Subterfuge
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Spheres of Guile
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Operatives of the Subterfuge sphere train to avoid scrutiny and act unsuspected. They are unobtrusive when they need to be, moving with crowds and moving so subtly that their actions are unnoticed even when they are plainly seen. Even when noticed, Subterfuge masters can seem like they belong almost anywhere, drawing no attention even under an enemy’s nose.

Associated Skill: Disguise.

You gain the following benefits when you gain the Subterfuge sphere.

When you gain the Subterfuge sphere, you gain 5 ranks in Disguise, plus 5 ranks per additional talent spent in the Subterfuge sphere (maximum ranks equal to your Hit Dice). If you already have ranks in Disguise, you may immediately retrain them.

Skill Leverage: When you gain the Subterfuge sphere, you unlock skill leverage with the Disguise and Sleight of Hand skills.

You also acquire the Baffling Revelation, Confident Subtlety, and Fast Disguise abilities.

Baffling Revelation (Ex)

You can outwit any creature as long as they are fooled by your current disguise, you possess an item they believed they possessed, or you know a secret they consider important and well-kept. To outwit them using this ability, you must brandish the item they thought they had, you must reveal the secret, or you must reveal yourself to not be who you appear to be. Revealing a secret or your disguised nature can be verbal or visual, as appropriate. Creatures must generally be within 30 feet for you to outwit them verbally, but they can be up to 60 feet away if you reveal your ruse visually. Anyone who discovers you are disguised this way does not necessarily discover who you are. Once an item or secret is used to outwit a creature, that item or secret cannot be used by anyone to outwit that creature again.

Confident Subtlety [approach] (Ex)

Adopting this approach is a swift action. While you maintain this approach, you reduce the penalty to Sleight of Hand checks for attempting to take an action subtly without taking longer by 6 (reducing it to -4).

Fast Disguise (Ex)

You can don a disguise as a full-round action, including using a disguise kit and changing your clothing and accessories. You can don or doff worn magic items and shields this way. If you don a disguise that features delicate details or you attempt to impersonate a specific individual, you take a –5 penalty to your Disguise check if you took less than 1d4+1 rounds. Changing your physical features requires spending 1 use from a disguise kit, but changing your clothes does not. If you have any (disguise) talents, you can apply one as part of creating this disguise. While you wear a disguise you created, the physical reminder of the disguise helps you reflexively act in character, giving you a +2 circumstance bonus on Bluff and Disguise checks as long as they do not conflict with the disguise you wear. For example, you could not use the bonus to attempt a Disguise check to make a voice different from the person you are disguised as. The bonus increases by 1 per 5 ranks in Disguise you possess.

Associated Feat: Deceitful.

Disguise Talent Types

Disguise

Some talents have the (disguise) tag. They are used when donning a disguise using the fast disguise ability. You may only apply the effects of a single (disguise) talent when you don a disguise.

Subterfuge Talents

Adaptable Appearance [utility]

When using a disguise kit or form-altering magic, you reduce the total penalties to Disguise checks attempted to appear as a body type, age category, or condition different from your own by 4 (to a minimum of 0). For every 5 ranks you have in Disguise, this penalty is reduced by an additional 2.

As You Know [approach] [utility]

You can adopt this approach as a swift action. If you have spent at least 8 hours researching a creature and you are now disguised as that creature, you can use your Disguise modifier in place of the appropriate Knowledge modifier when recalling information for someone else to reinforce your current disguise. You can only recall information this way about the creature you appear unless you spend 1 use of skill leverage. When you spend leverage for this approach, you can attempt to recall other information that an interrogator thinks your apparent identity would know with a Knowledge check using your Disguise modifier. You can outwit on this Knowledge check (to get a 13 on the die instead of rolling).

In addition, whenever you succeed at a Diplomacy or Intimidate check to make a request of someone who trusts or defers to you because they are fooled by your disguise (even a disguise you did not research), you can spend 1 use of skill leverage to learn a useful or secret piece of information the target believes you already know. The GM chooses which information to reveal, which must be relevant to your request. For example, the target might reassure you of their commitment to a shared goal, remind you to beware a strategic vulnerability of an ally, confide that a fear is still bothering them, or encourage you to trust in a specific secret asset.

You can take this talent a second time. If you do, it gains the [plan] tag and you can reveal that you researched a creature as a plan. You can research a creature in 30 minutes otherwise.

Busy Hands

You use your fumbling with one hand as a distraction from what your other hand is doing. When you fail a Sleight of Hand check to lift or plant an item, you can attempt another Sleight of Hand check against the same creature as a swift action.

