Running Guile Games
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Spheres of Guile
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Running Guile Adventures

Characters using Spheres of Guile have abilities focused on information-gathering, exploration, social situations, and infiltration. It’s important to incorporate opportunities for these abilities to shine if your group is to get the most out of this book. The following is a series of tools and advice useful for supporting players in these situations.

Accumulation & Downtime

Adventuring is not a constant process even for the most ravenous PCs. Downtime, be it in moments when the PCs need to rest and recuperate, when they want to sell their hard-earned plunder, or when they must wait patiently for an extensive plan to come to fruition, is to some degree a necessary part of every campaign. Such sections nonetheless remain tricky to integrate, especially when players so often come to tabletop RPGs for thrills. Like an improperly-placed scene in a movie, Downtime that is poorly handled can result in boredom or frustration for players rather than relief. From a mechanical perspective, Downtime can also cause problems of resource accumulation; characters might become unexpectedly wealthy or influential at minimal risk to themselves through the use of certain skills and feats. This section outlines a few options for smoothly integrating Downtime into gameplay.

The Tempo of Downtime

If Downtime is a regular occurrence in a campaign, it is important to implement in such a way that encourages all characters to participate and that does not break the pacing or dramatic tension of a given story. It may make sense for characters to allow characters a period of extended Downtime after overcoming a major enemy or obstacle, giving them time to recuperate from a big event while allowing tension to build for the next adventure.

If the party engages in a number of brief adventures, Downtime might be a regular aspect of every session. In these cases, it is advisable that the GM allot time at the beginning of every session to resolve Downtime developments. The beginning is preferable to the end, as Downtime actions often prepare the PCs for upcoming challenges and can serve as an excellent tool for building anticipation.

Outlining Player Options

The Downtime section of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign indexes many of the conventional activities that characters might undertake in downtime, although these rules might be further abstracted or streamlined by GMs who wish to do so. Most of these activities, such as resting, crafting, or training an animal, do not require any additional rules beyond those listed in the abilities themselves. Other actions such as running a business or researching for an upcoming adventure may involve additional resources which not every GM may be prepared to incorporate. Still others may require a degree of downtime that the rest of the party might not be willing to indulge (especially in cases such as Crafting, which might take weeks of sustained work). A GM should work to inform players on what activities they can partake in during downtime and should give a clear picture of how much time the players may be expected to spend on activities outside of adventuring. Players, meanwhile, should prepare specific goals or interests for their characters to pursue so that they are prepared for periods of downtime. In both cases, understanding the subsystems necessary to pursue specific Downtime goals (such as Capital) should be encouraged.

Unusual Plans and Actions

Not every activity is going to be covered by existing mechanics, especially when characters are given freedom over multiple days or weeks to accomplish a goal. Organizing a political campaign, building public infrastructure, and evangelizing for a specific faith are all examples of reasonable Downtime activities that do not have good analogies in existing mechanics.

If a GM intends to create mechanics to follow such activities, the following factors should be determined.

1. Resource Input: What resources would a character invest in order to accomplish this specific goal? Would they spend time, money, unique resources such as Labor or Goods? Are there multiple options for resource investment that a character might pursue? When determining such inputs, it is advised that they be compared against the costs of similar options outlined in existing mechanics. Trying to base progress or cost on real-life circumstances is inadvisable given the innately superhuman qualities of most PCs.

2. Required Checks: What sorts of skill checks, ability checks, or other rolls may be required for the character to perform their intended tasks? Are such checks even required, and what might be the consequences of failure? Generally, any costs incurred from failure should be weighted against the difficulty of any checks and the rewards for a successful outcome.

3. Outcomes and Benefits: Finally, what tangible benefits might a character reap from performing this action? Money? Equipment? Capital? Unique bonuses or favors which might be used at a later date? Any such boons should be balanced against other Downtime options or made specific to the campaign or location if they would offer a greater unique benefit.

Controlling for Accumulation

In a game as rich in magic items as Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, increased character wealth can correspond directly with increased power and versatility. Extensive downtime enables characters to amass money at little risk for an extended period of time, acquiring sizable fortunes through proper optimization or patience. GMs can attempt to control for this by necessitating these activities in order to gain the expected wealth by level, but such action may result in players feeling forced to engage in productive downtime activities when they would prefer to be adventuring (and does little to stop enterprising players from obtaining abnormal fortunes).

A discussion between the GM and the players regarding wealth expectations and game balance is the simplest way to resolve this issue. Everyone at the table should come to an agreement as to appropriate behavior around character wealth and its use in adventuring. Informed consent regarding how wealth is handled is an important element in creating a sustainable long-term campaign.

For more concrete mechanical guidance on accumulation, an effective method for preserving a bounded range of wealth-induced power without discouraging PC industry is a limitation on the amount of effective wealth the PCs can carry with them. This might be enforced through some sort of “attunement” mechanic which stops characters from using too much powerful magical gear or an agreement among the players to not use more equipment than would be expected for a character of their level.

For example, although Edward the 9th-level fighter might have used crafting to obtain magic items worth a total of 80,000 gp, he would only be able to carry and use 46,000 gp worth of equipment at a time. This would not stop Edward from using some sort of repository to exchange equipment he is carrying for other equipment he owns. Some GMs might take this allocation a step further by limiting what percentage of a character’s carried wealth can take forms such as consumables, weaponry, or non-combat equipment (for example, a character may not be allowed to carry more than 25% of their expected wealth as consumables such as potions or wands). Inversely, items which do not improve a character’s combat potential (such as a Crystal Ball) might not count towards this equipment limitation.

What qualifies an item as improving combat potential is somewhat vague and may be left to GM interpretation, but it is recommended that any item which provides some sort of useful passive bonus in combat or could be utilized to some advantage in a combat situation is considered to improve combat potential. Equipment gained from class abilities (such as items from plans or the Faction sphere) should not count towards this restricted amount. If using Automatic Bonus Progression from Pathfinder Unchained or a similar rule intended to supplement wealth, the characters’ expected wealth by level should be halved to account for their innate access to abilities normally granted by equipment.

Challenges and Puzzles

Many problems that player characters must overcome fall into one of two categories: puzzles and challenges. For this purpose, we define a simple challenge as something that merely tests a party’s capabilities without much room for creative problem-solving. Conversely, a simple puzzle requires solving with logic and does not typically require characters to use their unique abilities or resources. As long as the solution makes sense, skill checks or other dice rolls are not usually required to solve a puzzle. More complex challenges often blur the line between puzzle and challenge, as they have prerequisites to continue (like needing to find a villain’s secret panic room to fight them or needing to know a secret motivation to complete a social encounter) but also require successful rolls and character resources.

