I took 10 HP from Trees

Over the last couple hours I took to taking out trees from the fence line of a 10 acre ranch property. In that process I faced more signifigant challenge than one would honestly expect even if you are a d20 proffesional. I am not joking! Between thorns and wild swings of the hand axe I have to have taken 10 hp. I mean my shoulder is going to be sore for days, with bedrest!

The limbs of the trees thwacked me several times, and some of them had thorns. None of the trees were tall so this actually made them more resiliant and springy insomuch as hacking through a real tree trunk with limbs far above me would not have resulted in as many 1hp pings. Note, I have alergy plant so in addition to a half dozen thorn and branch knicks I will also be effectively poisoned for like 20 subdule damage from poison effect. Ouch.

Another point of fact is I fumbled an equipment roll somehow when I stood up suddenly after having been knelt over pulling up roots of a bush and woop my glasses flew off and literally snapped in twain on the back of my hand axe. Arg. And! Either I dont have prof: simple weapons, my str score is too low without weapon finess, or there is some sort of trap CR based on the act of deforesting a fence line that makes you take a reflex save for every attack because I about lost that dang thing half a dozen times. Maybe I have some negative 'weak grip' trait that makes it harder to handle the hand axe? I literally thonked my thumb with it, but I was luckily wearing leather gloves and wasnt swinging hard enough to do more than jam it.

One thing that I am obviously reafirmed of after swinging an axe for two hours is the need for some kind of fatigue system that affects when you have been exerting yourself even for a few minutes. What is interesting that I feel as tho ( myself anyhow ) I feel as tho I get to fatiged after the first couple combat rounds, but them dont get signifigantly more fatigued for as much as a few hours of continuing at the same pace. As tho simply having exerted myself for more than one consecutive combat round made me fatigued, but it wasnt until about the end of the second hour of sustained exertion ( usually only 3-10 rounds at a time interspersed with walking ) that then I wanted to stop and have a cigarette. Having done many things like this before I am also well aware that the prolonged fatigue will be alleviated by a simple ten minutes of breathing and basically standing still.

This is all Second Wind / BST thoughts, and rather than start getting into numbers and score arrays and algorythims I will say,

Intersting,

Check out more BST stuff on CompleteSRD.wikidot and join the group to contribute :D

The Hunt Check

I do most of my contemplations of system in the completely open and available 'Revised 3rd Edition' flavor of the Open Game Rules. I have a website with a decent set of links and some spattering of stuff I started two years ago on Complete SRD. The last three Chamber Plays that I was participant in were so called 'Three point five plus alpha' games. Something I liked calling '3.75' in the days before the fourth edition of the rules base was developed. I prefer to call it the Third Edition Open Game base, or something similar. Fourth Edition uses certain rule variants that become unseemly with the Third Edition, and despite all rational thought and conclusions I have *not* read the OSRIC Project. Yet. As I was saying, I am thinking primarily in Third Edition terms when I rulify. Squabbly little details like second winds and healing surges aside the underlying systems are the same, but like writing code.

While what you wrote may mean the same thing to a human, to the rules it don't.

Sitting outside the Fourth Edition and Pathfinder arena's as I am at the moment makes me wonder if they are still using the RAW language to debate the details and consequences of certain literal statements. In RAW a rock is an improvised club. In my book you can use the 'craft action' (DC 22) as that little movement when you heft the rock in your hand and get the weight. In the hands of the master weaponsmith negating the improvised weapon penalty is easy for simple weapons like club and quarterstaff. Its not RAW, but I use a standard 'in combat' +10 modifier to craft checks when you are trying to do stuff that would normally take weeks in a manner of moments. Ahh, idea.. wait, what was I posting here about? Is that an Int Check or Wis Check? Hunt check.

It is my opinion that the so called track check is not good enough. One of the things I am a very big fan of is also one of the things that keeps me away from moving to the Fourth Edition arena. From the long view I can tell that all the functions are semi isolated. I prefer, to make actions like Track into a large and universally available system that individual character traits can improve and alter. Track strikes me as a very fourth edition rule. You can use this system if you have the track feat or you have the scent attribute. Without these traits hunting something through the city or woods is ..maybe.. a gather information check accompanied by a series of combat awareness checks (spot) ..maybe? 'Hunting' perse is a simple survival check. Roll a d20 get better than ten and you 'survive' in the wilderness. That is pretty much it out of the completely available material. I haven't seen allot of development in the 'hunt' department of the OGL.

Track is not even really the common skill I am referencing. Tracking is a noncombat action, and I am definitely thinking more in the terms of 'hunting a deer' action in this specific instance. Admittedly it is a fairly simple exercise to have a PC take a couple pot shots with a longbow and say they killed a deer, but that really doesn't build up dicitement. I am thinking something along the lines of Shadowrun's chase mechanism. Opposed checks based off of Attack Bonus and perhaps intelligence?

They say man is the most difficult prey to hunt..... anyway. A thought of the day.

Conducting One's Morning

A morning cup of coffee. I'm not talking about when you get river water in your face while white water rafting. I am speaking of the wakemeup. More expresely a morning ritual. Everyone has a morning ritual. Mine includes ciggarettes and yoga. Preferably two, and a good putter round the vincity. Some people are up and at em with a lightning quickness, and some people take nice long showers and shave while still rubbing the blur of dreams from their eyes. Along with eating and breathing waking up from sleep is a universal experience. Oddly enough waking up is a subject I have scarcely seen addressed in Story Play rule systems.
D&D 3ED has some reference to the phenomena. Specifically in order to be used in combat scenarios. In this case a listen check to successfully notice the need and a will save with flat DC. This mechanic does well to simulate a mid night ambush wherin you will awaken surging with adrenalin. I have used the mechanic several times successfully. The Storyteller system has a reference to slumber in the extented merits and flaws system. The trait 'deep sleeper' makes it more difficult to rouse your character. There is also a trait called nightmares in the Storyteller system that I am familiar with that gives you a one in six chance of awakening without having gained the benefits of sleeping, but where is that morning ritual?
Should you want to characterize the phenomena of the morning ritual and how it impacts a character I suggest we take a look at the Video Game 'Fallout' Fallout 3 specifically. In this video game your pixel is granted a boon of increased experience points per kill when they have had a full nights rest. Keeping in mind that the pixel also suffers absolute zero penalties for not sleeping, even for as long as two weeks worth of in game time, the express mechanic does not translate well to the story play. But, the idea is there. Benefit the character in some way for using their morning ritual.
Perhaps a bonus to perception? Perhaps a bonus action point? Perhaps a bonus die on certain tasks? One way or another granting the character a boon for having 'properly prepared' themselves for the day. This boon reflects the benefits of performing a morning ritual. An SRD example would be to grant the character the benefits of the alertness feat for six hours after the morning ritual. A Storyteller example would be to reduce all mental targets by one for six hours. If you really wanted to go wild with this idea you could.
Say you are playing 'Offices and Officials' (an imaginary game of keeping a day job and paying your taxes) what you could do is actually hammer out ten or twenty morning rituals (from yoga and ti chi to coffee and blogging) that provide different boons to your workaday character. Coffee could grant you a plus four alertness for three hours while yoga could grant you a plus two for six hours. Blogging increases your typing speed for the day while ti chi increases your balance. For the more serious blood and guts player morning rituals need not be restricted to Clerics and Druids who worship with the morning sun. An hour of stretching and excersise in the morning could grant a warrior character with a +1 to con and dex for the day!
Mornin!

Can you guess my name?

If you are able to recognize this feat from your familiarity with the rules then "no fair" try again, but if you are not a walking encyclopedia I dare you to try and guess what the name of the feat presented here is?

General -
Prerequisite: Knowledge (arcana) 2 ranks.
Benefit: You can create any dragoncraft itm whose prerequisites you meet. Creating a dragoncraft item follows the normal rules for the craft skill.
See dragon craft items.

Now my guess would be "Craft Dragoncraft Item" ala Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Wand Item. It seems reasonable. Its a crafting feat that, while its very existence makes me ponder the idea of "Craft Mithral Item" as a serious modification to the base crafting rules, allows you to create special type items. Armor and more using a special material (dragon) with special Dragoncraft item abilities. Its an interesting feat. It has an odd name. It is an interesting feat with an odd name, and an odd mechanic when you consider the nature of the Dragoncraft items and the abilities they have.

The name of the feat is not "Craft Dragoncraft Item" though it could be if you wanted it to be. My second guess is just plain "Dragoncraft" which is another perfectly reasonable name for a feat. That however is not it. Now it is possible that "Dragoncraft" the term is copyrighted and Product Identity of Wizards of the Coast llc and Hasbro int. Should that be the case (which I question) it is a simple matter to redesignate the term Dragoncraft and retain its abilities. As I have for the feat presented here - that I have dubbed ... "FeatDraconomicon13"

See http://completesrd.wikidot.com/draconomicon for more.

Bluff I say!

You Should Use the Bluff Skill
by Shea C. Reinke

originally posted on Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572454/Bluff_I_say?post_id=332691726#332691726

Republished on ArticlesBase.com
http://www.articlesbase.com/theater-articles/bluff-i-say-836088.html

Bluff is one of those skills that is easy to use. In nearly any situation a Bluff check can be made to gain some benefit. Using the skill in combat costs you an action, but out of combat a Bluff is made within normal talking or other forms of communication. If you are interacting with any character consider if you are attempting to motivate them, and if you are; Bluff them. You don't have to be falsifying to make with a Bluff check.

Bluff Does Not Lie

Bluff is simultaneously one of the most used skills, and one of the most misused skills, RAWise. It is written that the Bluff skill does not let you lie, but in countless games a lie calls for a Bluff check. It is not surprising that Bluff is often misused, it is a skill with allot of utility. It is easy to take the skill one step farther, to the point of actual taking care of deception for you. The skill that would most realistically be checked to cover the details of lying would be Perform (Storytelling), however lying is not an action that is managed by a skill check. You simply tell the truth or you don't. An NPC believes, or disbelieves, what you say based on what that NPC knows.

A Diplomacy check could make the NPC feel helpful enough to believe you, but a Bluff check will convince the target of the importance of the information, regardless of truth. Bluffing is a motivational action that relates to, but does not actually include, deception. You can make a Bluff check to give persuasion to a lie, "... and there are riches in it for you ..." is a lie to make them want to believe you. A Bluff check is ironically the skill check used to gauge the communication of the greatest truths, Innuendo (oh, I mean Delivering a Secret Message). A successful Bluff check conveys belief in something, a belief about something about you. What you mean, what is important to you, or what you are going to do.

The Feint

The feint function is one of the finest combat injections to the mostly non-combat social skills system of D&D. Feints are fully functional in combat. Use them, you'll see. If you have Bluff ranks, and your enemies are quick with a low BAB, you don't really have to try to hit them. Power Attack on a feint. The feint, like the attack roll, is not one quick dart to the left. Fining involves a complex series of movements. The dramatic backhand swing, is a gorgeous example of a feint in combat. Improved feint, best for melee capable rogues and bards, gives you a total turn attack pattern as a pseudo full attack action.

A fighter with improved feint, and at least a few ranks in Bluff presumably, will have a two turn attack pattern. First round power attack (or other single attack action, perhaps even aid), and a feint. Second round Full-Attack. Third round repeat. Improved feint turns the fighter into a one-two punch mechanical killing machine. Pair fighter levels with rouge, one for one (no XP penalty), and you eventually end up with a thing that can dance through fireballs (evasion), through infantry (tumbling), past your opponents guard (feint), hit him (3/5th attack bonus), and steal the key off his neck (slight of hand).

Pairing with fighter levels with bardic can create a potent field commander, slightly spendy with bardic music uses though. A fighter/bard can't really afford to spend the entire fight singing. The pattern is more flexible. He uses a strike-feint-full-attack one-two, but takes third or fifth turns off to make with the inspiration. In a single combat scenario, with a few bard levels under the character's belt, this pattern keeps the entire party attacking at a higher success rate. Yourself even more so because you are using improved feint. The charismatic bard, or any other character, should not take their score modifier for sufficient when it comes to Bluff. To maintain the fin's utility in combat you must put ranks into the skill to counter act the rising resistance of base attack bonus.

A feint takes the base attack bonus of a target into account when being resisted. Bluff is the only combat useful skill to do this. The simple reason is that the combat instincts of the target are motivating that target to disbelieve you. A feint really is a form of lie actually; you are implying an action that you are not going to do. The subtle difference here is that the feint is a microburst of miscommunication. Your target knows you are trying to hit them, you are really only lying about where. For the rouge/bard the fascinate sneak attack pattern is like "super feint," but it really only works once at the beginning of combat. Feint, improved or otherwise, allows you to make single move maneuvering though combat an effective tactic. Move, feint, disarm, move, feint, trip, move, feint, sneak attack from flank.

A Quick Diversion

Hiding can save your life, and if you have a sneak attack that diversion could lead to massive damage dealt by you. As far as modifiers, remember that the target may want to believe that you have left, but probably finds your disappearance unlikely. A NPC that is hunting you in particular probably doesn't want you to take a powder, but is more likely to belive that you ran away. Creating a diversion to hide does not take attack bonus into account so besides the normal Bluff modifiers the check is pretty easy. Sense motive is a skill that low level NPCs rarely take ranks in. Intelligent, or wise, NPCs are, of course, each a unique story.

Delivering a Secret Message

When you really want to tell a character something, and you want the target to understand, use Bluff to deliver a secret message. Bluff lays a DC on intelligible communication; complex DC 20 and simple DC 15. Were you into rolling allot of dice, Bluff could be taken as the skill of simply talking. When you want to tell an NPC something, anything, roll Bluff. Your success or failure on the skill and rank modified d20 roll determines how well the NPC receives the intent of the message you role play. Delivering secret messages this way implies that you are only ever really talking to one person at a time. Everyone else has to make Sense Motive checks to get in on your one-on-one jive.

In that sense the Bluff check is the skill check of actual inter-character communication. NPC to NPC, PC to NPC, even PC to PC. Diplomacy deals with general attitudes, and Perform lets you touch the hearts, and money pouches, of many; but Bluff is the skill you can use to tell one target what you want that target to know, and have rules for failure. Unlike a standard Bluff check delivering a secret message translates only information. Oddly, the general function of Bluff, when not using one of the subfunctions, is made with the consideration that the target already knows what you are saying. You are making the Bluff check to use the knowledge the NPC already has to motivate that target do want to do something. Technically delivering a secret message is only needed to conceal what you are saying to a target from listeners. You don't have to make a skill check to tell someone something, just like you don't need to make a skill check to lie.

Why Sense Motive

The mighty resistance skill of Sense Motive appears often in the description of Bluff. Every function of Bluff is resisted by Sense Motive. Primary purpose, feint, diversion, and deliver all have a relationship with Sense Motive. This relationship can be likened to the BAB and AC relationship. Charisma is like strength; adding punch to the attack. Wisdom is like Dexterity; assisting with evasive maneuvers. Intelligence analogizes to Constitution making Skill Points Like HP. Of course, you don't loose Skill Points dynamically the way you do HP, so that's the break in the analogy. Another is that Sense Motive is Bluff's big evil bad guy. Always able to frustrate Bluff until the very last feinted turn.

Now Let Me Tell Ya

No one needs an explanation of what the Bluff skill, does. Sometimes you need to be reminded of what the Bluff skill don't do. So I made sure to tell you first thing, if you'll notice. However, you will be using the Bluff whenever you lie, because you don't lie unless you want somebody to do something for you. Go away! Do this! Do that! Whatever, but, remember to Bluff when telling the Truth too. If you want someone to take an action on your behalf, regardless of the veracity of what you are saying, Bluff! That is my secret message for you.
Did the rest of ya'll hear that!


Shea's Research & Development (SR&D
What Does Bluff Need?

"Not much," I'd say. Bluff is already a paragon of a skill. It is flexible in and out of combat. To say that it is under used would be a lie. Bluff can however be slightly modified based on conceptual lines. Not for utility, but for the sake of reality. Using Bluff in the following ways may enable you to save a few skill points too, if that is what you need to do. Basically, the real question is: where do you draw the line?

How About an Example?
This is me bluffing you:

You need to change the way you use the Bluff skill. Honestly. When analyzed as part of the whole set of social skill functions Bluff is an oddity. Half communication, half deception, and hard to conceptually separate from negotiation. Too much work for you? Just read up on the below.

Bluff and Social Skill Functions Like Negotiation

The premise of Bluff is in that motivational feeling you can produce. So Bluff as a performance. How about motivating an attitude. Bluff as Diplomacy. Talk that street talk? Bluff as Profession too. Why is Diplomacy the skill of negotiation? Why not Bluff? Why not both? "I like the way you negotiation" says the fast talking man. If you include Bluff into a general negotiation function, then you should pull in Intimidation too. How do you make a bargain sir? By reason, silver tung, or force? These skills could mix and mingle with Bluff as easily as Sense Motive does.

You could also, maybe, just use Bluff to resist Bluffs. Stick with me here, but the ability to fast talk could be seen as the ability to resist the very tactics you know how to use. You can't fool an old con, they say. You would be creating a sort of Bluff battle. Corollary to a grapple, Bluff battles would continue, the upper hand changing throughout perhaps, until the winner has the loser clearly in a pinned in a conceptual corner and reasonably beaten, or both parties give up. This, however, sounds allot like a negotiation. Now, this might send Sense Motive the way of the dodo, but you could treat all general Bluffs as a form of negotiation. Opposed by Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidation.

If you take Sense Motive away this way you need other ways to defend and detect the sub functions of Bluff. Beyond your BAB what else do you need to resist a feint? As far as hiding and delivering a secret message? Why not just let those stay spot and listen checks? If you add the modifiers from the Bluff skill to the resisting wisdom based sense roll the numbers are sufficiently skewed to represent the more complex conceptual situation. In the case of creating a diversion to hide a character would receive two spots. One based on the diversion, and one based on the Hide.

The Cold Hard Line

Bluffs, like the other social skill checks in the game, are not spells. The target character is under no abnormal compulsion to do anything they would not normally do. Bluff, the paragon of effective social skills is really no more able to force action than a knowledge skill. Bluff has this eerie reality to it in that only with an epic modifier of +50 to the DC are you able to actually know that what you said is going to motivate a target to do anything. Remember to make it brief; you got ten minutes. If you are not satisfied with this; there is a down and dirty way to fix it.

Use Bluff to set a will save DC (and there went Sense Motive). You should definitely give the will save all appropriate morale modifiers and apply the circumstantial modifiers listed in the skill description of Bluff. If you don't anybody with Bluff will be able to tell everyone within five levels of them what to do by taking ten. The compulsion functions like a mental poison. A character receives an initial save to resist the compelling idea, and then a secondary save right before they do what they are compulsed. Any Bluff that the target would consider harmless and acceptable should not be rolled because that means the NPC already wants to do it, eh?

Procrastination is allowed with this compulsion, but once the compulsion is unstilled you may reinforce it with an subsequent Bluff check. Reinforcement prompts another will save and resets the secondary save to the result of the reinforcement Bluff check. If the target fails the reinforcement save the target immediately sets out to satisfy their compulsion. With this system remember that the source of the compulsion is non-magical, and, more importantly, you. Removing you from the equation brings the compulsion to an end. My message? Be wary of negotiating with the Evil or the Cruel.

There are a number of variant systems available that add modifiers to social skill rolls based on the current attitude or degree of familiarity a character has with their target. Any and all of these are acceptable modifiers when determining a Bluff set will save DC. The message behind that eerie epic reality is that it should not be easy to motivate a target to do something that they don't want to do. If the modifiers are all in your favor, instead of familiarity mitigating the danger involved or some such, then you should consider if Bluffing is actually necessary. Sometimes all you have to do is explain something to a character to motivate them. If you find this the case, when reviewing the modifiers, consider making a Knowledge check instead.

To get rid of a compulsion a Bluff, Diplomacy, Heal, Intimidation, or Profession check can be made on the compulsed character. The function mimics the way that Heal treats poison. A concerned assistant, or king's attendant, can substitute their skill roll for the compulsed character's will save. Unlike poison, the effects are immediate. You either succeed at talking the target out of the idea or you don't. You don't have to wait until the last moment to find out if the treatment worked. Of course, the target is free to Bluff you back that they are still under the influence, but that is degenerating into the realm of what metagame the players are playing.

Greater Feint and Some Other Things

Dancing Feint [COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Perform (Dance) 5 ranks, Improved Feint, Spring Attack.
Benefit: You may make a feint as a free action when you make a standard move action in combat.
Normal: You cannot combine a standard move with a feint.
Special: You cannot make a free action feint if you are making a double move or faster move action.

Feint Flurry [COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Base Attack Bonus + 13, Improved Feint, Flurry of Blows.
Benefit: You may feint an opponent and ignore their Dexterity bonus to AC for an entire full attack round.
Normal: A feint only allows you to ignore a target's Dexterity bonus to AC for a single attack.
Special: If you do not start your full attack with your next available action the feint is wasted.

