When my players ask a question and the answer I give is useless, i.e. no weaknesses, I add something they can actually use after. So it'd be "no weaknesses, but it is resistant to fire". This way it doesn't feel like they wasted an action
When I finally have the chance to run a game, I'm going to try and try to apply questions in as broad a way as reasonably possible. For example if a player asks "what is this monster's Weakness?" I'll give them the capitol W Weakness if it has one, but if it doesn't I might mention that "the monster is most hindered by its slow and awkward movements" as a way to call out an abysmally low Reflex save, or "it doesn't have any way to deal with ranged threats" if all the monster's abilities require being in melee range.
Just saw this pop up on my feed, very helpful! I'm a new PF2e GM and have been encouraging my new PF2e players to use non-attack actions, and today I adjudicated a few Recall Knowledge checks. I wasn't confident with how I handled them, but this has made me feel better going forward :)
I love how "Ask a question" is both reliable and open for creativity. You can always ask for the weakest defense, but you can also go for things like "Do I want to engage this thing in melee?" and let the GM give you something like "No, because if it swallows you, you're screwed" or "Yes, it should be easy to hit (slash into pieces)" for low AC (weakness to slashing). At my table, there's always the "surprise me" option, where I give out some info that their character might care about, which is more reliable than a question, but not necessarily what the player wanted to hear - e.g. if they're wondering whether they should use their biggest spell, the player wants to know how strong one specific defense is, so they should ask for it.
So, with your change you talk about at the end, I assume the GM offers up the appropriate categories? So the PC declares they want to Recall Knowledge and the GM then asks 'Okay, do you want to know about its Special attacks, or Special Defences?' (Assuming it has no relevant special qualities) and then the PC picks one?
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When my players ask a question and the answer I give is useless, i.e. no weaknesses, I add something they can actually use after. So it'd be "no weaknesses, but it is resistant to fire". This way it doesn't feel like they wasted an action
When I finally have the chance to run a game, I'm going to try and try to apply questions in as broad a way as reasonably possible. For example if a player asks "what is this monster's Weakness?" I'll give them the capitol W Weakness if it has one, but if it doesn't I might mention that "the monster is most hindered by its slow and awkward movements" as a way to call out an abysmally low Reflex save, or "it doesn't have any way to deal with ranged threats" if all the monster's abilities require being in melee range.
Just saw this pop up on my feed, very helpful! I'm a new PF2e GM and have been encouraging my new PF2e players to use non-attack actions, and today I adjudicated a few Recall Knowledge checks. I wasn't confident with how I handled them, but this has made me feel better going forward :)
I love how "Ask a question" is both reliable and open for creativity. You can always ask for the weakest defense, but you can also go for things like "Do I want to engage this thing in melee?" and let the GM give you something like "No, because if it swallows you, you're screwed" or "Yes, it should be easy to hit (slash into pieces)" for low AC (weakness to slashing).
At my table, there's always the "surprise me" option, where I give out some info that their character might care about, which is more reliable than a question, but not necessarily what the player wanted to hear - e.g. if they're wondering whether they should use their biggest spell, the player wants to know how strong one specific defense is, so they should ask for it.
Good video
So, with your change you talk about at the end, I assume the GM offers up the appropriate categories? So the PC declares they want to Recall Knowledge and the GM then asks 'Okay, do you want to know about its Special attacks, or Special Defences?' (Assuming it has no relevant special qualities) and then the PC picks one?