Identifying monster alignments on sight?

[Jon_Dahl]

How do you recognise what is the usual alignment of a creature?

An example: An irritated eyrie of giant eagles are approaching the PCs. How can the PCs know that they are usually neutral good? What sort of check should the players roll and what is the DC? Please explain your reasoning.

[Auramis]

How do you recognise what is the usual alignment of a creature?

An example: An irritated eyrie of giant eagles are approaching the PCs. How can the PCs know that they are usually neutral good? What sort of check should the players roll and what is the DC? Please explain your reasoning.

Knowledge checks (varying based on the creature) might help players in understanding how certain creatures normally behave. For non-magical beasts, our house usually rolls knowledge (nature). For dragons and other magical creatures, knowledge (arcane) helps out... It's also nice having a paladin who can detect evil in the party. :smallbiggrin:

That said, a knowledge check isn't necessarily a free pass to know. Our DM doesn't let our knowledge checks immediately grant us knowledge for everything under their roof. My paladin, for instance, wanted to figure out stuff about the Seelie Court as a religion. Because he'd never heard of it (since faeries are elusive), my DM had my character find a fey creature to question before he'd let me use it for future checks. It's the same concept that a man in a cold, northern mountain wouldn't know anything about a desert until visiting.

So, if you had a ranger or druid native to the area the eagles are in, knowledge (nature) would be good. :smallsmile: