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!?