcome to... Canonfire! World of GreyhawK
Features
Postcards from the Flanaess
Adventures
in Greyhawk
Cities of
Oerth
Deadly
Denizens
Jason Zavoda Presents
The Gord Novels
Greyhawk Wiki
#greytalk
JOIN THE CHAT
ON DISCORD
    Canonfire :: View topic - So do you roll Monster Lore or something?
    Canonfire Forum Index -> Greyhawk- D&D 5th Edition
    So do you roll Monster Lore or something?
    Author Message
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Oct 09, 2014
    Posts: 96


    Send private message
    Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:35 am  
    So do you roll Monster Lore or something?

    So how do you handle situations where monsters require special handling to kill or injure them, for example trolls with fire or acid, Lycanthropes with silver, or Staking and otherwise dismembering vampires? In each of these cases, experienced players may know what is needed, but what is reasonable to expect the average character to know.

    In each case, I'd assume that rangers with a favored enemy of the type would probably know, and Paladins and Clerics might know about undead, but is everyone else out of luck?

    I posted this in the 5th edition forum, because that is what I plan on running Greyhawk with, but without regard to edition, have any of you found a good way of handling this possibly out of character knowledge that you've liked?
    GreySage

    Joined: Jul 26, 2010
    Posts: 2695
    From: LG Dyvers

    Send private message
    Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:41 pm  

    Though I enjoy giving new players a chance to learn about monster abilities via experience, I find that trying to tell experienced players not to metagame is difficult at best and nearly impossible for the player.

    So, I just assume my experienced players know certain pieces of information and I play the monster more intelligently. After all, the monster knows its own weaknesses and will work to avoid them. A vampire or a rakshasa, for example, may have a scroll of Protection from Plants to prevent any adventurer from sticking an arrow (or blessed crossbow bolt) shaft through his heart; a lycanthrope may carry a potion of neutralize poison in case someone manages to trick them into eating a bowl full of stew seasoned with belladonna.

    Additionally, it is easy for me to imagine that any adventurer who actually grew up in such a fantastic realm would have more information about the creatures of that world than we typically give them credit for. They would also have gained much knowledge simply from hanging around with other adventurer-types in their day-to-day activities. They may even have had adventuring parents that told them stories about the wide world and its denizens their entire lives. So, it is reasonable and much easier to simply allow for the possibility that the PC knows most anything the players knows.

    SirXaris
    _________________
    SirXaris' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SirXaris?ref=hl
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 19, 2013
    Posts: 33


    Send private message
    Sun Nov 16, 2014 3:53 pm  

    I use my judgement on whether to roll for lore. If I believe that some aspects of the monster would be common knowledge I share it freely. The rest certainly does require knowledge checks.
    _________________
    Want to understand D&D 5e monsters? ♦ @surfarcher ♦ +Surf Archer ♦ /u/surfarcher
    Display posts from previous:   
       Canonfire Forum Index -> Greyhawk- D&D 5th Edition All times are GMT - 8 Hours
    Page 1 of 1

    Jump to:  

    You cannot post new topics in this forum
    You cannot reply to topics in this forum
    You cannot edit your posts in this forum
    You cannot delete your posts in this forum
    You cannot vote in polls in this forum




    Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises

    Contact the Webmaster.  Long Live Spidasa!


    Greyhawk Gothic Font by Darlene Pekul is used under the Creative Commons License.

    PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2005 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.
    Page Generation: 0.31 Seconds