Greater Feint [COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Base Attack Bonus + 8, Improved Feint, Combat Expertise.
Benefit: You may make a feint as a move equivalent action or as one of your attacks in a full attack action.
Normal: With improved feint you make a feint as a move equivalent action.
Note: You only gain the benefit of a feint on the single attack action that follows the feint.

Heckle [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidation 5 ranks.
Benefit: You may make a Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Perform check as a free action immediately after an opponent succeeds at a Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Perform check. The DC is equal to the result of the successful check. If you succeed you negate the success of the provoking Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Perform check. You do not have to use the same skill your target succeeded on to heckle their check.
Normal: You cannot resist the effect of a Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Perform roll unless you are the target.
Special: You may not heckle if you are one the targets of the Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidation check. You may heckle a Perform check that includes you in the audience.

Honest [TALENT]
Benefit: Gain a +4 competence bonus on Bluff checks when you are telling the truth.
Special: This feat does not grant you a bonus on Bluff checks made to feint, create a diversion, or deliver a secret message.

Liar [TALENT]
Benefit: Gain a + 4 morale bonus to your Bluff check when you are lying.
Special: This feat does not grant you a bonus on Bluff checks made to feint, create a diversion, or deliver a secret message.

Quick Feet [COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Dex 13, Uncanny Dodge.
Benefit: You do not lose your Dexterity bonus to AC even when you fail to resist a feint.
Normal: You lose your Dexterity bonus to AC when you fail to resist a feint even if you have the uncanny dodge class feature.

Quick Feint [COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Dex 13, Improved Feint, Combat Reflexes.
Benefit: You may attempt a feint as a free action when making an attack of opportunity.
Normal: A feint requires a separate action prior to an attack.
Special: You must make your attack roll regardless of the result of the feint, and you do not gain the benefit of a successful feint on any attack other than that attack of opportunity.

Spending Money on Bluff

Bluff is not a skill that you need allot of stuff to use. Bribery is always an option, but that gets back into the realm of negotiation. As a common rule you could set a + 1 circumstance bonus to Bluff per 10gp spent on bribery, but when Bluffing the excessively rich, 10 gp is a pittance. Depending on the social strata you are maneuvering on you may need 100, or 1,000 gp per + 1 circumstantial modifier. Equipment given as gifts should be valued with some consideration for who the gift is given to. A promise really comes in handy with a Bluff, but a promise costs you nothing, at least in gp. Perhaps perfume ranging from 1 to 100 in gp value could grant you a + 2 under the right circumstances, but, for Bluff, equipment really doesn't help you.

A note about lying, it really helps to have proof. Bluff motivates, but skills like craft and forgery allow you to make objects that "confirm" your story.

Magical Items that Relate to the Bluff Skill

Silver Tongue: This small slip of silver must be placed on your tongue. A silver tongue takes up an amulet slot. When wearing a silver tongue you gain a +10 competence bonus to non-combat Bluff checks. In addition you gain a spell resistance of 20 against any spell or ability that would detect the truth or force you to tell the truth.
Moderate Transmutation; CL 8th; Craft Wondrous Item, Glibness; Price 12,500 gp.

Flashing: A weapon enhanced with flashing becomes very difficult to see. The wielder of the weapon gains a +5 enhancement bonus to make a feint when wielding a flashing weapon.
Moderate Illusion [mind-altering]; CL 5th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, blur; Price +1 bonus.

Flashing, Improved: A weapon enhanced with improved flashing becomes nearly invisible. The wielder of the weapon gains a +10 enhancement bonus to make a feint when wielding an improved flashing weapon.
Strong Transmutation; CL 12th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, blink; Price +3 bonus.

Overhear Ring: This simple ring takes up a ring slot, but is worn as an ear ring. The wearer of the Overhear Ring gains a +5 competence bonus when discerning a secret message transmitted by Bluff.
Faint Divination; CL 12th; Forge Ring, comprehend languages; Price 5,800 gp.

Base Initiative and Tidal Initiative

On The Initiative System
by Shea C. Reinke

Originally posted on the Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572374/Base_Initiative_and_Tidal_Initiative?post_id=332690494#332690494

The act of determining who goes first, who goes last, and who gets what done before who is called Initiative. Like attack actions, Initiative is an IF roll that all meta-games have some kind of rule for. The rules for Initiative interact with all of the concepts of time in the game. How you use Initiative, how you rule Initiative, has a significant impact on how your games are played. There are many, many, many ways to play with Initiative, in this article I will review the basics. I will also play with the rules a little bit, with optional rules and a tidal Initiative

SRD D20 Core System Initiative

In SRD D20 Initiative is determined on one of two very similar ways. Like most systems you have a collective Initiative IF roll. IF, or Interactive Function, being my term (a very short term) for an opposed or contested roll. A roll that does not have static DC. Your D20 Initiative IF is: 1d20 + Dexterity Modifier + Initiative Bonus. All participants in the combat situation must roll before they can take an action in the turn sequence. If, they do not roll Initiative, then how are you supposed to know when they go?

The core system uses a static Initiative method that requires all characters in a combat situation determine their Initiative at the start of a scenario with an IF roll, and then places all of the participants in to a sequence. Most dungeon masters use some sort of table, either impromptu or pregenerated, to record this sequence for easy reference throughout the scenario. Once this sequence is generated, in the default method, it stays static. The sequence set at the begging of the scenario is maintained throughout, and only the special Initiative actions, delay and ready, allow participants to change their place in that sequence.

Dynamic Initiative is an optional rule that has all of the participants in a combat event roll Initiative IFs prior to the first action of every round. Using dynamic Initiative creates a sense of unpredictability in combat that many groups enjoy, however you must sacrifice the simplicity of static Initiative and some of the utility of the special Initiative actions. With static Initiative you can spend one turn delaying, putting yourself at a particular place on the sequence, and expect to retain that position for the remainder of the scenario. With dynamic Initiative you are "wasting" a turn to go first on the next round with no assurance of going first on the round after.


Ties, Surprise, and Special Initiative Actions

Ties and Surprise are the most commonly faced Initiative issues. If one or more of the participants in a combat scenario are unaware of what is going on at the beginning of combat (or round with dynamic Initiative) you find yourself in a Surprise round. The Surprised characters roll initiative, but they remain flat-footed until their turn. If the Surprised participants are still unaware of what is happening around them when it comes to their turn in the sequence they may attempt to observe, and figure out that their in combat, or they may continue to act as if nothing is happening (remaining "Surprised" and flat-footed). Combat actions happen at a much more rapid pace than non-combat actions. So a character that does not know that that they are in combat is not likely to take a combat worthy action. Particularly move at a their full combat rate.

A tie in Initiative sequence is resolved by comparing the total Initiative bonuses of the tied characters. If those numbers are equal then they must IF against each other. The IF does not effect their place in the larger Initiative sequence, only their relative Initiative sequence. Its like rolling Initiative just for that one turn in the round. Later in this article I will suggest an optional rule for dealing with ties in a different manner, but the core systems work very well to resolve Initiative ties simply. Of course, with dynamic Initiative resolving ties must be done every round, further multiplying the number of Initiative rolls that you need to make to get through a round.

Delay and ready are the two, very similar, special Initiative actions. Both delay and ready allow you to designate another spot on the Initiative sequence to take your turn. Delay is a free action, and ready is a move equivalent action. To delay you must state a specific point in the sequence that you are going to act, whereas with ready you can declare a specific event that will trigger your action. There is a common optional Initiative action called observe the scene. Observing the scene is a full round action that allows you to reroll your initiative with a +10 or +20 Initiative bonus to the roll. A simpler method that achieves a similar result in both static and dynamic Initiative is to delay until the bottom of the round, aka the top of the next.

Optional Initiative Rules

Reroll Ties Every Round

In static Initiative, instead of resolving ties at the beginning of the scenario, you can allow the ties to remain a point of contention. Every round the tied characters declare the action they want to do, and if one of their actions needs to happen before the other (say they are opponents in melee) then they IF roll. If their actions do not compete for timing (say they are flanking a shared enemy) it is simple enough to allow them to take their actions at effectively the same time. Courtesy and player readiness should be enough to determine which player will actually declare and roll first.

"I'll get him next round, you'll see! Somebody cast cat's grace on me!"

Damage allocation at the End of the Round

Six seconds is a very short time. In a number of movies we have seen a character take a mortal blow and continue to act for a moment. It takes a few seconds for the body to realize that it isn't working anymore. In that light you could have the effect of damage (in this case a character dropping below 0) be delayed until the end of the round. With this rule characters will not change their mind as often in combat. There are many times when I have been planning on hitting a monster, but the turn right before mine an ally has killed the beast. The dungeon master promptly declares "and he falls" leaving me with the opportunity to, in a split second, switch tactics and strike another character. Damage allocation at the end of the round adds a little bit of suspense to combat.

"34 damage!? That one should take him down, right?"

Declare First and Act at the Same Time

The first suggestion I have for alternate Initiative rules is actually not very different, as far as the rules are concerned. The difference is in the playing. I call it declare first and act at the same time. The idea being that six seconds is not a very long time. Part of having a higher Initiative is the idea of the idea that your character is more "on top of things" than the other characters. Declare first and act at the same time is a method that gives the high Initiative spot a better view of what they want to do on their turn by forcing the participants with lower Initiatives to declare their actions first.

Starting with the character that rolled the lowest on their Initiative, have each participant declare what their action is going to be and discuss, but do not roll, the DC. This way the characters with higher Initiatives will have the benefit of foresight when declaring their actions. When the highest Initiative finishes declaring their action, everyone rolls at once. All the DCs have already been set so everyone knows what they are rolling for, and hopefully the players will help each other track their successes and failures while the dungeon master makes all the rolls for the NPCs.

If one action interferes with another action saves, concentration checks, or spot Initiative checks can be made to resolve the outcome. In real life sometimes things happen so quickly that you take actions that you wouldn't want to. Giving a character a spot Initiative check to change their previously declared action captures that idea. The DC for that spot check is their own Initiative sequence. They must IF against themselves to change their momentum mid action, in less than six seconds. If the character fails to achieve their set Initiative in the spot Initiative check then they must take the action they were intending as well as they can.

"I was going to hit the orc, but it fell down, so I did 9 damage to the wall by accident."