Neither a puzzle nor a challenge is necessarily bad, but each is useful for different purposes in an adventure and either can get in the way of fun if used in a situation that is not its strong suit. Players who prefer to immerse themselves more tend to enjoy a puzzle more, especially one that has multiple viable solutions. On the other hand, players who prefer to be goal-oriented or to play characters with expertise that is far outside their own understanding might prefer a more abstract mechanical challenge that leaves the solving as part of the power fantasy of playing their adventuring PC.

Challenge Rating Obligatory DC Easy DC Moderate DC Difficult DC Epic DC
1 6 11 16 21 26
2 7 13 18 23 28
3 8 14 19 24 29
4 8 15 20 25 30
5 9 16 21 26 31
6 10 18 23 28 33
7 10 19 24 29 34
8 11 20 25 30 35
9 12 22 27 32 37
10 13 24 29 34 39
11 14 26 31 36 41
12 14 27 32 37 42
13 15 28 33 38 43
14 16 30 35 40 45
15 16 31 36 41 46
16 17 33 38 43 48
17 18 34 39 44 50
18 19 36 41 46 51
19 20 38 43 48 53
20 21 40 45 50 55

Note: Setting Difficulty [Wiki]

You should not necessarily use the numbers for the party's current level. Instead, you should also consider the overall CR of the challenge or puzzle when it would affect immersion. For example, let's say the party is 15th level, but for adventure reasons they happen to be in a typical peasant village. It's unlikely the village will have locks on the doors that match a Level 15 party's capabilities. You can simply hand-wave any attempt to break in to a simple house (because let's be honest, the party shouldn't have difficulty with this) - but if you do need to use numbers, it might be best to use the difficulty ratings that reflect the village's consideration of what's difficult, rather than the party's.

Using Simple Challenges

Simple challenges shine when they let players quickly make use of their skills and abilities while keeping the action moving in a vivid and clear manner. Even though they do not require lateral thinking, players can imagine what their character is doing to accomplish something in the game. If used when the players want to exercise their creativity or do not like the obvious solution, however, a simple challenge can feel like it robs the players of agency and might even interfere with their sense of immersion in the game world.

Choosing a Skill Challenge

A challenge using skills should generally pit the characters against a DC that does not feel too easy but still poses a meaningful risk of failure (otherwise they should not be rolling). Above are suggested values for a challenge at a rating similar to a combat encounter of a given level, some adapted from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue for use in a broader variety of circumstances. These values should reflect DCs and modifiers as normal for the skills in question. If an Acrobatics DC is 40, you can see from the Acrobatics skill description that translates to an incredibly treacherous, narrow, and steep environment. (Do not just demand a higher check from a situation that looks the same as one they might face at a lower level at a lower DC.)

There are different DCs listed for different elements of a challenge. These are just guidelines, and it’s a good idea to adjust them up or down to reflect elements that should be particularly easy or particularly difficult or to present a challenge for the composition of your party.

Use the obligatory DC for checks that every character has to succeed at to avoid consequences. For example, this might be the DC of a Stealth check to pass a guarded choke point unnoticed or of an Acrobatics check to balance across a treacherous mountain pass without falling a distance suitable to the challenge rating (usually 10 feet per level).

Use the easy DC for a check that only one character will attempt with little chance for an ally to assist or for a skill that is particularly apt for a situation.

Use the moderate DC for checks that a character can usually get some help on or that are not the smartest way to tackle a challenge but can work.

Use the difficult DC for a task that represents a clearly suboptimal approach to the problem, that the PC can easily take 10 on, or that PCs can usually get a lot of help on (such as many social skills). Use the epic DC for an approach to a problem that should only technically be possible or that is both a relatively poor choice and easy to get a lot of help with. Generally, challenges should not be designed such that characters can take 20; a puzzle challenge or true puzzle will generally be more fun and interesting in such a situation.

These DCs can also be useful for improvising actions that the skill rules do not cover.

Using Simple Puzzles

Simple puzzles reward players who like to get inside the heads of their characters and exercise their own sense of logic. Simple puzzles can be very frustrating, however, if they make the players feel like their characters’ abilities are not relevant enough or if they rely on logic that the players do not have enough context for. Puzzles are better than simple challenges when the party has enough time to take 20 on skill checks because a puzzle will not be automatically resolved that way.

Even when characters engage with a true puzzle, they can use their skills and other assets to help them. To allow players to make use of their characters’ resources in this situation, you can allow players to make skill checks or spend uses of skill leverage to get hints as to possible solutions to a puzzle. Hints should be chosen to incrementally expand the player’s understanding of the situation.

Typical incremental steps move from one to the next along the following progression:
1. Understanding what the problem is and what consequences it can have if resolved or left unresolved
2. Understanding what options can interact with the problem and anything required to bring those options to bear
3. Understanding the risks and relative difficulty of carrying out each option
4. One step of carrying out a solution

Because a true puzzle might stump the players, it’s important not to place simple puzzles into an adventure in a place where they absolutely must be solved by the PCs for the story to continue. If the players cannot figure it out, there needs to be something else they can do. There should be consequences or a missed opportunity as a result of the failure, of course. If the party is racing to open a sealed vault, they might be able to force their way in, but accidentally damage and weaken the magic treasure they wanted. If they need to solve the cipher in a letter to learn the villain’s secret plan, perhaps a friendly NPC can find a clue on its envelope that leads them to another encounter with the villain’s minions who know more information.

Player Knowledge Versus Character Knowledge

Puzzles tend to throw into sharp relief any gaps between what the characters know and what the players know. To prevent puzzles from interfering with player immersion in the game’s story, it’s important not to punish a player for not knowing everything their character would. Remember to explain relevant context that is common knowledge and give characters the opportunity to roll skill checks (usually Knowledge checks) to recall more detailed and specialized information relevant to the task at hand. This is an especially common issue in complex challenges where there are simple actions available but success hinges on learning or doing something specific (such as satisfying an NPC’s motivation to convince an NPC to take a terrible risk for the PC, or at least make a skill check to convince them possible).

Is a player about to have their character do something that seems foolish or pointless in the world of the game? As the players do not have a perfect image of the whole scene since they are not physically there, stop to think about how sensible an action is before you punish a character for a blunder. Consider clarifying the scene to establish any risk or details present that the players might have not realized was there, and allow them a moment to adjust their decision before barreling ahead. It’s generally not very fun or interesting for a heroic player character to stumble blindly into a problem that should have been obvious to someone who was really in that situation with that character’s expertise.

Using Complex Challenges

Even though complex challenges tend to hinge on game rules, do not overuse rules language when running them. Focus on the story of the game and call for dice rolls as appropriate for actions the PCs take or assessments the PCs make. Players might focus on rules elements over trying to find the best way to interact with the puzzle elements. As with a puzzle, when a PC cannot progress without learning something or taking a special action, make sure that the player understands the situation as clearly as their character should.