You must use a different hand for the second Sleight of Hand check and you must target a different item. Your second check takes a –10 penalty unless you outwit the target.

Clever Charlatan [plan] [utility]

You can reveal a plan to be a useful item you prepared or stole or a minor secret you learned in disguise. Suitable items include any clothing or equipment for looking the part of a disguise. You can spend one plan to reveal one item of negligible value or piece of information you could have reasonably gained from observing as an ordinary bystander or in a disguise that would not have been studied closely. These might include having a copy of a key you could have stolen from someone in a city street, knowing a password from shadowing a guard talking off-duty, or having a guard uniform stolen from a laundress. If you produce a disguise this way, you can reveal the plan as part of applying it with fast disguise. If you produce any other stolen item, revealing it is a full-round action.

You must attempt a Sleight of Hand check to determine if you successfully took the item you intended. The DC for this check is set by the GM, generally either DC 10 + Perception modifier of the creature you stole from or DC 10 + twice the highest challenge rating among all guardians of the area. If you succeed and the item is a suitable one, you have the item you intended. Unless you succeed by 5 or more, however, the stolen item is discovered to be missing at around the same time you reveal it.

If you also possess the Layered Disguise talent, you can also cleverly plan just the right disguise to hide under your outer disguise. You spend this plan when you apply the layered disguise, cannot regain that plan while you continue to wear the disguise, and do not reveal what the disguise underneath is until your outer disguise is doffed.

Close Sleight

Whenever you successfully move through a creature’s space (including when a creature allows you through because it thinks you are its ally) or succeed at a combat maneuver check to drag, grapple, reposition, or trip a creature, you can attempt a Sleight of Hand check against that target even in combat as a swift action. The attempt fails if they succeed at the opposed Perception check.

Community Contacts [utility]

You know how to blend in among certain circles. When you gain this talent, choose a social status such as peasants, aristocrats, middle-class professionals, or clergy. When you are disguised as a generic person of that social status but are not impersonating a specific individual, your attempts to gather information draw little attention and take the minimum amount of time. Attempts to notice you gathering information in these circumstances take a –8 penalty.

You can spend 1 use of skill leverage to take 10 on a Bluff or Disguise check to assume the role of a generic person of your chosen status even when you are in danger.

You can take this talent multiple times. Each time you do, you choose a different social status.

Costumer [utility]

You can dress an ally with your fast disguise ability. You can apply a different (disguise) talent to each disguise you create. They use their own skill modifiers for actions allowed by the disguise.

Criminal Contacts [utility]

You have connections with criminals or other individuals who prefer to operate unseen. You can sell and buy illegal goods just as easily as legal ones, if you pay 10% more than market price. You can take a 20 on Diplomacy checks to gather information about the existence of and basic information about contacting illegal businesses and criminal organizations and can make such an attempt in 10 minutes. You can also spend 1 use of skill leverage when you attempt a Knowledge (local) or relevant Lore check to get a result if you had rolled a 20 on the die.

Effortless Theft [utility]

You can stow up to two held objects, each with a different hand, as a swift action. You can attempt one Sleight of Hand check either to lift an object or hide an object on your person as part of a move, standard, or full-round action to move, or as part of a standard or longer action to attempt a Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check.

False Sense Of Security [approach]

You can adopt this approach as a swift action to watch for opportunities left open by opponents who underestimate you or are fooled by you. When any opponent fails an active Perception check against your Disguise or Sleight of Hand check, you gain the ability to outwit that opponent as long as you maintain this approach. You can abandon this approach as the cost to outwit that opponent. Once you do, you cannot use this talent against that creature or any other creature in the same encounter for 1 day.

Faster Disguise

You can use fast disguise as a standard action and never take a penalty for creating a disguise quickly. You can change your appearance so fast that creatures might not register your previous appearance. If you use fast disguise during the surprise round, you compare your Disguise check result against a DC for each creature who has not yet acted and was not aware of your presence before the action that caused initiative to be rolled. The DC is 10 + that creature’s Perception modifier. Each creature you succeed against does not notice your previous appearance. If you fail by 5 or less, the creature notices you changing your appearance enough to register that you are now disguised but did not notice enough of your previous appearance to recognize it even if they have seen that appearance before.

Pull One Over

When you fail at a Sleight of Hand check targeting a creature by 5 or less, the creature does not notice your attempt directly but rather just gets a vague sense that something odd is going on. It becomes uncertain until the end of its next turn or until you attack it. You cannot use this talent on the same creature again for 8 hours.

