Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 truestory242 Oct 24, 2014 19:06:25	Are there monster knowledge checks in 5e like in 4e?  If so how does it work?
#2 HeresyDM Oct 24, 2014 19:21:12	There aren't any specific rules (so far at least) but I allow Nature rolls for natural beasts, Religion for undead and Arcana for magical. The better the roll the more they know (though never detailed information unless they have faced the creature before.) I have been toying with the idea of making this roll in secret so that they aren't sure how well they did and, if the roll is bad enough, they "know" misinformation.
#3 pukunui Oct 24, 2014 19:35:56	Unfortunately, none of the monsters in the 5e Monster Manual have knowledge tables like the ones in the 4e MMs did, but you can still use the various knowledge skills for monster lore.   On the topic of undead, I asked Greg Bilsland about it, and he said he would personally use either Arcana or Religion, depending on the type of undead. Nature would definitely be for humanoids and beasts, while Arcana would be for anything magical, plus the planes and probably aberrations and stuff like that too.
#4 iserith Oct 24, 2014 19:48:56	It's up to the player to describe what he wants to do (recall lore) and for the DM to narrate the result of the adventurer's action. That may or may not involve an ability check.   For my part, when a player describes an action that amounts to them trying to recall lore about a monster, I ask them for their intent i.e. what exactly they want to know. Because assuming we're in a scene where the monster has turned up, I've already described the thing and telegraphed its badness. This alone is generally enough to deduce what it can do, what it likely resists or is immune to, and what it might be vulnerable to without requiring a check. This is just me doing the whole "The DM describes the environment" thing.   So let's say the player then describes his action to recall lore and tells me his intent is to get some hard numbers to back up his assumptions. Fair enough. So I ask myself whether the monster is an iconic D&D monster or something more obscure. If it's iconic (you know, a beholder, a dragon, a troll, a roper, etc.), then there's no check. I just give the player the information he wants to know and ask him how his character knows it. (My intent by asking is to get him to flesh out his character a bit by establishing new details.) If I dont' think it's iconic, then I start thinking about what happens if the player fails the check. Okay, it's a nothic which I don't think is particularly iconic... it's got this cool ability where it steals secrets which could make for a cool failure condition. Now I make the player an offer: "I'll tell you what you want to know if you roll a DC 15 Intelligence check. If you fail, I'm going to tell you what you want to know, but the creature will steal a secret from your mind. You'll tell me what it is and it gets advantage on its first attack roll or contest against you. Deal?" If the player accepts the deal, then he rolls and we play to find out what happens.   I tend to go with a DC 15 because it's a medium DC and that seems about right. A low-level adventurer has probably at most around a 50/50 chance of recall which improves with experience. Succeed or fail, I'm going to give the player the information he wants, only failure is going to come at a cost that speaks to the monster's nature and creates a little tension. I don't see any point in rolling dice if failure isn't interesting.
#5 truestory242 Oct 24, 2014 20:16:58	So what would be the DC if the player wants to know the type of creature so they could know if there channel divinity or spell like protection vs evil and good will work?
#6 iserith Oct 24, 2014 20:21:58	Assuming I make it a roll at all, I generally keep it at DC 15.
#7 OoftaMeg Oct 24, 2014 20:34:44	For me it would depend on how common the monster is in my world, what background the people are from and what kind of knowledge they need.   Someone from the northern realms would recognize a Yeti with a DC 5 check, while it would take a DC 25 to recognize a flumph since they are extremely rare in my world.  Protection from Evil protects from a pretty broad range of creatures, so a DC 10 would tell you that it would work, even if it would require a DC 20 to know the difference between a Glabrezu and a Vrock.   Knowing something is undead would also (in most cases) be a very low DC or automatic, but knowing how a Banshee is created is much higher, particularly for non-elves since elves don't like to talk about it very much.
#8 truestory242 Oct 24, 2014 20:49:08	Thanks for all the help everyone.  I will take this advice into our next session.