In a game, I am running there is a new player who has chosen a Sage librarian focused background for their character. Pretty much on any occasion where the player does not know or recognize something, they say "With my Sage background to I know anything on [subject], [creature] X" In most cases, I'd say no and point out that she is not Google and can pull anything on everything out of her head. Other times I'll define things through a range of DC's but still, it seems like the player is trying to use Sage as a catch-all for answers. Still, I've read the Sage and even the wording could make the player the jack of all knowledge leveraging the Librarian specialty but it could just be how they know how to find information on a topic.
SAGE
You spent years learning the lore of the multiverse. You scoured manuscripts, studied scrolls, and listened to the greatest experts on the subjects that interest you. Your efforts have made you a master in your fields of study.
Feature: Researcher When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it. Usually, this information comes from a library, scriptorium, university, or a sage or other learned person or creature. Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an almost inaccessible place, or that it simply cannot be found. Unearthing the deepest secrets of the multiverse can require an adventure or even a whole campaign.
As the DM, I am fallible and willing to change how I handle or view the usage of a background. I'm considering with the Sage background to possibly give advantage on rolls based under Intelligence skill checks for Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion. Maybe those checks are all that is needed based on a DC range to see how much information is dished out.
So where I'm getting at is to see how players and dm's use or rule, house or RAW, characters that have the Sage background in their games.
The Feature description tells you how to find information you don't know from your own skill ability.
Let's say you asked the player to make a History check and they failed. They point out their Sage background. You tell them that they do remember that this town has an excellent library and that there was also a well known branch of Harpers who may be helpful under certain circumstances.
Yeah, what Wtfdndad said. Or, maybe it isn’t “this town has a library” but it could be that they know of a learned person in ”Town X” who is reputed to be an expert in that field. Stuff like that.
I may have to do a sitdown conversation to help clear things up because I can tell the player does not clearly understand the sage background nor the level of effort that should be taken to find the information. The irony is that a lot of the question comes during very mundane situations that have no relevancy to the situation but I'm willing to give the question its merit so I'm not taking away their agency to engage in the RP.
They're already getting proficiency in two skills tied to Intelligence. And, for the most part, I don't think the ribbon abilities on backgrounds should have meaningful mechanical benefits. They might save you some coin here and there, but that's it.
Researcher, as I read it and have played it, is meant to be an adventure hook. If your character doesn't know something, then they know where the party can get the answer(s) they seek.
I look at sage more like a modern day academic, and key on the phrase “fields of study.” Someone today who’s a professor-level expert in Physics is still going to have a specialty in the field where they know a lot, and outside of that specialty, have contacts and information that allow them to know might something they don’t know. But that same person probably wouldn’t know where to start if the question was about the history of the ancient Mayans. I’d suggest clarifying what her fields of study are; most likely the skills she took from the background.
I look at sage more like a modern day academic, and key on the phrase “fields of study.” Someone today who’s a professor-level expert in Physics is still going to have a specialty in the field where they know a lot, and outside of that specialty, have contacts and information that allow them to know might something they don’t know. But that same person probably wouldn’t know where to start if the question was about the history of the ancient Mayans. I’d suggest clarifying what her fields of study are; most likely the skills she took from the background.
Yeah, the skills that are automatically given with the Sage background are Arcana, History which can narrow the scope of what the player knows along with the Librarian to which I think makes it easier to find things in mass collections of information.
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In a game, I am running there is a new player who has chosen a Sage librarian focused background for their character. Pretty much on any occasion where the player does not know or recognize something, they say "With my Sage background to I know anything on [subject], [creature] X" In most cases, I'd say no and point out that she is not Google and can pull anything on everything out of her head. Other times I'll define things through a range of DC's but still, it seems like the player is trying to use Sage as a catch-all for answers. Still, I've read the Sage and even the wording could make the player the jack of all knowledge leveraging the Librarian specialty but it could just be how they know how to find information on a topic.
As the DM, I am fallible and willing to change how I handle or view the usage of a background. I'm considering with the Sage background to possibly give advantage on rolls based under Intelligence skill checks for Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion. Maybe those checks are all that is needed based on a DC range to see how much information is dished out.
So where I'm getting at is to see how players and dm's use or rule, house or RAW, characters that have the Sage background in their games.
The Feature description tells you how to find information you don't know from your own skill ability.
Let's say you asked the player to make a History check and they failed. They point out their Sage background. You tell them that they do remember that this town has an excellent library and that there was also a well known branch of Harpers who may be helpful under certain circumstances.
Yeah, what Wtfdndad said. Or, maybe it isn’t “this town has a library” but it could be that they know of a learned person in ”Town X” who is reputed to be an expert in that field. Stuff like that.
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Thanks for the suggestions on how to approach it.
I may have to do a sitdown conversation to help clear things up because I can tell the player does not clearly understand the sage background nor the level of effort that should be taken to find the information. The irony is that a lot of the question comes during very mundane situations that have no relevancy to the situation but I'm willing to give the question its merit so I'm not taking away their agency to engage in the RP.
They're already getting proficiency in two skills tied to Intelligence. And, for the most part, I don't think the ribbon abilities on backgrounds should have meaningful mechanical benefits. They might save you some coin here and there, but that's it.
Researcher, as I read it and have played it, is meant to be an adventure hook. If your character doesn't know something, then they know where the party can get the answer(s) they seek.
I look at sage more like a modern day academic, and key on the phrase “fields of study.” Someone today who’s a professor-level expert in Physics is still going to have a specialty in the field where they know a lot, and outside of that specialty, have contacts and information that allow them to know might something they don’t know. But that same person probably wouldn’t know where to start if the question was about the history of the ancient Mayans.
I’d suggest clarifying what her fields of study are; most likely the skills she took from the background.
Yeah, the skills that are automatically given with the Sage background are Arcana, History which can narrow the scope of what the player knows along with the Librarian to which I think makes it easier to find things in mass collections of information.