Shocking Betrayal

When you attack a creature who believes you are an ally who has never attacked them, they must attempt a Will saving throw if you outwit them using Baffling Revelation. All of their allies who can see you within 60 feet and also believe you are an ally must also attempt Will saves. Each creature who fails gains the shocked condition for 1 round per rank in Disguise you possess. On a successful save, they are instead uncertain for 1 round.

They can reduce the shocked or uncertain condition by recognizing you as any identity you have used other than your current disguise, by explaining yourself, or by spending a standard action thinking things through and succeeding at a Will save.

You can take this talent a second time if you possess at least 10 ranks in Disguise. Creatures are then dumbfounded until the end of your next turn on a failed save. The target of your shocking attack (but not any other creature) is stunned if they have fewer Hit Dice than the number of ranks in Disguise you possess and fail their saving throw.

Subtle Trick

You do not automatically break Stealth when you attempt a dirty trick combat maneuver (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player’s Guide). Instead, you attempt a Sleight of Hand check and observers notice you if their opposed Perception check exceeds your skill check result.

Creatures who were already in combat realize you are the source of the trick as soon as you complete your action. In addition, a successful check denies the target their Dexterity bonus to CMD against the maneuver.

Unrecognizable Mannerisms [utility]

As a free action or as part of speaking, you can mimic any sound or voice you have heard. No magical or special effects of the sound are produced by your mimicry. Observers get an opposed Perception check to notice your fakery as normal, but you attempt a new Disguise check each time you mimic a different creature or sound. You get a +5 competence bonus on your Disguise check for these sounds; this bonus does not stack with that from polymorph effects or auditory illusions.

As a swift action, you can alter your voice and mannerisms so completely that others might not recognize you even if you are not visually disguised. This allows you to attempt a Disguise check to prevent others from recognizing you even though you have not changed your clothing or face. You cannot pass for someone specific who does not already closely resemble you and you cannot change your (disguise) talent this way.

Disguise Talents

Confusion In The Ranks (disguise)

You are skilled at exploiting the routines and casual interactions within organizations and social groups. You disguise yourself as a generic member of a group (not a specific individual). You can take 10 on Disguise checks even in combat while you can see someone of the appropriate status (such as a guard in a specific place, mercenary of a specific company, or officer of a specific rank in a specific organization).

While you wear the disguise created by this talent, you can always take 10 on Bluff checks to convince people you belong to your apparent group and can attempt such a lie as a move or swift action even in combat. Even if a creature is not fooled by your disguise, if you are disguised as a member of its group or an allied group, you can use your Disguise modifier in place of your Acrobatics modifier to avoid attacks of opportunity from it.

Drab Outfit (disguise) [utility]

You tailor your disguise to blend into an environment without being obviously nefarious in function. Your drab outfit might make you look like a farmer, servant, hunter, beggar, or other person expected to dress in a plain manner. Choose an environment when you create the disguise from the list of ranger’s favored terrain. In that environment, you get a +4 circumstance bonus to your Stealth checks from your camouflage. If anyone uses a skill to assess your proficiency, you can use your Disguise modifier in place of your Bluff modifier to make them underestimate you.

Anyone who observes or interacts with you recalls only a vague impression of the event afterward unless they succeeded at a Perception check against your Disguise check. If you are very distinctive, such as matching the description of a fugitive or if you are the only humanoid in the area, their Perception check is attempted with a +5 bonus. On a failed check, the observer recalls no more detail than your size category and rough body shape (such as humanoid) and the approximate topic of conversation. This disguise has no effect on the memory of anyone who observes you do something alarming such as attacking or stealing. Your disguise imposes a –2 penalty on Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Perform skill checks.

Flashy Outfit (disguise) [utility]

Your disguise is garish or daringly fashionable. While you wear this disguise, other creatures who can see you have a +2 circumstance bonus on saving throws against pattern effects, gaze attacks, and other visual effects that do not originate from you and take a –2 penalty on Perception checks to notice anything other than you. You also gain a +4 circumstance bonus on skill checks to impress someone, create a diversion with Bluff, pose a menace with Intimidate, or entertain. If you create a diversion with Bluff and choose yourself as the object, you can use your Disguise modifier in place of your Bluff modifier and the distraction lasts until the end of your next turn.

Your disguise imposes a –4 penalty on Stealth checks and ensures anyone who sees you remembers you.

Layered Disguise (disguise) [utility]

When you create a disguise, you may simultaneously create and wear a second disguise using the same check. Only one of these disguises shows at a time.

Alternatively, if you use this talent to create only one disguise, you can simultaneously attempt a Sleight of Hand check to conceal an object on your person. When you use this talent to conceal an object on your person, you can use your Disguise modifier in place of your Sleight of Hand modifier.