Tidal Initiative

Somewhere between static and dynamic Initiative is my idea of tidal Initiative. Tidal Initiative requires fewer IF rolls than dynamic Initiative, and creates a more fluid, and unpredictable, combat environment. I use the declare first and act all at once method when I use tidal Initiative, but it is not an integral component. Part of tidal Initiative is the designation of Initiative zones. As you might expect, you want to be in the zone. Tidal Initiative is an option that works well with groups that keep track of higher ground bonuses, and know how to use flanking to their advantage.

To get started, tidal Initiative works the same way that static Initiative does. You roll once for all the participants at the start of the conflict. Any time anything significant happens to alter the scene, such as the entrance of new combatants into the conflict, the group rerolls the open Initiative IF. Tidal Initiative has a number of additional special Initiative actions that make your Initiative sequence more malleable. Such as divide enemies and work together. Zones, zone bonuses, and a tidal Initiative bonus add consequences beyond the order of action to the Initiative sequence.

With tidal Initiative there is an additional Initiative bonuses to keep track of and additional bonuses to actions determined by your Initiative zone. The tidal Initiative bonus is applied to your Initiative IFs. Each participant in a combat scenario receives a tidal bonus to Initiative equal to the number of warm bodies on your side (incorporeals and constructs, while not always warm, are still counted for this purpose). Swarms and hordes will almost always get high Initiative when using tidal Initiative. This is intended to reflect the way that overwhelming numbers can control a combat situation. Hordes and large military forces should be subdivided into combat "squads" of no more than 25, when determining tidal Initiative bonuses.


There are three tidal Initiative zones
The teamwork zone, the pointman zone, and the underdog zone.

When allies are acting on the same Initiative turn they are in the teamwork zone. Characters in the teamwork zone receive a competence bonus on all checks equal to the number of allies in the zone with them, including themselves. This competence bonus applies to all attacks, saves, and checks, and it stacks with any other morale or competence bonuses.

The character that has the highest Initiative total is in the pointman zone. Only one character can be in the pointman zone at one time unless allies are creating a teamwork zone in the pointman zone. If you are in the pointman zone you may take a -4 penalty to your action to influence the flow of combat. If you succeed at the action you attempt (with the -4) you give your allies a +4 morale bonus on their actions that round, alternatively you may give your enemies a -4 on all their actions that round.

If a character has the lowest Initiative total, and no ally shares that Initiative spot, they are in the underdog zone. A character in the underdog zone receives their tidal bonus to Initiative to any social IF rolls they attempt to make. Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidation checks are made best when you are following behind the tide. The character in the underdog zone can also choose to take a special tidal Initiative action called break the tide.

There are four special tidal Initiative actions
Work together, divide enemies, race point, and break the tide.

Work Together: When two characters are allies and they are not in a teamwork zone they may attempt to work together. Working together is a move equivalent action that changes your Initiative sequence by two. You move two steps closer to the Initiative spot of the ally you are trying to work together with.

Divide Enemies: You can take a standard action on your turn to disrupt your enemies teamwork zone. When you attempt to divide enemies you take any normal attack, or social IF action that could distract or demoralize your enemies. Apply a -4 penalty to this action, and if you succeed with the action you have also succeeded in shifting your target enemy's Initiative sequence by three in any direction.

Race Point: As a full round action you may attempt to change your Initiative to the pointman zone. You make an Initiative IF roll that is resisted by the current character in the pointman zone's Initiative IF roll. If you win then the Initiative sequence does not change, but your spot in the sequence is considered the top of the round (all "end of round" effects and abilities such as regeneration or full round action spells are delayed or accelerated accordingly). If you fail nothing happens, and your Initiative sequence does not change.

Break the Tide: Only a character in the underdog zone may attempt to break the tide. Breaking the tide is a full round action that is a special level check modified by your tidal bonus. Roll 1d20 + ECL + tidal bonus vs a DC equal to the tidal bonus of your enemies. If you succeed your enemies tidal bonus is reduced by 4, and the entire field must reroll Initiative.

In Conclusion,

There you are, a quick overview of the core system Initiative rules, a few minor optional rules and methods, and a full sail tidal Initiative system. I hope that this analysis of timing inspires, or at least amuses, you and your play group. I have always like the declare first and act later system ever since I read about it in an old D&D 1st ed. book (of course, that set recommended that only one player actually get to talk to the dungeon master). I hope that the tidal Initiative system works as well for you as it has for me. Lastly, I encourage you to not only role play and roll play, but to rule play as well.

What do I know?

On the Sense Motive Skill
by Shea C. Reinke

Originally posted on Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572370/What_Do_I_Know?post_id=332690546#332690546

Of all the skills in all of d20 there is one most under used. I write it on my character sheet "SeMo".

What it does

Sense Motive is under used. Now that's not to say that the Sense Motive skill is not designed for use. Just that there is a strange sort of disregard for using the skill in any manner other than to resist a Bluff. Hunches are frowned upon. Some DMs like to play with obvious DCs but the rules call for twenty. That's Sense Motive Hunch DC 20. No more no less. That's what you should be using Sense Motive for, when you are in the pickle jar, take a twenty. "I sit there until I figure out a plan" you say to your DM. "Here's your hunch" the DM says to you. That's the rule.

"What is wrong with you?"

One of the most missrolled of the features of Sense Motive is the detection of enchantment spells. Players often simply roll Spellcraft, or abruptly detect magic. First, however, you should be rolling your Sense Motive. Sadly, the reality of the situation is that it is almost simpler to wait the however long period of interaction that it would take to take 20 on a Sense Motive check, get a hunch, and probably beat a 25 (dominate 15) getting an idea of what is going on, potentially an accurate idea. Of course, Sense Motive is a skill that is supposed to be rolled for you. That way you don't know what you don't know until you roll, or take, a twenty.

"What am I going to do?"

Of course there are the failures of the world. Those who have negative wisdom bonus. Those poor characters that can't count on getting a good idea in even a half an hour. Taking twenty just leaves their mind spinning. They have to get lucky just to have a reasonable hunch about what to do as a general rule. That or learn how to think with a few well placed skill ranks, and remember you don't have to roll Sense Motive versus Bluff to detect a lie. Bluff will not let someone lie to you. There is no skill for lying, but you can get a hunch that someone is lying to you.

"What am I doing?"

A feint is an entirely different matter. That is a combat interaction now. No taking 10s there. Those that lack wisdom and base attack are really out of luck as far as predicting feint moves. If you are quick, when you're round footed, you can really feel a feint in a fight. Uncanny dodgers not so much, but uncanny dodge is, in a sense, a Sense Motive bonus ability. You are never fooled about erratic offensive actions. Wisdom bonus to defenses of any kind is a form of motive analysis. Resisting the feint, when feint is often used, should be motive enough to put ranks into Sense Motive, but some have meager few skill points to put forward.

"What are you telling me?"

Bluff and Sense Motive, they are like skill mates. Not to mention the skills used, and usable by animal intelligence, creatures in a mating dance. Sense Motive is not used to catch a good Bluff, but it does allow you to catch one that is dropped. When talk is spun with double tung it is the skill Sense Motive that tells you where that tung is split in two. What is being said here? Of four functions found in the Sense Motive skill two, hunch and detect enchantment, you do yourself and two are only done in reaction to a Bluff. The majority of skills work by themselves, you see. Sense Motive is one of the few skills that allows you to catch another skill's "things."

Without an exhaustive and complicated table to reference, rules can be hard feel the need to use. Dms learn these rules to an exhaustive level and players tend to pick actions off them at random. "I am going to make a character entirely based around these feats" a player once said, and in such a way many characters are created. Sense Motive is one of those skills that is usually used for you. So it is really up to the dm to come up with the opportunities for this to happen. Rolling secret Sense Motive checks is not really necessary if your players can handle a little meta-play.

"Once upon a time."

There was a player in a game who rolled his own Sense Motive checks, and one time, while examining an obviously enchanted art piece, he rolled a one. He immediately grabbed the thing, at player decision, and, after a failed will save, spent several days thinking he was a dwarf. He wasn't by the way.

What could be done

First, Sense Motive needs a better combat function. In relation to this you should have to roll Sense Motive against either 20 or the obvious DCs below to determine someone's attitude in relation to you. You should be able to do this in combat. Getting a hunch, or a hunch like understanding of the situation, should suffer a - 10 penalty ala Diplomacy. The intensity of combat situations is relevant when considering your sense of perception. Using hunch to determine the power structure of a royal court is an affair that just takes time, but analyzing the tactical maneuvers of a squad of battle hardened kobolds while they swarm over you is a different story. Hunches in combat can be used to predict the battle plan of the enemy. Is there a leader behind their tactics? Is there a weak point in their front? Is that thing over there actually a kobold? Fighting for your life is in the very least distracting, if not outright confusing.

Most games presume a sort of top down view to what the characters in combat know. There is no role playing reason to support the attitude that your character is in complete possession of faculties and perceptions in a heated conflict. You can Spot something of medium size moving around the field, but will you actually understand what you see? Could you make a mistake, not in seeing, but in understanding? Use a Spot check to see the basic forms, but use a hunch to learn more things. With multi-skill hunches, below, these understandings will of course be colored by limited relevance and relationships.

Second, take the Sense Motive skill entirely out of the game. Yep, gone. For conversion purposes put your skill points in places that they belong. Pick up a point or two of training you deserve. What are you saying? Don't remove Sense Motive entirely! What about Bluff? You can resist Bluff with Bluff (Bluff should really be called Fast Talk), detect enchantment with Spellcraft, but what about hunch? You should be able to get a hunch with any skill, every skill. Instead of a single skill that represents the totality of understanding use each skill as a filter for hunches. When you want a hunch pick a skill that you are looking at the world through. Check that skill versus twenty, and if you win you get a hunch that is related to the skill you used.

Skills are conceptually a set of related actions and understandings. That understanding is focused, but not so focused that it doesn't give you a way to view the world. In the real life game what you know defines how you see your situation. How many people do you know sense motives with their Profession? You use your sense of balance to gauge a difficulty before you walk across it, and you should roll your skill in Climb to get a hunch at the DC of a wall you intend on climbing. Sense Motive is under used because you have a hunch that it doesn't do what its supposed to. Take a twenty and see if that's true. Every skill should give you chance at understanding. Skill are what skills are because they are each a form of understanding. A good, practiced and trained, hunch about what to do.

Third, with the pervasive use of the hunch function you should ponder the relevance of obvious DCs. It is simply true that some things are not as obvious as others. Particularly if there is some sort of deception going on. Some lies are better than others, and some traps better hidden. First consider a base hunch DC of 10 plus challenge rating, and when appropriate consult this table:

True 5, Blatant 8, Obvious 11, Obtuse 14, Veiled 17, Concealed 20, Hidden 26, Weird 32, Exotic 38, Outlandish 44, Unbelievable 50, Epic 62, Otherworldly 74, Ascendant 98, Chaos 123, Divinity 149.