Complex challenges often have a puzzle-like element that is optional. A navigation challenge might require fewer or no checks if the party goes to the highest point in the region to plot their course. A social encounter skill check might become unnecessary if the party makes an ironclad argument or gives an NPC a lavish enough (or appropriate enough) gift.

Dynamic Challenges

Complex challenges that involve creatures, hazards, obstacles, haunts, or other active complications can be handled using initiative like combat. Complex challenges that are this dynamic are usually more dramatic and interesting due to the dynamic elements but should generally be made relatively difficult and be important enough to the story to justify the additional game time. Some ideas for dynamic elements follow:

  • Guards patrol.
  • Old architecture or traps shift from nearby movement or loud sounds.
  • Magical forces react to being tampered with, dealing damage, producing new spelllike effects, or countering or dispelling nearby magic.
  • The wind disturbs sensitive objects.
  • A bystander gets in a character’s way accidentally.
  • A character attracts the attention of guards, thieves, or curious strangers.
  • An impermanent obstacle changes regularly, such as a trap blade moving, a bank of poisonous fog drifting, or traffic thickening or slowing during a chase.
  • A third party wants something at odds with the characters, like a priest who wants the law to change in the opposite manner to the change the party seeks during a propaganda campaign or a council debate.
  • A third party gets in the party’s way while seeking a parallel or unrelated goal.

XP Award

Puzzles and complex challenges should usually earn the party XP equal to at least 20% that of a combat encounter with the same challenge rating, but possibly more if it posed particular danger or difficulty and cost resources. Simple challenges do not need XP awards unless they pose any danger (as some simple traps do).

Improvising Actions

Using lateral thinking is one of the greatest strengths of tabletop roleplaying games over other media. Improvisation is most common during exploration, but comes up in all areas of the game. If a player can come up with something it’s sensible for their character to do, we try to provide a way to handle it. Some options for previously undefined actions are in the Skills chapter of this book. In addition, players and GMs can work together to figure out how to improvise something together.

Moreover, if you notice the players acting confined to what is listed on their character sheet, remind them that they can improvise other actions that make sense even if they are not spelled out precisely in the rules. Below is some advice on handling some common types of improvisation.

Discussing Improvisations

Remember that groups might vary in how liberal they are with improvised action. It’s best to discuss the issue briefly as a group to make sure everyone understands each other’s expectations. If a player wants to try something in the middle of a game session, this previous discussion can help everyone figure out what’s a viable option faster.

Players often ask if something is possible before saying their character is trying it, hoping for some clarification. An important part of the fun of games like Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is understanding a situation and then choosing which of the possible risky actions to take. A player should generally have some way to know the risks, at least in broad terms, when choosing their action in this game.

It’s helpful for the GM to make clear if there are penalties or bonuses that a character will face if they attempt something unusual before they commit to taking the action unless the PC has a clear reason to not fully understand some element of the situation.

Circumstance Bonuses

The simplest kind of lateral thinking involves creating a more advantageous situation to do something that already has clear rules. If their creativity is helpful but not categorically different from an existing action, often the best response is to grant a +2 circumstance bonus. Exceptional circumstances might justify a higher bonus, but anything higher than +4 should be heavily location-restricted, only work on a specific individual, or otherwise be highly limited.

Sure Things

Sometimes a player’s way of approaching a task is so perfect, straightforward, or foolproof that it should just work. Some actions should not require checks at all. If an idea should clearly work and there’s no significant chance of it failing with meaningful consequences, success can be automatic. Adding an unnecessary chance for failure just slows down the game and undermines the fantasy of playing capable heroes. Note that it should be very rare and situational for a hostile action to be a sure thing.

Improvising is a Group Activity

A player’s improvisation is also an improvisation on the GM’s part, and nobody makes a perfectly fun and balanced rule on the first try. Do not spend more time improvising a rule than it’s worth for the narrative significance of what’s being improvised—if it’s just a flashy way for a character to move across a room and get a minor tactical edge, make a ruling and move on even if you suspect there’s a precise rule somewhere in some book. You can look it up later. It’s okay to rule that a situation is unique and handle similar situations in the future in a different way if you realize that what you tried before wasn’t the best fit for your game or your group.

Improvisation is usually a one-off affair for each of the things that gets improvised. Given that, remember to watch out for improvisation that proves overly popular—if players keep doing an unusual trick because it’s distinctive and fun, that’s great, but if they keep doing it because it seems better than the other options in the game, you should increase the penalty, increase the action required, or disallow the action outside of the narrow circumstances in which it first appeared.

Improvising is at its highest stakes as a pivotal action in a life-or-death struggle such as a major combat or a deathtrap. In these cases, it’s worth thinking things through a bit more carefully. Remember that above all the goal is for everyone to have fun. If being permissive is the difference between a frustrating loss and an over-the-top win, many groups will have more fun on the latter.

Similar to a Feat or Talent

If the task is similar to a feat or talent the character does not have, as a general rule they should still be able to attempt it but at some kind of penalty, disadvantage, or cost. Think twice before allowing improvising feats that have a Normal entry indicating that the action they describe is otherwise impossible, though. There might be a good reason to restrict it to only characters with a feat.

If the action requires an attack roll or skill check, the penalty should usually be at least –3 but often higher. For example, a character who wanted to split up their movement before and after taking a standard action could physically do such a thing, but since this is like a feat and is not normally allowed, the GM could allow it but give the attack roll or skill check for the action in the middle of the movement a –4 penalty.

If the character is missing only a single feat or talent that they qualify for or attempt a clearly feasible task that there are not rules to permit, –4 is a reasonably safe penalty to choose. If the character misses two different prerequisites or is otherwise clearly unqualified, increase the penalty to –6 or worse. If the character falls far short of doing the action using normal methods, or the action essentially combines two other actions, the penalty should be at least –8 to –10. If it’s not clear what the penalty should be, –5 is a fairly safe default.

For other actions, the GM might require a check to pull it off or apply a penalty to actions taken while improvising. For example, it’s common to want to squeeze into the same space as an ally in combat. For your game, you might allow characters to do so by applying the squeezing penalties to both PCs (who must both be willing) for as long as they are in the same space.

Similar to a Subsystem

Even if there exists a distinct subsystem for the challenge you wish to present to your players, it might be better to offer the chance for players to resolve the action with a few skill checks in a loose complex challenge rather than introducing a whole subsystem if that subsystem will not be a recurring part of your campaign. Learning a whole subsystem takes time and is not generally fun in itself, after all.

Sensible Tasks without Rules

Some actions are clearly possible but simply do not have rules spelled out for them. The new skill uses introduced in this book are meant to cover some of those gaps, but no rules system can be all-encompassing. If it’s a quick action that will not radically alter the action economy of the game, just call for a skill check, attack roll, ability check, combat maneuver check, saving throw, or rarely some other d20 roll for the most relevant attribute. If it seems more advantageous than typical game actions, apply a penalty or charge a cost such as skill leverage. Something obviously feasible in the real world probably only needs a –4 penalty at worst. Something that feels suitable for an action adventure story, if a little over-the-top for a real person, probably needs a penalty of at least –5.

