Hostile Architecture

[PF2e] Recall Knowledge and Level-based DCs

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"Sounds the alarm, a dragon's been sighted! It'll burn the whole village down! We need to run!"

"Well, who's to say really? Dragons are hard to tell apart. It might have sparkle breath for all we know!"

-Two villagers failing their DC39 Recall Knowledge check on the abilities of an ancient dragon.

Working on lore for my sandbox campaign, I realized setting the DC for any particular Recall Knowledge check is more an art than a science.

Content warning: this blog post really doesn't go anywhere. It has no answers, and barely any tips on how to set Recall Knowledge DCs. It's just me musing about how genuinely bewildering this gets if you dive into it.

Setting a DC

There's three knobs to dail for setting Recall Knowledge DCs:

  • You set a Simple DC by deciding whether the knowledge is something a PC would (probably) know based on their proficiency level (Untrained, Trained, Expert, Master or Legendary). This is what the Player Core 1 tells you to do in the Recall Knowledge action description.
  • You set a Level-based DC by deciding a PC would (probably) know something based on their experience. This is what the GM Core and the Monster Core tell you to do.
  • You can adjust whatever DC you've set by -10 (if it's incredibly easy to obtain this knowledge), -5, -2, +2, +5 to +10 (if it's incredibly hard), the latter three being tied to rarity level (Uncommon sets a DC to +2, Rare to +5, Unique to +10).

What's the difference between saying a particular fact is "something only a Master of Arcana would know" and saying a particular fact is "incredibly hard to know"? You tell me, because I have no idea.1

In Practice

In practice I stick to Simple DCs mostly. I maybe add an adjustment if I feel a snippet of knowledge is something localized or contained. Like the specific tactics and behaviors of a local monster2 3, or the initiation rites of a secret society that isn't widespread.

I use Level-based DCs for magic items (because items clearly have levels), creatures (because creatures clearly have levels), or spells (because spells have ranks which roughly translate to levels).

Why Simple DCs

I like Simple DCs because they don't level.

Everything in Pathfinder 2e increases with level. Usually this is fine. It creates supercharged campaign settings where higher level NPCs are like superheroes, and higher level monters are genuinely frightening because it's so hard for the PCs to even make a dent in their HP pool. It gives the PCs something to aspire to (or steer clear of).

But when it comes to knowledge or lore, I feel better when I can say as a GM: "Everyone who is at least an Expert in this subject matter could reasonably know about this." This also gives me a sort of handhold when PCs ask a NPC something I didn't prepare for. Would the NPC know about this, yes or no?

Knowledge Tiers

You can sort of tie specific knowledges to certain levels of proficiency. Or, you can give certain aspects of the lore a -10 adjustment to DC.

Take the dragon example from the top of the post. A dragon may be a high level creature, with correspondingly high Recall Knowledge DCs, but they're incredibly visible. If one is rampaging in the countryside you expect people to know about this, at least the relevant specifics like whether it eats humans or only cattle and sheep. If it breathes fire or poison. If it can be bribed with gold or information.

Now you can tier that information:

  • Incredibly easy: know whether the dragon is dangerous yes or no, what it's hunting for, and its most visible/spectacular attack.
  • Easy: know what type of dragon it is.
  • Normal: highest/lowest save
  • Hard: specific dragon's history and reputation
  • Very hard: what the dragon is really after, its motivations

Why Have Lore, Anyway?

In the end, I write my world's lore so it can end up with the players. However you decide to set your DCs, if you feel the same way4 I can only advise you to not set the DC too high. If you want a particular piece of lore to be known, make it knowable.

Or sometimes, just make it known. At least to PCs with a sufficiently high proficiency. If a player rolling a failure on a Recall Knowledge would deprive them of knowledge you think they should have, you might as well say: "Well, your rogue is an Expert in Society so of course they know the local lizardfolk are traders with generally peaceful relations to the neighboring halfling village!" This might save them from starting a fight with random lizardfolk you intended as a social encounter rather than a combat.

  1. I generally find the whole Rarity system introduces more problems than it solves, really. Isn't one person's Rare another person's Common? Isn't Legendary knowledge automatically very niche and Rare? ↩

  2. Funnily enough, if players would Gather Information amongst local villagers about the monster instead of Recall Knowledge, the adjustment would work the other way, a bonus instead of a penalty, because of course the villagers would share what they know about their particular problem. ↩

  3. This also immediately creates a situation where a PC could roll Settlement Lore instead of Nature of whatever to find out about a specific monster harrassing a specific locale. Usually, using Lore lowers the DC, but asking around about a specific creature also increases the DC, because of Rarity, so what DC do you end up with? Do these things cancel out each other? Is it even useful to consider all this? ↩

  4. I know there are GMs out there who say it's fine if players don't find out particular things about the setting, but I generally enjoy it if I put time and effort into something and it actually comes into play. ↩