You can spend 1 use of skill leverage to remove and destroy the outer disguise as a swift or immediate action to reveal the one beneath or to reveal your underlying appearance. You may doff a disguise in response to someone seeing you, in which case you do so a moment before being seen. As a part of the immediate action to doff your current visible disguise, you can retrieve an object hidden on your person or attempt a Sleight of Hand check to conceal an object on your person. The disguise you just doffed is an object you can hide this way. Otherwise, removing the disguise is a move action.

Martial Disguise (disguise)

You appear to be a highly trained warrior. You can use Disguise in place of Intimidate to pose a menace (page 51) or to make an opponent overestimate you with their skill check to assess your proficiency. You easily disguise armor you wear so that it appears to be up to one step heavier with no penalty to your Disguise check by incorporating bits of metal and strategically placed tabards or other obfuscation. You can also disguise weapons you wear or carry as other weapons at no penalty as long as they use the same number of hands.

As a result of your dabbling with whatever armor and weapons a disguise requires, you are good at making do when you are not fully trained with armor or weapons. As part of creating your disguise, you can choose one weapon and one shield or set or armor to incorporate. You reduce any penalty for lack of proficiency with the incorporated weapon to –2, and can choose to apply the penalty to damage rolls instead of to attack rolls. You reduce any penalty you take to attacks due to incorporated armor you are not proficient with by 1.

For every 4 ranks in the associated skill you possess, you can incorporate another weapon.

If you possess at least 6 ranks in Bluff, you can feint with an incorporated weapon as a move action.

If you possess at least 11 ranks and have another way to feint as a move action (such as Improved Feint), you can feint with it as a swift action. This feint cannot be improved with any feat or talent that adds effects or improves the effects of the feint action or triggers swift or free actions when you feint.

Monstrous Disguise (disguise)

You appear to be a dangerous creature, typically a particularly bestial humanoid. You can use animal skins or similar material to disguise light armor or hide armor as natural armor at no penalty. You can use animal claws or similar elements so that you appear to have natural weapons. As part of creating the disguise, you can create the appearance of a natural weapon and can include a number of those fake weapons equal to your number of arms. You can attack with any of them, but they are manufactured weapons and not natural weapons. For every 4 ranks in the associated skill you possess, you can create the appearance of an additional natural weapon.

As part of creating your disguise, you can choose one manufactured weapon to incorporate into each seeming natural weapon, which determines that attack’s proficiency and damage and how many arms you require to make the attack. If you have a natural weapon, you can disguise it to look like a different natural weapon in a similar manner. Disguising a natural or manufactured weapon that cannot deal the same damage type as the natural weapon it appears to be applies a –4 penalty to your Disguise check. You can change which fake natural weapon you are wielding (still limited by your available hands) once per turn as a free action. If you do not incorporate a manufactured or natural weapon into a disguise’s natural attack, it is an improvised weapon that deals 1d4 points of damage of the type of your choice (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing).

If you possess at least 6 ranks in Bluff, you can feint with a fake natural weapon as a move action as long as you do not attack with it on the same turn. You do not have to be wielding it with a hand.

If you possess at least 11 ranks and have another way to feint as a move action, you can feint with it as a swift action as long as you do not attack with it on the same turn. This feint cannot be improved with any feat or talent that adds effects or improves the effects of the feint action or triggers swift or free actions when you feint.

Prestigious Disguise (disguise) [utility]

Your disguise marks you as someone of obvious importance. You seem influential to anyone fooled by your disguise. Your presence in an exclusive location is generally assumed to be justified by NPCs who work or visit there (except by someone who is the only person who can grant or approve such permission). You can make requests of unfriendly creatures while you wear this disguise, although the DC is higher as normal for using Diplomacy on such a target. You can use your Disguise modifier in place of your Intimidate modifier to demand cooperation from people, and their attitude does not worsen until they realize you are disguised or 1 day passes.

Your disguise ensures anyone who sees you remembers you.

Scholarly Disguise (disguise)

You appear to be a knowledgeable scholar or healer priest. As part of creating your disguise, you can choose one kind of alchemical item or one healer’s kit to incorporate. You can draw an incorporated item as part of the action to use it. If you critically hit with an incorporated alchemical weapon, it emits a flash and the target is dazzled until the end of your next turn.

Your confidence can calm and encourage creatures even if it does not allow you to really understand medicine. You can use Disguise in place of Heal with an incorporated healer’s kit to treat a conscious target’s disease or deadly wounds if they have not succeeded at a Perception check against your disguise.