If there’s no clear DC, consider how rare, dangerous, difficult, or specialized the situation is and assign a DC similar to other situations that are comparable using other attributes. Checks to interact with a creature should go against a value that scales with the creature’s abilities at a similar pace, such as combat maneuver defense for attack rolls or skills. 11 + the modifier of a skill the creature has is often appropriate for skill checks. Skill checks to deal with an environment or situation can use a DC from the Challenge DC table.

A standard action is a good default action for a task that seems usable at a tactical speed. Move actions should be reserved for actions that move the character not much more effectively than the Climb skill, Swim skill, or Acrobatics usually can, or that allow access to some further item, option, or action that will cost additional time to actually use. Swift actions are rarely appropriate for improvised actions, but can make sense for things that clearly take very little attention and grant at most a very minor benefit. For social actions that can change someone’s behavior for more than a few rounds, default to 1 minute.

Unclear Timing

When the only real question of whether an action is possible comes down to timing, initiative rolls can resolve it neatly. If a character is racing against an object, you can simply roll a d20 for the object, although it can get a bonus if it is particularly fast (such as a falling object might be).

Special Circumstances

An improvisation might be infeasible in many circumstances, but become a live option because of good luck or clever use of the circumstances. Anything about the area or creatures might grant a circumstance bonus, from the current affairs of the local inhabitants, to surrounding sights and sounds, to the terrain underfoot. Circumstance modifiers are often a good way to take an unorthodox idea that should not usually work and make it work for one memorable and exciting adventure. Reward players for lateral thinking that includes the environment, the social situation, or the clues they have picked up by allowing things that wouldn’t normally be feasible or granting a circumstance bonus that reduces or even offsets a big penalty for trying a risky improvisation.

On the other hand, it’s only fair to apply a circumstantial penalty to an attempt to do something at just the wrong time or in an unfavorable environment. Ignoring penalizing circumstances when something should be more difficult can undermine the group’s sense of immersion in the game world. It’s best to make potential causes of penalties clear in the way you describe the environment and state them explicitly when discussing potential improvisations before a player has committed their character’s action.

When planning adventures, it’s most rewarding to the players if you place fights, traps, and social encounters in places with dynamic and evocative surroundings. Players feel more like they are in the game world when there are active elements surrounding them that they can use to their advantage. An exclusive gathering of villainous nobles at a cliffside estate might allow characters skilled at Climb to eavesdrop without as much danger, an interesting option that wouldn’t exist if it were in a standard fantasy castle with a moat. It’s also best to make sure there is an element of any encounter that moves or changes over time, providing a better or worse time to try certain tasks.

Rewarding Cleverness

When characters solve problems with cleverness rather than violence, they can potentially fall behind on conventional XP and character wealth. To avoid punishing their chosen style of play, you as the GM should remember to insert alternative sources of these rewards. XP can be addressed with challenge or quest XP similar to between half and all the XP for defeating enemies that were tricked, talked down, avoided, or otherwise neutralized. You can also drop XP from the game altogether in favor of leveling up at story milestones (every 12 hours of play roughly simulates fast progression). Wealth can be made available by looting it from vaults, rewards from grateful NPCs, or by giving thieving characters a chance to steal it. Indeed, a successful heist or long confidence game might yield an incredible trove of treasure without even a single combat encounter, and should earn the characters commensurate XP (generally between half and double the amounts for fighting all those defenders). Of course, intangible achievements can also earn intangible rewards, such as stalwart allies, useful contacts, earned reputation and titles, or discovered secrets about the campaign world or plot mysteries.

Offscreen Action

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is built a round the exploits and actions of the player characters, but the PCs themselves may not be present for every event they set in motion. Faction retainers sent off on special missions are the most prevalent example, but recruited hirelings, summoned companions, and even PCs pursuing a solo task also enter the realm of activity which can be called Offscreen Action.

Generally, Offscreen Action should not occupy too much a session’s focus, given that it obstructs PC involvement by its nature. When a contingent of distinct characters or even a single character is occupied in a separate task, at least a few people at the table are placed in a position where they cannot play. Brevity should thus be a priority in resolving Offscreen Action so that normal gameplay can resume.

Managing the timing of Offscreen Actions can be a tricky challenge, especially when an Offscreen distraction or infiltration is only sufficient to buy the PCs a brief window of time to act. For such cases, as with a number of ticking clocks tied to adventures, the timing of these Offscreen Actions should be based upon the dramatic needs of the adventure and should allow for the PCs to take advantage of momentary opportunities while retaining a sense of urgency that keeps them moving forwards with their plans.

Simple Offscreen Actions

Simple Offscreen Actions can typically be resolved by a simple declaration of success or failure; swabbing a deck or delivering a letter through a peaceful part of town are actions that can be assumed to be completed without incident, while sending a courier into a well-fortified enemy lair is certain to result in their capture or demise. More complicated Offscreen Actions such as spying on a conversation or looking up a piece of information at a library should be handled with one or more skill checks (generally no more than 3 or 5, although 1 or 2 should be sufficient).

The skill checks demanded should reflect the most noteworthy or challenging obstacles that the character faces in their action, with the DCs being set at the same values they would be if the character engaged the obstacle normally (or, at GM discretion, a lower value which reflects the additional time and resources that the character is able to commit to their task). If a character would normally be able to take 10 or take 20 on a check, they should be able to do so when making that check offscreen.

For example, if Jameson the Investigator wants to sneak into a home to deliver a message through the window, this offscreen action may be represented by a Stealth check (DC 28 because the backyard is guarded by a single guard with a Perception modifier of +17) followed by a Climb check (DC 25 to reflect the difficult exterior of the house) and a Disable Device check (to open the window from the outside, allowing Jameson to take 10 on the check due to the window not being trapped).

Elaborate Offscreen Actions

If players are patient about resolving certain Offscreen Actions, it may make sense for the GM or player to roll for them outside of the context of the normal gameplay period. For example, a GM might make note of all Offscreen Actions the players orchestrated at the end of each session and roll them as part of preparing for the next session, announcing the results when the players check in on them or would otherwise discover the consequences. If the Offscreen Action involves one or more PCs, those PCs may roll in place of the GM (but would still need to present the results to the GM, who would reveal their success or failure).

This method of handling Offscreen Action works less well when players are expecting to deal with the consequences of these actions with some immediacy (such as when scouting or arranging a meeting), but can be excellent for handling longer affairs or actions which would normally take time to fully implement or process (such as managing a business or shopping for magic items).