These are referential obvious DCs. These are DCs meant to be used in combat. Hunches can be split decisions. "I had a hunch he was going for that key". Hunches can be used to predict moves, judge HD if you want it to, and gauge how, and what is, important about which characters on the field. Fights happen for different reasons. Some are distractions, and some are accidents. Some conflict has a purpose, and sometimes that purpose is secret. Are there reinforcements? Which one wears the pot on his head? To use dice to predict tactics you have no other skill to use, but unless you take ten rounds or break that minute rule it takes a noncombat moment to gather your senses into a hunch.

"You Sense my Motive don't you?"

Most games presume a sort of top down view to what the characters in combat know. There is no role playing reason to support the attitude that your character is in complete possession of faculties and perceptions in a heated conflict. You can Spot something of medium size moving around the field, but will you actually understand what you see? Could you make a mistake, not in seeing, but in understanding? Use a Spot check to see the basic forms, but use a hunch to learn something more. With all skill hunches these understandings will of course be colored by relative knowledge and functional relationships of the skill chosen.

"What are you telling me."

A Survival check hunch will tell you whether that thing is going to eat you, whereas the Knowledge (Nature) hunch could tell you how long it has been since the animal had lunch. A Handle Animal hunch could tell you if you could train it, and a Use Rope hunch tells you how tight you will have to tie your knots. Healing hunches tell you how much damage someone has taken, maybe how much they deal. Craft hunches would work allot like Appraise, and Appraise hunches could tell you if you have Appraised wrong. Use Magic Device. "I just had a hunch that this wand with the torch on the end was the one to use on that troll!"

The implication here is that all of these hunches, all of these bits of understandings are already what Sense Motive should do, but doesn't seem to want to. Perhaps splintering Sense Motive into every skill will be good practice. Perhaps this is what Sense Motive has always wanted to do. Obliterating an entire skill, in this way, should not be taken lightly. Sense Motive doesn't become another skill, it becomes every skill. If you don't use Sense Motive because you don't like rolling to understand things then don't do this. If you use Sense Motive some, but not much, give it a try. At least rolling for hunches in combat.

Expanded rules to Use[b]

[b]Feats for Sense Motive.
These feats are designed to be used with D&D, Sense Motive skill intact.

Shot Caller[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Base Attack + 3, Sense Motive 5 ranks
Benefit: You grant a + 4 bonus to aid ranged attack rolls in combat.
Normal: You grant a + 2 bonus to aid any attack rolls in combat.

Distraction[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Base Attack +3, Sense Motive 5 ranks.
Benefit: You grant a + 4 bonus to aid melee attack rolls in combat.
Normal: You grant a + 2 bonus to aid any attack rolls in combat.

Moves[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Dodge, Spring Attack, Sense Motive 10 ranks.
Benefit: You gain an additional + 1 dodge bonus to AC when acting defensively, or grant a + 4 deflection bonus to AC when aiding another's defence in combat.
Normal: You can grant a +2 bonus to AC when aiding another's defence in combat.

Secrets[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Sense Motive 13 ranks.
Benefit: You gain a Sense Motive synergy bonus to Bluff, Disguise, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge, Move Silent, Perform, and Profession.
Normal: Sense Motive gives you a synergy bonus to Diplomacy.

Organized[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Sense Motive and Profession 7 ranks.
Benefit: A successful hunch allows you to earn about your Profession check result in gp over a week.
Normal: A Profession check allows you to earn about half of your Profession check result in gp in a week.

Read the Crowd[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Sense Motive and Perform 7 ranks.
Benefit: A successful hunch allows you to earn double your amount in gp or goods for a Performance.
Special: Regardless of how well your Performance is you cannot receive more gp or gold than is available for them to give.

Con Man[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Sense Motive and Bluff 7 ranks.
Benefit: If you make a successful hunch check about your target before you attempt to Bluff that target then you can attempt to retry a failed Bluff with no penalty.
Normal: A failed Bluff check makes your target more suspicious of you and prevents retries until the same circumstance changes.

Inspire[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Sense Motive 10 ranks, Leadership.
Benefit: You can make a Sense Motive check vs the DC of the enchantment effect's original save. Success allows your target an additional chance to resist the enchantment. You must be aware of the magical compulsion before you can attempt to inspire.
Normal: A skill check will not allow any character to retry a save check.
Special: You cannot inspire an unwilling target and you cannot inspire yourself if your enchantment specifically prevents you.

Some additional Sense Motive feats.
These feats will only work if you use hunches in combat.

Improved Hunch[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Combat reflexes.
Benefit: You can make a Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat as a standard action.
Normal: You can make a Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat as a full round action.

Greater Hunch[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Improved Hunch.
Benefit: You can make a Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat as a move equivalent action.
Normal: You can make a Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat as a full round action.

Supreme Hunch[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Greater Hunch.
Benefit: You can make a Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat as a free action.
Normal: You can make a Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat as a full round action.

Battle Wise[COMBAT]
Prerequisite: Base Attack +10, Greater Hunch.
Benefit: You take no penalties on a Sense Motive check in combat.
Normal: You suffer a -10 penalty to any Sense Motive check made in combat.

Combat Commander[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Sense Motive 7 ranks.
Benefit: You can aid all allies within one of your move actions with a successful Sense Motive check to get a hunch in combat. You must designate one type of aid (offensive, defensive, or skill: + 2) before you make your Sense Motive check.
Normal: You can only aid one ally at a time, and you must beat a DC 15 using the same skill or action that they are attempting.
Special: You gain a synergy bonus to this roll if you are aiding a skill that you have 5 or more ranks in.

In Conclusion,
What do you think? Can you use this? What's your hunch in regards to combat hunches? Do you have any more questions about what Sense Motive, or something like it, can do for you? Do you understand that the Sense Motive check is about questions and answers? When a character asks a question about it's world, the world should answer that character on it's own terms. In D&D those terms are dice rolls and DCs. A d20 to be particular, and one more: What? I see uh WHAT!?

What do you gather here?

The Skill of Gathering Information
by Shea C. Reinke

Originally posted on Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572342/What_do_you_Gather_here?post_id=332689722#332689722

Questions

The first question that pops out of a player's mouth, about the Gather Information skill, is "Why should I bother?" His thought, "If I know the right questions to ask then I don't need to make a skill roll" is a misunderstanding of the meta-play. The Gather Information skill is not an escape from asking the right questions, but a release from the monotony of the single player dialogue, and massive amounts of time, that are required to role play out the entire process of Gathering Information in the game.

There are two functions of a Gather Information check, and they can be taken to involve taking ten on numerous Diplomacy checks, conceptually. Throughout an evening, generally 1d4 + 1 hours (give or take a candle mark), you change a number of NPC attitudes to friendly enough to give you information. The epic, - 20 to avoid attention, penalty can be considered both the finer arts of eavesdropping, and changing attitudes to helpful enough to "forget" you. Avoiding attention and actually getting people to trust you are not a part of Gather Information. If you don't want anyone to find you, use Hide. Unwanted attention can be a consequence of even a successful Gather Information check.

The primary point of focus for the Gather Information skill not the same as the Diplomacy skill. There is a world between the basic premises. Diplomacy is a consensual skill function. You change an attitude by your state of being in relation to the targets. A Gather Information check is more like people skimming. If you already know who has the answers to your questions, say if you can think to yourself "I need to talk to the Viceroy of Southreach," use Diplomacy. Ask your question, and be done with it. Negotiate if necessary. Gather Information finds facts not from one source, but from two and three. Source A, B, and C. Half of what she said and three parts what you see.

Answers

"What were you saying?"

The simpler function of the Gather Information skill is one in which can you can usually hide, without concern for being seen by someone you will receive negative attention from, assuming your not wanted for something important or pressing locally. You are simply learning what anyone should learn from where you are standing. This check could reasonably be rolled for you whenever you spend more than an hour in a public place. Anytime you have a reasonable chance to learn something while time is passing you can roll, or have rolled for you, a Gather Information check. This is what the skill can do, put a information gather list next to the city encounter table in your campaigns. After spending days in a city you would be rather well informed of the general goings on, particularly at that Tanzian dance hall the stable hands are always talking about.

"I say, what's the goings on?"

Another side effect of keeping such a record is that you can have a pulse of the city, Gather Information is only useful in something that qualifies as a city. A group that spends months and years in a city should expect to be able to recall the talk of the town, and how it went up and down. "The festival every summer brings stories of the southern hills, as the riverfolk turn upstream" players might say in memory. This does involve producing the occasional random story. Many times a player will be satisfied with information gathered such as "Two old men are speaking of the river man who claims to have seen a dragon down south." Sometimes that simple statement will lead your group off to a side quest.

"Really? That's strange."

Most city talk revolves around the doings of the government figures, the local entertainment, and the goings on of those "not from here". If you are in an intimate setting, say a small clan house with some dozen NPCs, you may also learn a few intimate details about the NPCs' lives. What qualifies as entertainment in a place can often be the most conducive angle to analyze before describing your Gather Information process. If a rumor of contention is known amongst a group of NPCs, spend time around them and you may just overhear something useful to you. This is something you don't even really need to ask questions to do, and unless you're already marked you should be able to avoid attention.

"Do you know this man?"

In some cities, it could be you that everyone is talking about. Random rumors are one issue, but pointed questions are something different. You have to control your targets more. Bend the conversation a little bit, if you will. This is what draws attention to you. You are not talking about what your target wants to, and they notice you. "He wanted something from me" they say. They may tell you what you want to know, but they may also tell on you to someone else asking pointed questions about you. Idle gossip, and good rumor, is usually available for free save for time, but answers for questions comes close to negotiating. A bargain is struck, sometimes with your presence, but sometimes for some more concrete form of pay.

"Who do you think you are?"

DC 15 implies simple subjects. Rumor almost already in hand, but you have to know right now. As your difficulty moves up to 25 and higher you are asking for more, and likely spending more of something or another. Making friends implies that you will have a lingering attachment to some NPC, of some kind or another. You may have learned of the secret entrance to the black tower from a low level guard that will be on duty when you are attacking. What is a friend worth to your character's description? Good or evil, lawful or chaotic, a friendly should mean something to you. Of course you may make the best friends with those who have absolutely nothing to tell you.

"Ok, now where are we going?"

