[RPG] How much info to reveal on a successful knowledge check

knowledge-checkpathfinder-1e

My wizard is trying to use Knowledge (Planes) to determine Monster Lore of a Nabasu Demon. The DC is 10 + the challenge rating, so 18.

On a success, I "remember a bit of useful information about that monster".

My DM has us do our own rolls and own knowledge checks. Let's say the dice determine that I learn 3 "bits of useful information" about the monster. I would like to make a list of each "bit", then roll to see which I reveal. How much info should be revealed with each "bit of information"?

Examples to illustrate the question — should each spell-like ability be an individual bit, or should the collection of spell-like abilities be one bit? Should immunities and resistances be clumped into one "bit" or be two separate bits?

There seems to be a lot of information someone could know about these demons, and I can think of at least three ways to group them into "bits". I'm not sure which to do.

  • Darkvision
  • Flies
  • DR 10/cold iron or good
  • Immunities
    • Death Effects
    • Electricity
    • Paralysis
    • Poison
  • Resistances
    • Acid 10
    • Cold 10
    • Fire 10
  • Spell Resistance
  • Special Attacks
    • Consume Life
    • Death-Stealing Gaze
    • Sneak Attack
  • Spell-like abilities
    • Deeper Darkness
    • Greater Teleportation
    • Telekenesis
    • Enervation
    • Silence
    • Vampiric Touch
    • Mass Hold Person
    • Regenerate
    • Summon

Best Answer

My current GM breaks this down into 10 (11 if you count meeting the DC) sections.

For achieving the DC, you get a name to call the creature and it's type(s). For every 5 beyond that you either select or roll for 1 of these 10 'blocks':

  • Senses: Vision, Scent, ETC..
  • AC: Armor Class weakness or strengths. This includes CMD.
  • Saves: Weak or Strong Saves
  • Immunities and Resistances
  • Weaknesses: DR, Vulnerability, Regeneration
  • Attacks: Strong attacks / Grab / Trip / Constrict / Rend
  • Special Attacks/Defenses: Breath weapons, Auras, Gazes ETC..
  • Spell-Like Abilities
  • Languages and Skills
  • Lore: Ecology, Organization, ETC.

This has worked generally well for the group; having a decent Knowledge check is enough to ask for vital information but having a tremendous knowledge check nets you further rewards. This has the obvious drawback of some information being significantly more valuable (I'm looking at you Weaknesses and Immunities) or entirely useless (Weaknesses of something with only DR/- or no DR, vulnerability, or regeneration).

For this reason, we as a group decided to abide a social contract; we roll d10's (rerolling duplicates) and the GM's allows further rerolls of any that are not applicable to the creature. This balances the randomness of attaining knowledge on such a variety of creatures with the power of being able to ask specific things.

Alternately, at times, we have also established character norms; for instance, the Inquisitor would always ask the same questions, in the same order, regardless of if they had an answer or not. They "studied" targets in a manner that promoted knowledge of Weakness>Immunities>Special Attacks>Senses>Strong Attacks>etc. This worked fairly well for the short time that they survived, RIP Aleksandra. It negated randomly receiving bad information but balanced it by applying 'dead spots' where no information was gained.

One additional thing is we tend to ask for meta knowledge we already have first. Weaknesses is always the first thing we ask about trolls, to establish an in-character cannon of knowledge that you need to hit them with fire or acid.

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