Offscreen Actions which result in combat can be tricky to resolve, seeing as such situations can force a detailed engagement in which PCs are unable to participate. If such combats do begin, the best way to handle them is to reduce their scope by disregarding positioning, ignoring complicated abilities, or simply enabling a character to break off engagement and escape using one or more successful skill checks. Full combats or particular nuanced Offscreen Actions may be handled outside of a typical play session in a smaller meeting between the GM and any involved PCs, but such focused affairs should not detract extensively from the play time of an assembled party. Another option for dealing with such affairs is giving the other PCs an opportunity to quickly reach the scene of combat, ensuring that they are only kept out of the game for a single combat round or two at most.

Offscreen Actions Beyond the Party

Resolving offscreen that is completely beyond the influence of the PC may be a difficult task for GMs accustomed to cooperatively developing scenes with their players, but may be necessary for creating a vivid, evolving world that naturally interprets the consequences of player actions.

For example, multiple antagonist groups may be steered into a fight with each other far away from the party or a ruler may assemble a council to propose different plans for protecting their nation. Generally, such situations can be resolved by the GM simply selecting whatever outcome they feel would make the campaign most dramatically engaging.

If the GM wants to resolve the situation more randomly or organically, they might roll a brief series of skill checks or attack rolls on their own time and determine the outcome based on these results. More complex methods of determination, such as having the GM roleplay the scene with a separate group or allowing the players to fill the roles of involved NPCs for a unique session, might also be employed if players and GM alike are willing to make the necessary preparations.

Variant: Dynamic Plans

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rewards characters for being prepared for a variety of situations. Having the right item or spell can be the difference between a hard fight and managing a quick resolution without even fighting. In some groups, the act of planning is part of the fun. However, prolonged planning can slow the game to a crawl in a way that can hamper others’ fun. Detailed plans can also result in serious frustration if the plan is quickly rendered irrelevant by a situation the players didn’t expect. We recommend the group use dynamic plans to avoid punishing players for keeping the game moving.

A dynamic plan is when the group is lenient about allowing players to retroactively make decisions when it makes sense for their character to have done earlier. Simply make the adjustment as simply as possible (such as subtracting gold and adding an item to a character’s sheet), and resume the game. This is most valuable when forgetting to do something threatens the group’s sense of immersion in the game world because the character forgetting it seems silly in retrospect.

For example, an adventuring party intends to explore a subterranean ruin, has a little time to shop in town, and in the dungeon they stumble upon a deep pit but no player specifically mentioned that their character bought a rope before leaving town.

Since a rope or climbing kit is an obvious thing that might be needed in an underground ruin, the group can agree to assume retroactively that a character bought one before leaving town, and continue on without having the characters return to town ingame. For some groups, retroactive changes might interfere with the immersion of the story-telling, but for many groups out-of-character mistakes are worse for the game’s fun and dynamic planning is a practical bit of conservation of detail.

Dynamic planning should not be used to always have the right tool for the job or the edge in every fight. Its principle use should be to cover things that are obvious in hindsight or that the character would think of that the player didn’t.

If it’s not clear whether a character should have thought of something, the character should attempt a relevant skill or ability check reflecting the reason that the action would be appropriate.

In the example above with the rope, a DC 10 Knowledge (dungeoneering) check would be most appropriate. For players who want to be improbably prepared, they can have their characters invest in feats (like Brilliant Planner from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue), skill talents with the [plan] tag, and classes (such as the mastermind and the Pathfinder chronicler) that specialize in planning.

Roleplaying and Social Encounters

Dialogue in a roleplaying game session can be more than just a chance to roll Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive until the target yields. Persuading someone to like you, fear you, or do what you want is easier and more effective when you build a connection and strive to understand your audience, and they are likely interested in responding to you or getting something from you in turn. Not every interaction needs to be a prolonged social encounter, but higher stakes interactions can be modeled this way within the general guidelines of a complex skill challenge.

This section discusses ways to handle roleplaying and add depth to higher-stakes social interactions.

Handling Roleplaying

Games of guile always feature substantial roleplaying, including interactions with NPCs that have significant consequences. Guileful adventurers learn to choose their words carefully and pay attention to what others say.

In addition to basic roleplaying, the campaign might features various subsystems to support more complex roleplaying situations such as social encounters or verbal duels (from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue). Roleplaying can be broken down into the following categories, each of which serves a different function in the game.

Skill talents and other special effects often have varying ramifications in social situations, depending on the context in which characters act and how they carry out their actions. The GM should always consider the circumstances. Typically, activating a skill talent’s effect to cause penalties or transient negative conditions but no damage or other harm tends to be viewed as rude or disruptive enough to worsen a creature’s attitude by one step temporarily, but usually has some circumstance that makes it acceptable. For example, if someone agreed to witness a performance, activating a Performance sphere talent that penalizes them is rarely going to worsen their attitude unless its content directly insults them. Conversely, taking normally merely annoying actions that seem likely to give an edge in combat might be seen as hostile during a parlay to avoid combat.

Negligible Social Interactions

Off-handed comments and simple decisions that do not have consequences thereafter can be a quick and easy way to express a character or a part of the game world without devoting much game time or player effort.

This includes player character comments, many instances of combat banter, and little character moments with NPCs (minor or major ones) that do not need to be risky or unpredictable for dramatic purposes.

Remember that some social interactions are not worth spending any game time on at all. Interacting with innkeepers and food vendors can add a little color to your game but if played out repetitively it can easily be a distraction from what others at the table prefer to spend game time on. If your game has a very transactional approach to equipment and magic, shopping and hiring spellcasters for healing can be abstracted to simply spending gp without hurting anyone’s experience of the game world. The GM might decide not to describe these events or call for any skill checks for them simply to lighten their burden and to keep the game moving toward other elements that they and the players find most fun.

Short Social Interactions

Many social challenges are most fun when they are kept simple. When you just want to ask a minor favor, get the local gossip, or otherwise interact casually, a little roleplaying and maybe one or two brief skill checks are suitable to keep the game moving. The following skill checks are usually confined to simple social interactions.

  • Acrobatics to impress someone or earn money
  • Appraise to trade or buy special and unusual items
  • Bluff to pass a secret message
  • Bluff to lie your way out of a low-stakes interaction
  • Diplomacy to request a favor that is not costly or complex
  • Disguise without interacting with anyone attentive or suspicious
  • Intimidate to coerce help that is not costly or complex
  • Perform to get a gig, impress someone, or earn money
  • Sense Motive to notice a mind-affecting effect or catch someone in a lie
  • Sleight of Hand to impress someone, get a gig, earn money, or steal from an inattentive mark in a crowd

Long Social Interactions

When a social interaction has significant stakes, takes longer than a single action, and the outcome is not clear, it’s best to play it out more thoroughly. This might mean roleplaying a prolonged conversation verbatim, or it might mean paraphrasing each part of such a longer conversation.