The interesting thing about the cost involved in Gather Information is that the real expenditures may have nothing to do with the eventual source of the information you seek to gather. You may spend hundreds of gold at a noble's favorite bar, and learn what you want to know from a street performer on the way back home. Maybe you promise a date with your cute friend to an old man who thinks he knows something, but you hear the truth from the mouth of a flower girl for a silver. Knowledge, in every world, can come in amazingly odd ways. The Gather Information check can include a plan but the result of spending hours chasing a town for rumors can result in very strange happenings.

Playing with Gather Information

Gather Information is a skill that should collapse long periods of time into a playable, and entertaining, sequence. Ideally the entire play group should be able to enjoy the descriptions involved in a Gather Information check. The act of checking Gather Information places the players in the hands of fate (the dm). Your roll is made and your DM takes the result to define the events of a vague span of time and a number of possible unusual circumstances. Random encounters can often be the most likely result of the actual actions that are component of making a Gather Information check (particularly a failure), but the intent is to minimize the amount of one-on-one play not start a single player combat sequence spontaneously.

The patter involved between player and dm should go something along this line:
"OK, I make a Gather Information check of (rolls) 18, im asking about the duke, you know."
"Right, so you are heading to the stables, then off to the docks, and you end up at the golden goose"
"Yeah, I go buy stuff and talk to street hawkers"
"Uhh, the stable boy said something about a ceremony, that you asked a fruit vendor in the open market about and he told you it was being performed by the duke and other noble houses for some cult whose name he would not speak, and some lady at the golden goose said that the duke always performs ceremonies at his country manor, and she said something else 'have a care sir, keep an eye for the tracks of goats'."
"When is the ceremony?"
"The fruit vendor said next week, and you heard some street preacher say that it was ... five days until the time, That's 10 gp you spent buying fruit, and drinks at the goose."

A Gather Information check should take no more than a minute or two of play time, but it covers hours of game time. The skill is like Craft (Information) in that way. Groups that have crafters will find that Craft checks and Gather Information checks are best made at the same time. Almost like a supplemental non-conflict turn of rounds, measured in hours of activity instead of seconds of action.

When the entire group is waiting on the results of information before taking real actions you can heighten the anticipation by waiting to roll an actual Gather Information check until after all the other players have had a chance to describe what their activities are while the researching characters are on an about. Remember, multiple party members can aid each other in Gather Information. The entire group can go out on the town, together or with a game plan, and perform a more complete canvas of a city. Gather Information can be used untrained, it gives any of your players an activity to do, and provides a space of civil exposition for the dm to use. A five or ten minute description of how the city and the activities of several hours go by that the players need only contribute lightly to.

The Half-Elf, Investigator, and Synergy

Half-Elves gain a racial bonus to Gather Information. Why? They are perpetually out of place. There is no natural place for them in pure breed social interaction, and therefore they have an advantageous position. A known position. Never having had an acceptable spot to stand in a social stratification they are familiar with the process of passing that first threshold, and only that first threshold matters for the design of Gather Information. Inversely, the synergy bonus from Knowledge (local) represents the palpable ability to behave when in a particular locale, to know where you stand. You can laugh at the jokes at all the right times, or all the right-wrong times if you are born out of place, like a half-elf.

A character with the investigator feat is also working from a practiced position, the feat implies that you have asked these kind of questions so many times before that you no longer exude the same kind of nervous energy that most do when investigating rumors. You may have developed tactics and tricks for asking questions in round about ways. You probably have good poker face, and you know how to provoke someone into talking about what they want to; in a way that is rewarding to both of you. You can be certain that one of a city's star reporters is a half-elf with the Investigator feat, and 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (His City).

Gather Information and Challenge Rating

Gather Information skill checks should usually reduce the amount of time that random action monopolizes in play, but by making the skill check more involved you can make the experience into something worth a challenge rating. When actual threat of retaliation is present, and when the majority of the party declares that they are Gathering Information together; the dm begins to provoke social skill DCs for certain key circumstances, with drastic consequences. The rouge needs to Bluff a few times, the cleric may make Diplomacy or Knowledge (Religion), and the Bard is told to Perform (Sing), Perform (Dance), and make a few Bluffs too. Perhaps a duel ensues, one opposed attack roll will do for first blood, or maybe you reflex save against damage as a bar fight breaks out.

Depending on the number of checks your players are required to make, and the severity of the consequences, you can determine the challenge rating. Success in the Gather Information check is similar to disarming the trap, a social trap. Damage is only one of the many possible dire consequences. Getting the info and not alerting the attention of the local nasty that you are attempting to avoid should be two criterion of success. You may not gain the XP for participating in the challenge until a threat you provoked is abated. This may involve combat or a hasty bit of traveling. Using Gather Information like this can be the source of spontaneous quest XP. Using Gather Information can give some structure to non-combat time, but should not be used as the only source of quest XP.

Doing More With Gather Information
The above is RAW. The below is R&D.

The other reason that the Gather Information skill is allot like a Craft (Information) skill is that you really can't use it in combat. There is simply no way to qualify a Gather Information check into a combat turn in any way. Unless you play with the rules such as these,

Gather Information could make something,
Make a Plan: When you successfully make a plan you can grant a + 1 morale, or insight see DCs, bonus to any one type of check per participant in the plan. Only allies can participate in plans together. The DC to make a plan is determined by the duration of the plan, and the number of details (see plan duration and detail table). The participants in the plan must enact, produce, or qualify for any details of the plan. If not, the plan ceases to grant a bonus for the designated check. A masterworked plan grants an additional + 2 insight bonus to a second designated check. The check designated by either the primary + 1 morale, or insight see DCs, bonus per participant or the secondary + 2 insight bonus can apply to any one skill check, attack roll, or save.

-----
_Plan duration DCs_
1 turn DC 5
10 turns DC 10
One Combat 15
One Hour DC 20
One Day DC 30
One Month DC 40
Insight Bonus DC +5
Master wok Component DC +10*1
_Epic Plan duration DCs_
One Season DC 50
One Year DC 70
Ten Years DC 90
A lifetime DC 110
Epic Master wok Component DC +30*1
---
*1 Creating a master work component requires you to double the amount of time spent making your plan, in combat 2 minutes (20 consecutive rounds).
---
_Details_
Details are any specific action.
Details must be organized in order.
Details are determined by the circumstance.

You reduce your DC by 1 for each detail involved in a plan.
-----

Action: Making a plan requires 1 minute (10 full combat rounds). You can take a day to make a plan and gain a + 5 bonus to your check. You can take more than one day to make a plan. Each day you spend planning grants an additional + 5 bonus to your Gather Information check.
Special: A plan starts when the first detail is fulfilled.
Untrained: An untrained Knowledge can only make a plan of a DC 15 or less.

Gather Information could work faster,
Analyze Character: You can observe the actions of a target and gain information about their character and equipment. This roll is opposed by a reactive Bluff check. A target that is aware of being analyzed and may choose to substitute Diplomacy, Disguise, Perform, or a Knowledge skill in place of Bluff to oppose your attempt to analyze their character.
Action: Analyzing a character usually requires several minutes of interaction but you can make a Gather Information check to analyze a character in combat with a - 10 penalty.
Special: An aware target may determine, to the the extent allowed by the opposing skill, the information gained when your Gather Information check to analyze a character fails.

Gather Information could help Knowledge and Appraise,
Research: When you have reason to believe that you have failed a Knowledge or Appraise check a successful Gather Information check to research the issue will allow you to retry the skill check. The DC is equal to the DC of the original skill check.

Action: Research requires a number of hours and an acceptable source of information or reference.
Special: You cannot research a question unless you have unless you have already attempted to and failed a trained Knowledge or Appraise check.

Information isn't cheap,
PROFESSION (WIS; TRAINED ONLY)
...
Special: In addition to using the Profession skill, you can use Gather Information to practice the information trade.

and Gather Information really could just be a part of Diplomacy.
To convert a 3.X character simply move all ranks of Gather Information into Diplomacy (adjust for class skills, if necessary). When Diplomacy reaches max ranks put the remainder into Sense Motive, Bluff, or Perform. Conceptually Gather Information is related to the Diplomacy skill, and, for mechanic purposes, there is no overwhelming need to have them be separate skills. They make a sensical link from immediate combat behavior, to collapsed contested discussion, and all the way up to an overland travel, profession, or crafting time rate.

These Feats are intended to be used with SRD compatible material, and the skill functions of Gather Information described above.

OUT OF PLACE [racial]
Shea - Based off the half-elf ability. Hence the negation of stacking.
Prerequisites: Special.
Benefit: Gain a + 2 morale bonus to Diplomacy and Gather Information. This bonus does not stack with the half-elf bonus to Diplomacy and Gather Information.
Special: You can only take this feat before your first class level, and you must be of mixed blood. Pure blood races such as dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, and humans cannot take this feat.

FRIEND OF FATE [general]
Shea - Reduced expenditures!
Benefit: You generally do not have to spend any money to make a Gather Information check. In situations where gp or barter are unavoidable you will always spend less than normal.

PROFESSIONAL [general]
Shea - No chance of suspicion when making profession check.
Prerequisites: Profession 5 ranks.
Benefit: You do not risk any chance of attracting suspicion when making Gather Information checks if you can make a Gather Information check at the same time as you are making a Profession check.

REPRESENTATIVE [general]
Shea - Any suspicion is directed at the party you represent, hehe.
Prerequisites: Diplomacy and Bluff 5 ranks, Gather Information 10 ranks.
Benefit: If you attract attention while making a Gather Information check you redirect that negative attention to another character. That character may or may not exist.

CONFIDANT [general]
Shea - Reduce DC 15 specific rumors to DC 10 general info.
Prerequisites: Charisma 13.
Benefit: You can seek out a specific rumor, or a specific item, or obtain a map, or do something else along those lines while getting a general idea of a city's major news items. You cannot use this ability if the DC to find the information is greater than 20.

DARK SECRET [general]
Shea - Gain bonus on diplomacy or intimidation because you know THE TRUTH!
Prerequisites: Gather Information 10 ranks.
Benefit: When you take this feat you gain the ability to use a Gather Information check DC 30 to learn a dark secret about a target. Knowing a dark secret about a target NPC grants you a + 4 morale bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidation checks targeting them.

LIFE OF THE PARTY [general]
Shea - NPCs become friendly, and stay that way.
Prerequisites: Perform 5 ranks.
Benefit: When you successfully make a Gather Information check you also gain a number of NPCs in the area that you may treat as friendly.
Special: Having this feat and using Gather Information in an area several times will most likely make you something of celebrity.

These feats are redundant if you use the similarly named skill functions for Gather Information that I have described above.

RESEARCHER [general]
Shea - UH.. never mind..
Benefit: +2 bonus to Gather Information and Knowledge checks.

