It’s a difficult one to rule, as suddenly being meticulous about positioning and line of sight telegraphs that the players should suddenly be focused on these things. I usually just have them roll luck or try to perceive the threat before they accidentally trigger its ability. If they fail, they get a Medusa blast
This is probably the best way to generally handle this, but the OP is certainly the funnier option!
I also like to describe random monsters’ movement as “shambling” on occasion just to watch them hurl turn undead and other holy attacks at, like, an orc with a limp.
This reminds me of a dnd game I stumbled upon a few weeks ago where it was a sort of AI roulette. The DM described the monster(s) and a designated player would input their description into their choice of art AI. They fight whatever it spits out, with the DM’s stat block adjusted to match. That burning gaze you described? Surprise, it came from a fire elemental!
Pathfinder’s Recall Knowledge checks have totally changed my relationship to creatures, in a way that’s probably going to hurt me hard in my upcoming 5E crawl.
“Hey GM, can I role Fiend Lore to see if I know anything about this hunk of ugly? I want to know if it’ll do bad things to me if I look at it, or if it will take attacks of opportunity.”
It’s a difficult one to rule, as suddenly being meticulous about positioning and line of sight telegraphs that the players should suddenly be focused on these things. I usually just have them roll luck or try to perceive the threat before they accidentally trigger its ability. If they fail, they get a Medusa blast
This is probably the best way to generally handle this, but the OP is certainly the funnier option!
I also like to describe random monsters’ movement as “shambling” on occasion just to watch them hurl turn undead and other holy attacks at, like, an orc with a limp.
This reminds me of a dnd game I stumbled upon a few weeks ago where it was a sort of AI roulette. The DM described the monster(s) and a designated player would input their description into their choice of art AI. They fight whatever it spits out, with the DM’s stat block adjusted to match. That burning gaze you described? Surprise, it came from a fire elemental!
Pathfinder’s Recall Knowledge checks have totally changed my relationship to creatures, in a way that’s probably going to hurt me hard in my upcoming 5E crawl.
“Hey GM, can I role Fiend Lore to see if I know anything about this hunk of ugly? I want to know if it’ll do bad things to me if I look at it, or if it will take attacks of opportunity.”
You could always use History checks for humanoids, Nature for beasts, Arcana for aberrations, etc.
Good call. I’ll petition to do just that! Thanks!