In many cases, there exists a subsystem in another sourcebook to address the interaction at hand. For example, many higher-stakes or more-complex social encounters are best addressed with the individual influence subsystem from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Ultimate Intrigue, whereas high-stakes arguments such as court cases can be handled with the verbal duel rules from that book. In addition, many situations can be resolved well using a loose social encounter structure and the standard social skill actions from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Core Rulebook and the skill rules on this site.

Social Encounters

Social encounters are like combats: appropriate for events with meaningful risks and potential rewards. They demand attention from the players, and should generally earn roleplaying XP, at least 20% what would be earned by defeating an opponent of similar challenge rating to the party’s average level for a simple encounter but potentially up to the full value for a long or complex social encounter. The typical process is spending a few skill checks to learn someone’s motivation and then invoking it to make at least one normally impossible skill check feasible. You can also use the advice here to flesh out subsystems such as verbal duels or individual influence (from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue).

Planning a Social Encounter

Social encounters, like combat encounters, are more often than not planned as part of an adventure rather than begun on a whim. Negligible or basic interactions do not need or benefit much from the structure of a social encounter, nor do they demand the time a social encounter takes.

NPC Motivations and Goals

Every NPC in a social encounter needs motivations. You should include at least one but preferably three motivations that might make the NPC invested in interacting with the player characters.

Some of these motivations might be secret, but they do not all have to be. Some characters are very open with their motivations because they want help meeting their goals or because they’re simply not afraid of it being used against them.

Encounters tend to be more compelling if the NPC wants to get something out of the player characters just as much as the players want something from them, and that what the PCs want and what the NPC wants do not tidily align (or at least, seem not to align). Motivations do not have to be secrets to be challenging to work with—NPCs might want things that are obvious but difficult to attain, or they want costly or terrible things that PCs struggle to satisfy without betraying their own motivations.

Structuring a Social Encounter

If there is not a more specific set of rules you want to use to frame a social encounter, you can simply rely upon roleplaying and the skill actions available to all characters. When the stakes of an interaction are clearly high and you want to encourage the whole party to stay engaged, it’s a good time to break the roleplaying down into slightly more structured format referred to here as a social encounter. Generally, it’s time to transition to an encounter once it becomes clear someone wants something that is not feasible with a single skill check or the stakes are high enough or uncertain enough to justify more game time on this challenge.

Pacing a Social Encounter

You can break a social encounter down into rounds for the purpose of making sure all the players have a fair chance to act and reducing the risk and consequences of one character doing most of the talking. These rounds do not have to be as short as combat rounds. It usually makes more sense to use minutes instead, since that is the length of time necessary for many of the appropriate social actions such as demanding cooperation or making an impression. In a social encounter with longer rounds, actions that produce an effect with a duration of less than the length of a social round should usually count as lasting until the end of the next social round, provided that the character increases the length of time to take the action to one social round.

Starting Attitude

A social encounter typically begins with determining the impression the characters make on the NPC they hope to influence.

A character can spend their first action making a favorable impression, which often makes the encounter go smoother. Note a good impression does not substitute for making their case or further skill checks. In most cases it’s merely a general liking—perhaps the NPC sympathizes with them or finds them entertaining. A character might use Diplomacy or Intimidate. If the character values another skill (most often Acrobatics, Perform, or Sleight of Hand), an impressive display of that skill can also improve their attitude instead of merely giving the impressed condition.

Social Initiative

Since tactical timing is not important, you do not always have to track initiative. Instead, the characters present can speak and act in whatever order suits the flow of the conversation. The rounds primarily serve to ensure all characters get to act before the next round begins. If an action will be finished on the current round after starting on a previous round, that character can finish their action before any other character gets to act.

If multiple characters rush to speak simultaneously on a round, roll initiative just for the competing characters using Charisma instead of Dexterity. Roll again each round that the order is not clear.

Only one character in each party to the conversation can get enough attention to attempt a skill check that takes at least half the length of the social round and influences the choices or opinions of the other party (such as most uses of Diplomacy, Knowledge or Lore to convey an implausible truth, or Intimidate to demand cooperation). Other characters can still speak and take actions that do not require focused attention from the audience. For convenience, a list of all common social skill actions follows this section.

The GM should bear in mind the story of the encounter and not allow more actions that can reasonably be accomplished each round.

NPC Turns

Each turn that the NPC has, they respond to the PCs or attempt to accomplish their own goal in the encounter. They might respond with any of the skill actions available to all characters, but they usually choose one of the NPC social actions. If they are bored or frustrated, their attitude generally worsens by one step.

Time Limits

Social encounters usually have a limiting factor keeping the party from retrying social skill checks repeatedly. Often this is an external time limit. For example, the party might have to fit their arguments into a hard-to-get appointment time or tightly scheduled formal introduction at a noble court, or they might only have access to someone they want to influence at a social function with a limited duration. They might be in a place they are not supposed to be (perhaps disguised in a villain’s lair or having stealthily infiltrated a prison) and every round the conversation lasts risks them being discovered. An unfriendly or hostile NPC might try to force an end to the encounter by trying to inflict conditions on the PCs that prevent them from contributing, such as dumbfounded, frightened, or enraged. The time limit can also be more casual, such as the NPC’s attitude. Finally, the time limit can be a physical circumstance, such as an approaching storm that will force the PCs and their audience to end an outdoor event when it arrives.

An NPC usually will not continue a prolonged conversation with someone they do not like if they have nothing to gain from it, and the party can worsen the NPC’s attitude by dragging things out without keeping the NPC interested or entertained. A bored NPC’s attitude temporarily worsens by one step every round that PCs do not successfully do something to keep the NPC engaged such as impressing them, successfully invoking one of their motivations, or making a good impression. Of course, offensive or patronizing actions and words can also inspire an NPC to quit the conversation.

If time runs out (and the party cannot think of something very clever to prolong the opportunity), the encounter ends in a failure and the game should leave social encounter timing. Danger such as combat can also end the encounter but might lead to new opportunities to accomplish the party’s goals or earn XP.

Social Encounter Skill Check Modifiers

A character can get a bonus or automatically succeed by saying or doing things that are especially apt. The following are optional guidelines for players that the GM should use or adjust to suit each social encounter.

Appeal to the Target’s Interests

If you have a choice of skill to use, different skills might grant a bonus or lower the DC depending on how the target perceives your attempt. For example, you might get a +4 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy to request that a target agree to trade motivations with you if the target is lonely and looking for a friend like you. Most NPCs have at least one Profession, Lore, or Knowledge skill that is especially appropriate for interacting with them due to their interests and goals and the DC to do so is reduced by 2 to 5.

