Beasts my character has seen?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

My Level Lore Bard is about to hit Level 7 and learn Polymorph. Our party is a mixture of level 6's and 7's so up to CR 6 or 7 Beasts are in play.

It seems logical my Character would have to had seen one of these beasts to be able to change someone into it.

I have a good list of D&D beasts by CR.

We haven't fought any dinosaurs so a triceratops might be stretching it.

Is there a common sense list for a somewhat non worldly Wood Elf to have seen? Or am I making too much of this?

[Aett_Thorn]

My Level Lore Bard is about to hit Level 7 and learn Polymorph. Our party is a mixture of level 6's and 7's so up to CR 6 or 7 Beasts are in play.

It seems logical my Character would have to had seen one of these beasts to be able to change someone into it.

I have a good list of D&D beasts by CR.

We haven't fought any dinosaurs so a triceratops might be stretching it.

Is there a common sense list for a somewhat non worldly Wood Elf to have seen? Or am I making too much of this?

Do you have access to Xanathar's Guide at all? There is a list in the Druid section for this.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Not yet....Xanthers has a guide of beasts every druid should know?
I might have to get it.

[Randomthom]

Yep, you pick a climate that you grew up in and it lists all the animals in that terrain that you can expect to have seen. Add to that all the ones you have seen in-play and you're golden! :)

[Rerem115]

I need to wear my glasses more often; I was browsing without them and did a double take when I saw the title. While I'm at it, I need to get my mind out of the gutter, too.

[Pelle]

Depends on the setting, ask your GM.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I need to wear my glasses more often; I was browsing without them and did a double take when I saw the title. While I'm at it, I need to get my mind out of the gutter, too.

That's kind of funny. FWIW, my character is a girl to! But don't worry, she has been hanging out in dive bars with these darn human adventurers long enough the polite way you worded that came nowhere near offending her. (or I)

To make it funnier, we rolled for stats and all kinds of stuff. Usually I play a fighter, last time a Ranger and with no role playing skills myself, I'm in it for the fighting. I ended up rolling a 5'1", 9 Str, 17 Dex, 11 Con, 9 Int, 13 Wis, 18 Cha elf. So Bard it was and instead of playing a mini-Legolas I was sure the DM was going to have every NPC mistake for a woman, I looked up at the smirking DM and said, "my character is a girl!"

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Yep, you pick a climate that you grew up in and it lists all the animals in that terrain that you can expect to have seen. Add to that all the ones you have seen in-play and you're golden! :)

And roll knowledge nature for anything else.

Who knows, maybe a trader or a performer came past with one...

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Ah, good point. I could see dinosaurs being DC 20's or something. Citizens of Rome though certainly knew the cats of Africa. Some better than they wanted!

[KorvinStarmast]

And roll knowledge nature for anything else.

Who knows, maybe a trader or a performer came past with one... Spot on.
The list in Xanathar's is far too restrictive.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Spot on.
The list in Xanathar's is far too restrictive.

How about Xanther's list plus a DC check on other animals from different climates. Afterall, a trader or traveler may have brought whatever through as stated above. Dinosaurs are probably a near impossible DC. Large snakes reasonable because they can be transported.

[KorvinStarmast]

How about Xanther's list plus a DC check on other animals from different climates. Afterall, a trader or traveler may have brought whatever through as stated above. Dinosaurs are probably a near impossible DC. Large snakes reasonable because they can be transported. Using common sense like that makes sense to me. Give it a chance, that's all anyone asks ...

[XmonkTad]

How about Xanther's list plus a DC check on other animals from different climates. Afterall, a trader or traveler may have brought whatever through as stated above. Dinosaurs are probably a near impossible DC. Large snakes reasonable because they can be transported.

I'm getting flashbacks to nature checks to know that cave bears live in caves.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I'm getting flashbacks to nature checks to know that cave bears live in caves.
Lol.

I'm trying to think of some common fact about an animal people just don't know.

I stuck an ungloved hand into a Bowfin's mouth w/o a second thought then thought I should have inspected it better knowing how similar in appearance to Snakeheads they are.

[Demonslayer666]

The spell doesn't say you have to choose a beast you have seen, like the Druid's wildshape ability. I'm not saying that's unreasonable, but I would not make that a requirement in my game.

Maybe the spell has a drop down list of creatures to choose from. "ooh, what's a plesiosaurus? (please-ee-asaurus)"

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The RAW possibility of transforming someone into a beast I have not seen is amazing. How about one I saw a cartoon of lol.

[sambojin]

Bards get around a bit, and hear about all kinds of stuff. You might end up with late 19th/early 20th century style dinosaurs, instead of "actual" dinosaurs, but apart from appearance the stats would be the same.

I mean, there's plenty of stuff in DnD that's just considered "common knowledge", that by all rights shouldn't be. How many people have actually seen a beholder? Not many, but lots of people seem to have the vague jist of what they are. How many real world Siberian farmers have seen a kangaroo? They still know what they are though, in general terms.

[Errata]

Dinosaurs are probably a near impossible DC.

Dinosaurs are included in some of the Xanathar's lists. I think the default 5e default campaign settings are pushing dinosaurs as a fairly normal beast that you'd encounter in certain regions, which is a bit of a departure from most fantasy settings.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

In one of my campaigns dinosaurs are at least a rare creature. The other we have not encountered any....in fact, we mostly fought humans, drow amd demons lol.

[Nidgit]

If your Bard is reasonably well-read there's a good chance they've at least come across illustrations of some more exotic creatures. Even if you're not, maybe you had a favorite picture book as a child with dinos in it.

[Tanarii]

The spell doesn't say you have to choose a beast you have seen, like the Druid's wildshape ability. I'm not saying that's unreasonable, but I would not make that a requirement in my game.You'd think at least the caster should be aware of ...


Maybe the spell has a drop down list of creatures to choose from. "ooh, what's a plesiosaurus? (please-ee-asaurus)"Okay, maybe not. :smallbiggrin: :smallamused:

[Zalabim]

I need to wear my glasses more often; I was browsing without them and did a double take when I saw the title. While I'm at it, I need to get my mind out of the gutter, too.

I had to do the same thing, and I don't even wear glasses. Then I read the hover text, got to bard, and had to look at it again just to make sure.