ANALYZE OPPONENT [general]
Shea - not the same but a little of both.
Prerequisites: Gather Information 5 ranks, Dodge.
Benefit: This feat grants a +2 insight bonus to attack the opponent you have decided to dodge. If you Aid an ally in combat you may grant this bonus to that ally. You may grant a +4 (aid + insight) bonus to attack, or you may grant a +2 to both attack and AC. An aid bonus to AC, and an Insight bonus to attack. You do not gain the benefit of this feat if you are granting it to an ally.

IMPROVED ANALYZE OPPONENT [general]
Shea - Rounded tactical fighting.
Prerequisites: Gather Information 10 ranks, Analyze Opponent.
Benefit: In addition to the insight bonuses provided by the analyze opponent feat you gain a +2 morale bonus to AC against attacks from any ally of the opponent you have designated for your dodge.

GREATER ANALYZE OPPONENT [general]
Shea - And, crazy.
Prerequisites: Gather Information 15 Ranks, Improved Analyze Opponent, Improved Initiative.
Benefit: You gain grant all your allies in combat a + 2 bonus to Initiative. This bonus stacks with the bonus from improved initiative, and you do not gain a bonus to initiative from this feat.

SUPREME ANALYZE OPPONENT [general]
Shea - Why not?
Prerequisites: Gather Information 20 Ranks, Greater Analyze Opponent.
Benefit: You gain a +4 insight bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate checks made against the opponent designated as your dodge.

EPIC ANALYZE OPPONENT [general]
Shea - All the way up.
Prerequisite: Gather Information 40 Ranks, Supreme Analyze Opponent, Epic Dodge, Superior Initiative.
Benefit: You may make a full round defensive combat action to aid all of your allies. Make a standard action Gather Information check DC 15. Success grants a + 4 insight bonus on all your allies attack rolls until your next action. If you are distracted you must make a Concentration check or you automatically fail the Gather Information check.

INFORMATION BROKER [general]
Shea - Gather Information as Profession (Reporter).
Prerequisites: Gather Information 1 rank, Profession 1 rank.
Benefit: You can use a Gather Information check as though it were a Profession by bartering information. The check works exactly like a Profession check except that you use your Gather Information ranks to determine your result.

TACTICIAN [general]
Shea - AND! You may not have asked for it, but here it is!
Prerequisites: Skill Focus (Gather Information).
Benefit: You can make a plan using the Gather Information skill.
This feat allows you to use the Make a Plan function of Gather Information described above. See plan duration and details table for DCs.

Some Stuff to Spend Some Gold and Silver Pieces.

-----
_Services Table Additions_

Assistant | 1 sp per rumor
Information Gatherer | 1 gp per rumor
Information Network | 10 go per rumor
Major Domo | 1 gp per day
-----

_Equipment and Services Description Additions_

Novelty: An item of interest that can serve as the tacit topic of conversation while investigating rumors. An appropriate novelty grants a +2 circumstance bonus to Gather Information checks. A novelty can be any item, but an item must be worth more than 100 gp to be used as a novelty in high society. In some noble aristocracies an item may need to be worth 1000 gp or more to be considered a novelty.
Rounds: A round of drinks for the house on you. A round may or may not be a beverage. Buying a few rounds grants you a +2 morale bonus to Gather Information checks. The cost of a round varies by the establishment.
Meals: Paying for a meal is a perfect tool to assist Gather Information. Purchasing a meal for an informant grants you a +2 competence bonus to Gather Information checks. The cost of a meal varies by the establishment.
Bribes: Paying for information directly gets more expensive depending on the rumors you are looking for. Involving bribery in you Gather Information check grants a +4 morale bonus to your check.

Information Gatherer: An NPC that can Gather Information for you.
Information Network: A network grants a +3 insight bonus to Gather Information in the area covered by the network.
Major Domo: A major domo grants a +4 aid bonus to Gather Information checks.
Assistant: Assistants grant a +2 aid bonus to Gather Information checks.

Lastly a Prestige Class.

Field Commander

prerequisites: Profession 5 ranks, Gather Information 10 ranks, Skill Focus (Gather Information), Skill Focus (Diplomacy), and the Fascinate special ability.

HD: d8
Will and Reflex Prime
BAB: 3/4 Class Level.
Skills: 8 + Int

Class Skills: Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language (n/a), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha), and Use Rope (Dex).

1 Follower's Boon, Inspire Weakness
2
3 Inspire Organization
4
5 Obsession
6 Inspire Tactics
7
8 Bonus Meta-Magic Feat
9
10 Enemies' Thorn, Obsession, Mass.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Field Commander is not proficient in any weapon or armor.
Practicing Spell Caster: Field Commander Prestige Class levels increase your effective caster level in one designated spell casting class, but Field Commander levels grant you no additional spells per day or spells known.
Improved Bardic Music: Field Commander levels add to the number of times you can use your bardic music ability in a day as though they were Bard levels.
Follower's Boon (Ex): Your allies gain a +2 morale bonus to Diplomacy and Gather Information checks when acting in your interests.
Inspire Organization (Su): This ability expends a bardic music usage, and has the same action and duration details. Inspire Organization applies a +4 insight bonus to a number of designated skill checks for your allies. The number of skills you can designat is equal to your Field Commander level.
Obsession (Su): This ability does not expend a bardic music usage. An already fascinated target must make a will save DC equal to 10 + Charisma modifier + your combined Bard and Field Commander level. This is a supernatural ability that otherwise works exactly like the psionic manifestations Attraction or Aversion, using your combined Bard and Field Commander levels for the manifester level. You must declare the obsession an Attraction or an Aversion when you use the ability.
Inspire Tactics (Su): This ability expends a bardic music usage, and has the same action and duration details. Inspire Tactics grants a +4 insight bonus to all saves to a number of your allies equal to your Field Commander levels.
Inspire Weakness (Su): This ability expends a bardic music usage, and has the same action and duration details. Inspire weakness applies a -2 morale penalty to the attack and damage rolls of any enemy that can perceive your Performance.
Enemies' Thorn (Ex): When Making Gather Information checks you never risk negative attention. Non-Epic Gathering Information checks made to find rumors about you always fail. When an Epic character attempts to Gather Information about you they suffer a -20 penalty to the check.
Obsession, Mass (Su): This ability works the same as obsession only you can effect any number of targets that you have already fascinated. You must declare the same type of obsession (Attraction or Aversion) for all targets.

Research and development in the vein of information gathering. I believe that using Diplomacy as Gather Information is probably the simplest and most realistic proposition herein. Like I said in the RAW description, the two skills share allot of conceptual space. Diplomacy lacks a structured function for learning about your targets (an important facet of real world diplomacy), and Gather Information is unusable in combat. You could collapse Profession and Gather Information, but you would be adding a daily function to Profession and not a combat function to Gather Information.

Knowledge is power, but the game mechanics do not reflect that. A dm can apply circumstantial benefits all over the place, but it is nice to have a table to refer to. The Field Commander? Well its an information based character concept. Proper application of knowns instead of the confidence boost of a powerful performance. The equipment is vague, but drinks, meals, and the appropriate amount of money spent up front should count when Gathering Information. The Services are calculated in light of using Gather Information linked with Profession, otherwise they are just hirelings.

Have you gathered any information here that you can use?

Am I Intimidating enough?

On the Intimidation Skill
by Shea Christian Reinke

originally posted on Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572530/Am_I_Intimidating_Enough?num=10&pg=1


The Intimidation Skill
Did you know that there is an Intimidation skill in Dungeons and Dragons? I ask because, in my experience with the D20 system this particular skill has been used by one, and only one, player or dungeon master, me. In the some dozen or more games that I have played in since D20 came into the world I have been the only person in my playgroups that has ever taken a turn to Intimidate an opponent. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but never have I felt that it was a waste of my time to try Intimidating.

After a while, I decided to ask the people that I play with the same question that I asked you, "did you know there is an Intimidation skill in the game?" and I was surprised by the answers that I received. A couple of players did, in fact, answer "no" they were not aware of the skill. They were not aware of how it worked, what it did, or when they should try and use it on an opponent. One person, a fellow experienced dungeon master, said that he was aware of the skill, but "it doesn't ever work". The most common answer I received, however, was that "yes I know that Intimidation is a skill, but it works funny".

In this article I will explain that there is an Intimidation skill, how Intimidation works, when Intimidation works, and why it is not funny. I will also suggest a couple of optional rules, feats, and equipment for Intimidation that may make the skill more useful to any one that feels that the skill is underdeveloped. First I will respond to some of the answers I received directly.

"I didn't know there was an Intimidation skill"

Well there is one. Its right there between Hide and Jump on your character sheet. It is a class skill for the Barbarian, the Fighter, and the Rouge class, and you receive a +2 bonus on Intimidation checks if you have the Persuasive feat. Intimidating your opponents can be very satisfying. It can be used in and out of combat, and it is a skill that you can use untrained. You should give it a try the next you play.

"Intimidation never ever works"

I can tell you, from experience, that Intimidation does work. All the time in fact. You just have to ask yourself one question before trying: Am I Intimidating enough? Intimidation will not work on every opponent, but if you know a little bit about the skill, a little bit about your opponent, and if "you feel lucky punk" you can make Intimidation work for you most of the time.

"Intimidation works funny"

Alright! I admit that Intimidation is one of the more unique opposed roll functions in the D20 system. Intimidation is a skill check that is opposed by a modified level check. No other skill or action works the way that Intimidate does, but that is no reason to ignore the skill. Craft is the only skill that works the way that it does, and that doesn't stop any one from Crafting.

The Intimidation Check

First ready a weapon, a natural weapon will do, and position yourself so that your intended target is within your reach. Then roll 1d20, add you Charisma modifier, your ranks in Intimidation, and any bonus or circumstantial modifiers. Your size category is the most important circumstance modifier in your Intimidation check, similar to grappling, you have a +4 modifier for every size category larger, and a -4 modifier for every size category smaller, you are than your target. Simple, similar to any other skill check; you have the basic check and a circumstance that always applies. The unusual part of Intimidation is in the way that the check is resisted.
You, if you are the target of Intimidation, or your target rolls 1d20 and adds their character level (or Hit Dice if greater), their Wisdom bonus (not penalty), and any special modifiers against fear. Characters, or creatures, that are immune to fear are immune to Intimidation. The result of failure, like many skill checks, is that nothing happens. The consequences of success are different depending on whether you are in or out of combat.