Contradictory and Repetitive Arguments

If you make a point that contradicts another point of your side’s argument, you receive a –5 penalty on your check. Failed checks can often be retried, but you must frame the argument differently for each skill check you attempt or it will be dismissed out of hand. Even a differently phrased attempt to retry the same check using the same skill takes a cumulative –3 penalty for each previous time you attempted to make that argument to that audience. (Another character who attempts the check does not take your accumulated penalty but must still frame the argument differently.)

Fresh Voice

If a social encounter has gone on for at least 1 minute and you haven’t attempted a language-dependent skill check for the current encounter yet (including aiding another’s check) and use a skill no one else has failed a check with yet, the DC is 4 lower for you.

Persuasive Wording

Making a clearly persuasive argument earns at least a +2 circumstance bonus. If the logic is especially good or appeals to the target’s biases, the bonus can be increased, up to +10. An irrefutable argument can even automatically succeed if the target is thinking clearly. Generally, the bonus is a cumulative +2 per relevant point in your argument, up to +10. The most common way to automatically succeed is to clearly demonstrate how a request satisfies the target’s motivation (a minor one for a request with a small cost, or a major one for a request with a large cost). Relying on a minor motivation is not enough to justify a life-changing cost or risk.

Uncommon Skill Use

Some actions that make sense do not have specific rules associated with them, in which case the GM might call for you to make a skill check. This is most appropriate for important, risky parts of a conversation that do not reflect usual social skill uses. A check for a part of a conversation might use a skill other than a traditional social skill, but should usually rely on a skill that has a mental key ability modifier. You can suggest a skill but the GM has the final call on whether that skill is useful for that purpose and what the DC is if so.

NPC Responses

NPCs should not generally be passive recipients of social actions. Instead, they should generally react to things the party does and the actions of other NPCs.

They respond to talking points, make points of their own, express their own feelings, and seek to further their own goals and other motivations. They often make use of NPC skill actions (much as only NPCs can be subject to some common Diplomacy or Intimidate uses to alter their attitude and behavior, only PCs can be subject to NPC skill actions).

Below are some suggested reactions NPCs might have to PC overtures. They always make the full use of any motivations they have managed to learn to lower the DC of their actions and access more powerful options.

Bully

The NPC attempts to push the PCs to take some specific action. The NPC makes an Intimidate check against a PC over the course of 1 minute or one social round. On a successful check, the PC becomes angry or shaken for 1 hour. The condition’s effects are suppressed while the PC carries out the NPC’s demand. If already shaken, the character becomes staggered while shaken.

Counteroffer

After the party makes a successful request, the NPC uses Diplomacy to make a counteroffer (page 43) to ask for a commensurate favor, such as gathering information, turning over a minor magic or mundane item, or delivering a message.

Doubt

When the party makes a costly request or otherwise asks the NPC to take on a major risk, the NPC demands the party prove that they can and fully intend to carry out their side of the deal. This is especially important if the NPC is accepting a cost or risk for the sake of one of their motivations rather than getting fairly compensated. The party can assuage their doubts by successfully claiming an implausible truth using Bluff, Knowledge, Lore or by providing detailed proof of the relevant capability or intentions.

Express Impatience

This action is used when the NPC is free to go, is in a place where they are holding court (informally or officially), or otherwise is at liberty to dismiss the party or leave. When the party fails any skill check that round to influence the NPC, the NPC chides them for wasting everyone’s time and insists they give a reason for the interaction to continue.

A minor bribe or gift (5% wealth of NPC’s level), a successful Diplomacy or Intimidate check to improve attitude, or any check that gives the NPC an emotion condition prevents them from departing due to impatience (although the emotion condition itself might make them leave, depending on the emotion and their personality). Entertaining the NPC can also convince them to stick around if it’s suitable to the setting or the NPC values the form of entertainment used.

Insult

An NPC that feels trapped, who has a strong bias against the party, or who has a personal vendetta against the party might use the Intimidate skill to upset the party in hopes of ending the interaction or driving the PC to act recklessly.

Perplex

The NPC uses Knowledge to perplex the party, perhaps to assert their intelligence or high social standing.

Shock

If they already knew a character’s motivation, the NPC uses Bluff to make a troubling claim about it, hoping to suss out valuable intelligence or simply enjoying the distress of other characters.

Threaten

An NPC that foresees some risk of combat in the future (even if not soon), who sees the party as a threat to their motivations, who holds power through fear, or who has a personal vendetta against the party might use the Intimidate skill to upset the party in hopes of ending the interaction or discouraging conflict.

Simple Social Encounters

Simple social encounters are like easy combats. The following can typically be accomplished in a simple social encounter:

  • Get moderately costly or complex help from an NPC. You can quickly convince someone to do reasonably difficult things if you can tie the desired action into one of the target’s motivations without going directly against any other motivations. A costly request requires learning or knowing the NPC’s motivation and invoking it while making a request.
  • Change an NPC’s minor motivations with Diplomacy by tying the change to other motivations.
  • Use Knowledge or Bluff to change an NPC’s beliefs about the world that shape the NPC’s smaller important choices.
  • Indefinitely improve an NPC’s attitude by one step using Diplomacy if they are currently unfriendly or indifferent. This usually requires not just knowing the NPC’s motivation, but doing something to further it (see also Gifts on page 345).
  • Settle a simple argument between NPCs with moderate stakes by siding with one and convincing the other to give in, perhaps as an easy verbal duel (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue)
  • Carry out a short but multi-step deception, such as a brief in-and-out infiltration or a swindle. An infiltration can use rules from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue. Swindles generally require approaching someone socially in a manner that makes them friendlier than they would normally be using Bluff and/or Disguise. If characters neglect to hide their true identities, a swindled character is liable to seek legal recourse and/or revenge.
  • Secure a contact above rank 1 (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign) by convincing them that you are trustworthy. You must improve their attitude to at least friendly and make a costly request.
  • Get a benefit from faction membership or organizational influence beyond what you can afford with your fame, prestige, or sway but not far beyond your usual privileges (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue). This is a costly request that requires furthering the motivations of either a specific powerful member of the faction or a goal of the faction itself.
  • Convince a besieged enemy to surrender when they are at a clear disadvantage.
  • Convince a council to perform an official action that is neither popular nor controversial.
  • Recruiting mercenaries for a risky venture.
  • Tricking a creature into revealing a secret that seems relatively unimportant to them.
  • Interrogate a captured enemy for information when they are loyal to a higher enemy; this usually requires invoking a motivation that they care about at least as much as the ideal or relationship that makes them loyal.

Complex Social Encounters

Complex social encounters are like difficult combats: they demand significant attention from the players, feature some potential for lost opportunities or other costs, and should generally earn roleplaying XP similar to a combat encounter. They might earn the party treasure or other benefits. Ultimately succeeding often requires learning and acting on one of the target’s motivations, although persistent effort might occasionally work around this requirement. The following challenges should typically call for several skill checks.

