I had a player look up the monster stats mid battle and idk how to confront him. Normally I'd tell him not to do it again but he is a repeat offender. I can't just kick him out of the group considering he is the only player with the space to play. I am tired of his meta gaming antics but it is his house and I'm enjoying dming otherwise. How should I handle this?
Give him one warning and then do massive damage to him if he does it again. I did this with a player a couple months ago and he metagames the least of all my players now.
Reflavor monsters! I play with a group that is like 60% DM so between us, we know most statblocks. So what I'll do is call a monster one thing, and use a statblock of another.
For Example: I wanted them to fight big worms in the desert (a la Tremors movie) so I used the Bulette statblock and called them worms.
I wanted a powerful "anime antagonist" style bbeg. So i used a black dragon, called his "breath weapon" a hand beam, called the acid damage force, called his bites and claws sword attacks and called his frightful presence an "intense aura"
The PCs will literally NEVER know unless you tell them. unless they can hear the damage numbers and know EXACTLY what dice made them??
If he keeps trying to metagame, then give him the choice to use an action to make a ability check (Such as nature or Arcana) to see how much he knows about this creature.
Change the stats. Rule says it's resistant to fire, make it instead resistant to cold and fire. Making it tougher is maybe a little mean, but it might get the rest of the players annoyed enough that they start policing the behavior.
Don't tell them the name of the monster they are fighting so he can't look it up. If they've never fought or likely seen it before, how would they know what its called? Maybe they want to spend a round making a nature (or whatever) check to see if they remember what it is, but is that really the best use of their time?
Or re-skin the monsters. Use the stats for a goblin, but describe an orc. Looks like a dire wolf but its actually a basilisk, kind of thing.
I had a player look up the monster stats mid battle and idk how to confront him. Normally I'd tell him not to do it again but he is a repeat offender. I can't just kick him out of the group considering he is the only player with the space to play. I am tired of his meta gaming antics but it is his house and I'm enjoying dming otherwise. How should I handle this?
So, in reality you have 3 options.
Talk to him. Kick him. Homebrew monsters.
You've already said you don't want to kick him due to space issues. Look into doing things via VTT (roll20, fantasy grounds, tabletop simulator etc). If kicking him isn't an option. Search the homebrew monster section on this site for things he wouldn't know, because he wouldn't be able to just look them up.
Don't give the name of the monsters they're facing.
Or change stat blocks on the fly. If the player complains? Simply ask them, in front of everyone, well how do you know that monster can't do it? Regardless of their reply, let them know, "I altered the stat block, pray I don't alter it further"
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I had a player look up the monster stats mid battle and idk how to confront him. Normally I'd tell him not to do it again but he is a repeat offender. I can't just kick him out of the group considering he is the only player with the space to play. I am tired of his meta gaming antics but it is his house and I'm enjoying dming otherwise. How should I handle this?
Give him one warning and then do massive damage to him if he does it again. I did this with a player a couple months ago and he metagames the least of all my players now.
Mystic
Reflavor monsters! I play with a group that is like 60% DM so between us, we know most statblocks. So what I'll do is call a monster one thing, and use a statblock of another.
For Example: I wanted them to fight big worms in the desert (a la Tremors movie) so I used the Bulette statblock and called them worms.
I wanted a powerful "anime antagonist" style bbeg. So i used a black dragon, called his "breath weapon" a hand beam, called the acid damage force, called his bites and claws sword attacks and called his frightful presence an "intense aura"
The PCs will literally NEVER know unless you tell them. unless they can hear the damage numbers and know EXACTLY what dice made them??
If he keeps trying to metagame, then give him the choice to use an action to make a ability check (Such as nature or Arcana) to see how much he knows about this creature.
When the DM smiles, it is already to late.
Change the stats. Rule says it's resistant to fire, make it instead resistant to cold and fire. Making it tougher is maybe a little mean, but it might get the rest of the players annoyed enough that they start policing the behavior.
Don't tell them the name of the monster they are fighting so he can't look it up. If they've never fought or likely seen it before, how would they know what its called? Maybe they want to spend a round making a nature (or whatever) check to see if they remember what it is, but is that really the best use of their time?
Or re-skin the monsters. Use the stats for a goblin, but describe an orc. Looks like a dire wolf but its actually a basilisk, kind of thing.
So, in reality you have 3 options.
Talk to him.
Kick him.
Homebrew monsters.
You've already said you don't want to kick him due to space issues. Look into doing things via VTT (roll20, fantasy grounds, tabletop simulator etc). If kicking him isn't an option. Search the homebrew monster section on this site for things he wouldn't know, because he wouldn't be able to just look them up.
Don't give the name of the monsters they're facing.
Or change stat blocks on the fly. If the player complains? Simply ask them, in front of everyone, well how do you know that monster can't do it?
Regardless of their reply, let them know, "I altered the stat block, pray I don't alter it further"