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Monster study ability

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 10:31 am
by narcaleptic
Is there currently any class, race or feat that allows a player to see the stat block and abilities of creatures? In 5th edition a battle master can spend 1 minute to examine a creature, once finished it learns two things that are fact about said creature.

I have a idea for a character that writes books on his encounters and was wondering if there is something like this that could make the books better.

Re: Monster study ability

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:08 am
by Born2BeWild

Re: Monster study ability

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:37 am
by narcaleptic
Yep, that's pretty close

Re: Monster study ability

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:45 pm
by Tsidkenu
Mechanically you can cast Dominate (Person/Monster; Control Undead for creepies) on them and then open their character sheet for all the juicy meta infos.

One of the Combat Focus feats also informs you of current HP of foes around you.

Otherwise in 3.5 ed you need to roll a respective lore skill (eg. Arcana for dragons, Religion for undead, Nature for animals/vermin) with a DC equal to the monster's HD to learn facts about a creature. For every 5 points you beat the DC you gain an additional fact. For every 5 ranks below the DC you infer incorrect facts. These are best accomplished when a DM is present but you can legitimately 'fluff it' for the sake of a journal entry.