  • Get costly or complex help from an NPC. Complex encounters often require addressing conflicts with at least one of their motivations. Some potentially disastrous actions, especially self-destructive ones, demand satisfying a motivation the NPC cares about more than anything else (which is impossible for many NPCs in many situations).
  • Indefinitely improve an NPC’s attitude by two steps if they are currently unfriendly or indifferent, or indefinitely improve an NPC’s attitude by one step even if they are hostile or friendly. In addition to Diplomacy, the party must use a skill that the NPC values, and satisfy a minor motivation or advance a major motivation.
  • Change an NPC’s major motivation or important belief about the world that shapes their choices. This generally requires an emotionally intense situation to prove a point, such as undermining a relationship by proving it is not as reciprocal as previously thought. Bluff and Diplomacy are likely required.
  • Settle a substantial argument between NPCs that is nuanced or high-stakes, as a challenging verbal duel (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue).
  • Any of the encounters that would be simple if not for a third party interested in thwarting the PCs. The intervening NPC likely has disruptive responses and might try to remove PCs from the encounter with emotions like frightened, enraged, or dumbfounded. They might work to spread rumors or use Diplomacy to lower the attitudes of other characters toward the party.
  • Complete a prolonged individual influence encounter using a higher APL (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Intrigue). The character must know and invoke an NPC’s motivation to gain the maximum amount of sway with them.
  • Convince a council to perform an official action that is highly controversial. This usually requires arguing both the merits of the action and dismissing at least three objections on various grounds such as procedure, competing use of resources, or risks to the community. Bluff, Diplomacy, Linguistics, or relevant Knowledge, Profession (such as barrister), or Lore are suitable skills to address these.

Universal Social Skill Actions

The following actions might be useful in a social encounter depending on the participants and their goals. Most are skill uses from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. Skill uses included in this book are marked with an asterisk (*) and found in Using Spheres of Guile.

Minute Social Actions

Skill Action
Any Aid another minute action
Any Assess proficiency* (same skill)
Appraise Assess proficiency* (any skill, warrior’s base attack bonus, spellcaster’s caster level)
Artistry (philosophy)PU Claim implausible truth with detailed context*
Bluff Evade a question*
Diplomacy Costly request*, Improve attitude, Influence attitude toward another*
Handle Animal Improve animal’s attitude*
Intimidate Demand cooperation
Knowledge (any) or LorePU (any) Claim implausible truth on relevant topic*, Assess proficiency for practical applications of the knowledge or attributes of relevant creatures
Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, history, local, nature, nobility, planes, religion), LorePU (any relevant), or Profession (barrister) Appeal to relevant precedent*
Knowledge (arcana) Assess proficiency for Spellcraft
Knowledge (local or nobility) Assess proficiency for Bluff, Diplomacy, or Sense Motive
Linguistics Convey short message without sharing a language, assess proficiency for Diplomacy
Perform (any) Entertain* (dispirit, encourage, relax, spook)
Perform (keyboard, percussion, sing, string, wind) Entertain* (improve focus)
Perform (oratory) Entertain* (lie or claim implausible truth as the Bluff skill)
Perform (percussion) Entertain* (demoralize as Intimidate)
Perform (act, comedy, or oratory) Entertain* (influence attitude as Diplomacy)
Sense Motive or Artistry (playwriting)PU or Profession (courtesan) Get a hunch
Sense Motive or Artistry (literature)PU or Profession (courtesan) Actively sense emotions*
Sense Motive or Profession (courtesan) Assess a social hierarchy
Sense Motive Assess proficiency for Perception, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Will save*, Sense goal*
Sleight of Hand Take an action subtly* if normally from a standard action up to 5 rounds

Round Social Actions

Skill Action
Any skill Aid another round action
Acrobatics, Perform (any), Sleight of Hand, or any relevant skill Impressive display of skill*
Appraise or any relevant Craft or Profession skill Evaluate item, service*, bribe*, creature’s prowess*
Bluff Create a diversion*
Bluff or Perform (act) Claim implausible truthUI, Lie
Craft (painting or sculpture) Visually examine creature or object*
Diplomacy Counteroffer*, Ordinary request
Handle Animal Push an animal
Intimidate (–10 penalty) Demand cooperation
Intimidate Demoralize, Imposing display*, Insult*
Knowledge (any) or LorePU (any) Perplex with relevant information*, Practical advice on relevant topic*
Linguistics Convey simple concept without sharing a language*
Linguistics, Craft (calligraphy), or Profession (clerk) Check 1 page for forgery
Perform (any) Entertain*
Perform (keyboard, percussion, sing, string, wind) Improve focus*
Perform (wind) Distract an animal, vermin, or low-Intelligence magical beast
Profession (clerk) Request from officials
Sleight of Hand Hide a smaller creature* or object on your person, Lift (or plant*) an object, Take an action subtly* if normally a move action or less

Move Social Actions

Skill Action
Craft (painting or sculpture) Visually examine creature or object*
Craft (shoes) Recognize footwear from tracks*
Handle Animal Push an animal companion or command another animal
Perception or relevant Craft skill Active examination
Perception or Survival Reconstruct event*
Perform (keyboard, percussion, string, wind) Accompany* Perform
Perform (keyboard or string) Accompany* Diplomacy
Perform (keyboard or percussion) Accompany* Intimidate
Perform (string) Accompany* Bluff
Perform (wind) Accompany* your Handle Animal, Accompany* another’s Diplomacy
Sleight of Hand (–20 penalty) Hide a smaller creature* or object on your person, Lift (or plant*) an object

Free Social Actions

The following do not cost an action or are part of another action.
Skill Action
Appraise or relevant Craft or Profession (–10 penalty) Evaluate item, service*, bribe*, creature’s prowess*
Artistry (philosophy)PU Infer from detailed context*
Bluff Pass a brief secret message
Bluff, Perform (act or comedy), or Profession (gambler) Mislead an opponent’s skill check
Craft (armor, clothing, jewelry, or leather) Halve the CMD bonus or skill check penalty for the item being worn as you steal or lift it
Disguise or Perform (act) Disguise your voiceUI or mannerisms*
Intimidate Bluster back when Intimidated*, Mislead assess proficiency skill check to overestimate you*
Any relevant Knowledge, LorePU, or Profession Recall information
Any relevant Knowledge or LorePU Infer information from context*
Linguistics Deniably phrase a Bluff or Intimidate check before you roll so that the target does not react to a failed check*
Perception
Perform (act, oratory, or sing) Project voice*
Sense Motive Reactively oppose another skill
Sense Motive or Artistry (literature)PU or Profession (courtesan) Reactively sense emotions*
Sleight of Hand (–10 penalty) Take a subtle action* as quickly as an overt one
Spellcraft Whisper verbal spell component*
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