Out of combat Intimidation can only be used on NPCs, and has similar results to Diplomacy. Like Diplomacy out of combat Intimidation requires at least a minute of interaction. Unlike Diplomacy, however, Intimidation is an opposed check. If you succeed, you target will treat you as friendly until they manage to escape your presence. That is not to say that they will like you. In fact, soon after you leave they will rapidly turn to either unfriendly or hostile, depending on their attitude initially. As I said earlier winning an Intimidation check has consequences.

This is important to remember, even though the NPC will treat you like a friend for the duration of your interaction; Intimidation, unlike Diplomacy, does not make you any friends. 1d6 x 10 minutes after you leave an NPC that was neutral (or friendly, though it is very mean to Intimidate friendlies) will become unfriendly. More often though, you will be Intimidating NPCs that were unfriendly to begin with. These NPCs will become hostile within an hour after you leave. Intimidation doesn't make you any friends, but it is a great way to make enemies.

Out of combat Intimidation is probably the most useful when trying to get in and out of guarded areas. Most city guards are low level, and if you have any ranks in Intimidation they will be pushovers for you. Intimidation is also great for getting that "friendly discount" at local shops. The more ranks in Intimidation you have the better equipment you can get on the cheap. Or, if you are Barbarian that has been told that you don't meet the dress code of the local fine diner, an Intimidation roll will have the maitre d' offering the finest wine, the best seat in the house, and the fastest service rather rapidly. Warning! Doing this will eventually result in some sort of organized retaliation. Assassins also have Intimidation as a class skill by the way.

In combat Intimidation veers away from any similarities with the Diplomacy skill. There is no penalty for performing "rushed" Intimidation, and the results are decidedly different than out of combat Intimidation. As a standard action you can demoralize your opponent, or be demoralized. Theoretically you could demoralize your fellow PCs, but, as I said above, Intimidation does not make you any friends. A demoralized opponent is shaken, suffering a -2 morale penalty on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. This use of Intimidation works wonders on opponents that are already slightly below your level, particularly henchmen, goblins, and, later in levels, the ever so common orc marauders.

In a number of games I have used the demoralize function of Intimidation on an opponent I wanted to get information out of. The first successful Intimidation reduces my opponents ability to resist successive demoralize attempts, and after ten rounds of repeated Intimidation my dungeon masters have allowed that I met the requirements for out of combat Intimidation and shifted the target's attitude to that forced friendly I spoke of above. Unfortunately, since Intimidation is a standard combat action, doing this restricts your character from making actual attacks (I will get back to this later). Usually this tactic is best for the cleanup period of combat; after your Barbarian rage has worn off (fatigue does not effect Intimidation), when you are otherwise prevented from attacking, or after the big scary is already defeated.

"Am I Intimidating enough?"

This is an important question to ask yourself. If you have no Intimidation ranks, the answer is usually "no", unless you are large or larger. If you have no Intimidation ranks then you should probably reserve your Intimidation checks for dealing with opponents that have fewer level/HD than your Charisma bonus. Or, goblins, kobolds, halflings, gnomes, small animals, and annoying things like pixies. If you are a dungeon master, however, you should ask yourself this question slightly differently. Trolls, ogres, dragons, and any number of other classics are most often larger than the PCs, particularly pesky halflings. Bigger creatures also have a longer reach so they can threaten the PCs at a farther distance than the average NPC antagonist with character levels.

Expanded Intimidation Rules

For those that find the Intimidation rules lacking I offer the following optional rules:

Favored Enemy: It seems reasonably to me that a Ranger's favored enemy bonuses should apply to Intimidation as well.

Perform, Diplomacy, and Bluff as Intimidation: These skills are the arts of social manipulation. Not to negate the utility of the Intimidation skill, but the right kind of show, negotiation, or trick can scare the bejeebies out of me. For game balance purposes I recommend a -10 penalty (not stacking with the rushed Diplomacy penalty) when attempting to use these skills to Intimidate your opponent.

Amazingly Demoralizing: If, when you demoralize an opponent in combat your Intimidation check exceeds their resistance roll by ten or more, then that opponent is shaken for ten rounds instead of one. I said I would get back to this.

Interrogation: Interrogation allows you to extract information out of an unwilling opponent. Interrogating a target takes at least ten minutes of interaction. The target must be restrained from leaving, already Intimidated or bound, and they receive the same bonus to resist that they would receive on a Sense Motive check to resist a Bluff: +5 if revealing the information would put them at some risk, +10 if revealing the information would put them in significant risk, and +20 if their very life depends on the secrecy of the information you want to know.

Negative Charisma Modifier: In the art of Intimidation ugly can be a bonus. Apply a charisma penalty to Intimidation checks, and Intimidation checks only, as though it were a bonus of equal numeric value.

Demoralize as an attack: Instead of demoralize being a standard combat action it is an attack action. This would let you switch out that last melee attack in a full attack action (with that less than amazing bonus) for a demoralize check.

Attack bonus to Demoralize: Add you base attack as a bonus to your Intimidation check to demoralize an opponent. This option works particularly well if you use demoralize as an attack.

Caster level to Demoralize: If, you use the demoralize as an attack option and add base attack bonus to demoralize checks, then adding your caster level as a bonus to you Intimidation check to demoralize an opponent instead of your base attack when Intimidating a target with a magical effect is also an option.

Intimidation Feats

The Intimidation skill is somewhat lacking in feats (Persuasive, and Skill focus are the only ones), so here are a few to consider in your games.

IMPROVED DEMORALIZE [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Combat Reflexes.
Benefit: You can make an Intimidation check to demoralize an opponent as a move equivalent action.
Normal: Demoralizing an opponent is a standard action.
A fighter may select Improved Demoralize as one of his fighter bonus feats.

GREATER DEMORALIZE [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Cha 15, Combat Reflexes, Improved Demoralize.
Benefit: You can make an Intimidation check to demoralize an opponent as a free action whenever you perform a full attack action against a single opponent.
Normal: Demoralizing an opponent is a standard action.
A fighter may select Greater Demoralize as one of his fighter bonus feats.

SUPREME DEMORALIZE [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Cha 17, Combat Reflexes, Improved Demoralize, Greater Demoralize.
Benefit: Every round that you are in a combat situation you may make a free action Intimidation check to demoralize any opponent you would normally be able to demoralize.
Normal: Demoralizing an opponent is a standard action.
A fighter may select Supreme Demoralize as one of his fighter bonus feats.

DEMORALIZING PRESENCE [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +6, Skill Focus Intimidation.
Benefit: You can make an Intimidation check to demoralize an opponent that is within one movement action of you.
Normal: You must be within reach of an opponent to make an Intimidation check to demoralize them.
A fighter may select Demoralizing Presence as one of his fighter bonus feats.

SUBTLE INTIMIDATION [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Intimidation 5 ranks, and either Diplomacy or Perform 5 ranks.
Benefit: 1d6 x 10 minutes after you leave an NPC that you have successfully Intimidated into behaving friendly they return to their initial attitude.
Normal: 1d6 x 10 minutes after you leave an NPC that you have successfully Intimidated into behaving friendly their attitude changes to unfriendly, or hostile if they were initially unfriendly.

POTENT DEMORALIZE [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Intimidation 5 ranks, Skill Focus Intimidation.
Benefit: When you successfully demoralize an opponent they become frightened for one round.
Normal: When you successfully demoralize an opponent they become shaken for one round.
A fighter may select Demoralizing Presence as one of his fighter bonus feats.

EXTREME DEMORALIZE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Intimidation 10 ranks, Skill Focus Intimidation, Potent Demoralize.
Benefit: When you successfully demoralize an opponent they become panicked for one round.
Normal: When you successfully demoralize an opponent they become shaken for one round.
A fighter may select Demoralizing Presence as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Intimidating Equipment

Last but not least I will suggest some items that can be used to grant some circumstance modifiers to Intimidation.

Mundane Equipment

------------------
War Mask
| 25 gp | 3lb |
Beast Musk
| 50 gp | 1lb *1|
Dragon's Musk
| 100 gp | 1lb *1 |
Battle Paint
| 1 gp | 3lb *1,2 |
Scary Costume
| 2 gp | 5lb |
Interrogation Kit
| 50 gp | 5lb |
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--*1 - Has no weight after it is applied
--*2 - Battle paint weighs only 1lb after one facial application.
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War Mask: This frightening mask gives you a +2 tool bonus to Intimidation checks. A masterwork war mask grants a +4 tool bonus.

Beast Musk: The extract of a beast's musk gives you a +2 circumstance bonus to Intimidation checks against any creature that has the ability to smell.

Dragon's Musk: The extract of a dragon's (or any monster with the frightful presence trait) musk gives you a +4 circumstance bonus to Intimidation checks against any creature that has the ability to smell.

Battle Paint: Brightly colored body paint that takes ten minutes to apply. You must have a significant amount of exposed skin to receive the full benefit of battle paint. Battle paint grants a +6 tool bonus to Intimidation checks, +3 if only your face is painted. Battle paint is only good for one application, two if you only paint your face.

Scary Costume: This suit of clothing is intentionally designed to strike fear into the heart of your enemies. This outfit grants a +3 competence bonus on Intimidation checks.

Interrogation Kit: The kit is the perfect tool for interrogating and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on Intimidation checks to Interrogate.

Magical Items

Frightening: A suite of armor or shield with this property is covered in images of monsters. The armor grants you a +5 competence bonus on Intimidation checks.
Faint Necromancy [Fear, Mind-Affecting]; CL 5th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cause fear; +3,750 gp

Frightening, Improved: As Frightening, except it grants a +10 competence bonus on Intimidation checks.
Moderate Necromancy [Fear, Mind-Affecting]; CL 10th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cause fear; +15,000 gp.

Frightening, Greater: As Frightening, except it grants a +15 competence bonus on Intimidation checks.
Moderate Necromancy [Fear, Mind-Affecting]; CL 15th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cause fear; +33,750 gp.

Fearful: A fearful weapon allows you to make an Intimidation check to demoralize an opponent as a free action whenever it successfully deals damage. In addition the wielder of this creepy looking weapon is granted a +5 enhancement bonus to Intimidation checks. This bonus applies to any Intimidation check the wielder makes while he has the weapon ready.
Moderate Necromancy [Fear, Mind-Affecting]; CL8th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cause fear; Price +2 bonus.

In conclusion, I hope that I have effectively described how and when to use the Intimidation skill to its full effect. I hope that you find the optional rules to be acceptable, the feats to be to your satisfaction, and the equipment to be worth the price. And most importantly I hope that I have convinced you that the Intimidation skill does exist, that it is simple to use, and most of all it is anything but funny.