Is knowledge about monster types inherent?












5












$begingroup$


Does my character inherently know what the traits of each monster type are (such as vermin or undead being immune to mind-affecting spells) or do I need to make a knowledge roll for that?










share|improve this question











$endgroup$

















    5












    $begingroup$


    Does my character inherently know what the traits of each monster type are (such as vermin or undead being immune to mind-affecting spells) or do I need to make a knowledge roll for that?










    share|improve this question











    $endgroup$















      5












      5








      5





      $begingroup$


      Does my character inherently know what the traits of each monster type are (such as vermin or undead being immune to mind-affecting spells) or do I need to make a knowledge roll for that?










      share|improve this question











      $endgroup$




      Does my character inherently know what the traits of each monster type are (such as vermin or undead being immune to mind-affecting spells) or do I need to make a knowledge roll for that?







      pathfinder monsters knowledge-check






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 5 hours ago









      V2Blast

      23.4k375148




      23.4k375148










      asked 5 hours ago









      NejosanNejosan

      276210




      276210






















          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          5












          $begingroup$

          This is not spelled out in the rules, and will come down to table conventions. Some GMs may treat anything in any Bestiary as confidential info during a game session, others might treat it as open knowledge.



          At my own tables, I treat all general rules information (i.e. monster type details, universal monster rules mechanics etc) as public knowledge, and any monster-specific information as being off-limits without a check. Even knowing for sure what monster type a given creature is should require a basic monster knowledge check.



          In a similar fashion, Spellcraft covers knowledge of what spells do and are capable of, but players generally need to know the mechanics for their spells, and so access to this information is normally allowed without restriction. But, if an NPC is using an unusual or rare spell, I might not allow players to look the information up without a check.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
            $endgroup$
            – Nejosan
            4 hours ago










          • $begingroup$
            @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
            $endgroup$
            – YogoZuno
            3 hours ago











          Your Answer





          StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
          return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
          StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
          StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
          });
          });
          }, "mathjax-editing");

          StackExchange.ready(function() {
          var channelOptions = {
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "122"
          };
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
          createEditor();
          });
          }
          else {
          createEditor();
          }
          });

          function createEditor() {
          StackExchange.prepareEditor({
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
          convertImagesToLinks: false,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: null,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader: {
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          },
          noCode: true, onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          });


          }
          });














          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142526%2fis-knowledge-about-monster-types-inherent%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes








          1 Answer
          1






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          5












          $begingroup$

          This is not spelled out in the rules, and will come down to table conventions. Some GMs may treat anything in any Bestiary as confidential info during a game session, others might treat it as open knowledge.



          At my own tables, I treat all general rules information (i.e. monster type details, universal monster rules mechanics etc) as public knowledge, and any monster-specific information as being off-limits without a check. Even knowing for sure what monster type a given creature is should require a basic monster knowledge check.



          In a similar fashion, Spellcraft covers knowledge of what spells do and are capable of, but players generally need to know the mechanics for their spells, and so access to this information is normally allowed without restriction. But, if an NPC is using an unusual or rare spell, I might not allow players to look the information up without a check.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
            $endgroup$
            – Nejosan
            4 hours ago










          • $begingroup$
            @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
            $endgroup$
            – YogoZuno
            3 hours ago
















          5












          $begingroup$

          This is not spelled out in the rules, and will come down to table conventions. Some GMs may treat anything in any Bestiary as confidential info during a game session, others might treat it as open knowledge.



          At my own tables, I treat all general rules information (i.e. monster type details, universal monster rules mechanics etc) as public knowledge, and any monster-specific information as being off-limits without a check. Even knowing for sure what monster type a given creature is should require a basic monster knowledge check.



          In a similar fashion, Spellcraft covers knowledge of what spells do and are capable of, but players generally need to know the mechanics for their spells, and so access to this information is normally allowed without restriction. But, if an NPC is using an unusual or rare spell, I might not allow players to look the information up without a check.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
            $endgroup$
            – Nejosan
            4 hours ago










          • $begingroup$
            @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
            $endgroup$
            – YogoZuno
            3 hours ago














          5












          5








          5





          $begingroup$

          This is not spelled out in the rules, and will come down to table conventions. Some GMs may treat anything in any Bestiary as confidential info during a game session, others might treat it as open knowledge.



          At my own tables, I treat all general rules information (i.e. monster type details, universal monster rules mechanics etc) as public knowledge, and any monster-specific information as being off-limits without a check. Even knowing for sure what monster type a given creature is should require a basic monster knowledge check.



          In a similar fashion, Spellcraft covers knowledge of what spells do and are capable of, but players generally need to know the mechanics for their spells, and so access to this information is normally allowed without restriction. But, if an NPC is using an unusual or rare spell, I might not allow players to look the information up without a check.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$



          This is not spelled out in the rules, and will come down to table conventions. Some GMs may treat anything in any Bestiary as confidential info during a game session, others might treat it as open knowledge.



          At my own tables, I treat all general rules information (i.e. monster type details, universal monster rules mechanics etc) as public knowledge, and any monster-specific information as being off-limits without a check. Even knowing for sure what monster type a given creature is should require a basic monster knowledge check.



          In a similar fashion, Spellcraft covers knowledge of what spells do and are capable of, but players generally need to know the mechanics for their spells, and so access to this information is normally allowed without restriction. But, if an NPC is using an unusual or rare spell, I might not allow players to look the information up without a check.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 4 hours ago









          YogoZunoYogoZuno

          11.4k22867




          11.4k22867












          • $begingroup$
            Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
            $endgroup$
            – Nejosan
            4 hours ago










          • $begingroup$
            @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
            $endgroup$
            – YogoZuno
            3 hours ago


















          • $begingroup$
            Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
            $endgroup$
            – Nejosan
            4 hours ago










          • $begingroup$
            @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
            $endgroup$
            – YogoZuno
            3 hours ago
















          $begingroup$
          Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
          $endgroup$
          – Nejosan
          4 hours ago




          $begingroup$
          Would this imply a reasoning like "Okay, that guy's flesh is rotten so he's probably some kind of undead and I shouldn't cast color spray" would be unacceptable?
          $endgroup$
          – Nejosan
          4 hours ago












          $begingroup$
          @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
          $endgroup$
          – YogoZuno
          3 hours ago




          $begingroup$
          @nejosan It's difficult to say without more details, but maybe...if the character in question has never encountered any undead, and has no training in Religion, then it's hard to justify as anything other than player knowledge.
          $endgroup$
          – YogoZuno
          3 hours ago


















          draft saved

          draft discarded




















































          Thanks for contributing an answer to Role-playing Games Stack Exchange!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid



          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


          Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function () {
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142526%2fis-knowledge-about-monster-types-inherent%23new-answer', 'question_page');
          }
          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown







          Popular posts from this blog

          Loup dans la culture

          How to solve the problem of ntp “Unable to contact time server” from KDE?

          ASUS Zenbook UX433/UX333 — Configure Touchpad-embedded numpad on Linux