You can spend 1 use of skill leverage to use your Disguise modifier to heal someone who has seen through your disguise. If you use your Disguise modifier to treat a disease, you grant a +2 morale bonus instead of the usual bonus. If you use Disguise to treat deadly wounds, you give the patient temporary hit points instead of healing them; these temporary hit points last for 1 hour per rank in the associated skill you possess but they do not count against the daily limit of treating deadly wounds since you did not actually treat them. Temporary hit points from this talent can't bring a creature above its hit point maximum.

For every 4 ranks in the sphere’s associated skill you possess, you can incorporate another kind of item.

If you possess at least 6 ranks in the associated skill, you can take this talent a second time. Once you do, incorporated alchemical weapons blind instead of dazzling on a critical hit. In addition, you can make a feint attempt as part of throwing an incorporated alchemical weapon. If you succeed, the effect applies to that alchemical weapon attack. A feint you make this way doesn’t trigger any special abilities that add effects when you feint.

Spellcaster Disguise (disguise)

Your disguise incorporates hidden magic items that you can activate while pretending to use your own magic. As part of creating the disguise, you can hide up to 2 carried magic items on your person, attempting a Sleight of Hand check for each one as normal (note many items, such as wands, are small enough to grant a bonus on this check). You can use your Disguise modifier for these Sleight of Hand checks if it is better.

For every 5 ranks in the associated skill you possess, you can incorporate an additional magic item into the disguise. You can activate items incorporated into your spellcaster disguise as if you were holding them in hand and observers cannot tell you did not cast the magic yourself unless they succeed at an opposed Perception or Spellcraft check (using whichever modifier is higher) against your Sleight of Hand result to hide it on your person.

Whenever you successfully activate a magic item that is not incorporated into the disguise, you can attempt a Sleight of Hand check to pretend you cast the spell without the item’s help. Again, observers believe the ruse unless they succeed at an opposed Perception or Spellcraft check (using whichever modifier is higher).

Exceptional Talents

Armor Squirm

Prerequisites: Disguise 5 ranks, Escape Artist 5 ranks, Body Control sphere or Subterfuge sphere (Martial Disguise).

You know how to squirm into or out of armor with uncanny speed, leaving most of it assembled. You can hastily don or doff armor as a move action for light armor, a standard action for medium armor, or a full-round action for heavy armor. You can don or doff any armor as part of using fast disguise.

Burning Ears [utility]

Prerequisites: Associated skill 5 ranks, Subterfuge sphere.

As long as you maintain any approach from the Subterfuge sphere, you get a burning sensation when a creature within sensory range discusses any identity you have used, even if you cannot hear their words (such as if they use telepathy). You get a chill if they discuss your true identity while you are disguised. You know approximately how many creatures are discussing you. This talent does not alert you to creatures you could not perceive even if you rolled a 20 on your Perception check.

Cheat Death [plan]

Prerequisites: Associated skill 7 ranks, Subterfuge sphere.

If you would be reduced below 0 hit points or killed by hit point damage, you may reveal this plan as an immediate action to discreetly use a potion or other item that heals hit points. You can reveal having spent the money to purchase the item as part of revealing the plan. Apply the healing before the damage. If you avoid falling below 0 hit points, you can still appear dead for 1 minute, after which you regain 1 hp and become conscious (unless healed sooner).

A character who succeeds at a Heal check (DC 10 + your Disguise modifier) or who uses an ability such as deathwatch can tell that you are not dead.

Disguise Aura [utility]

Prerequisites: Disguise 10 ranks, Subterfuge sphere.

You can incorporate an aura-influenced object into any disguise and spend 1 use of skill leverage to mask your magical aura. Your skill leverage maximum is reduced by one until you doff this disguise. An aura-influenced object is one currently owned by or that was once part of another creature (such as a hair or tooth). Your disguise must be of the target creature or a generic creature of similar status and creature type to the target creature. Spells and effects dependent on identity, creature type, race, spellcasting ability, or alignment automatically treat you as the target unless used on you by a creature that has recognized you as not whom you appear to be. Magic effects that could find both of you, such as locate creature, scrying, sending, or dream, have an equal chance of finding either of you.

When a spell tries, you become aware of the attempt and can spend 1 use of skill leverage to cause it to find only you. You continue to fool the effect until it stops examining you for at least 1 hour; if it would reveal information about you after that point, it has another chance to find the truth.

Fool Divination [approach] [utility]

Prerequisites: Disguise 10 ranks, Subterfuge sphere.

You adopt this approach as a swift action or as an immediate action when you notice magic is used to learn about your appearance or mental state.

You convince yourself that something false is true completely enough that even magic is fooled. Attempt a Disguise check to fool a divination about your appearance or Bluff to fool a divination about your mind. The DC is 20 + the spell’s caster level.

You can use the immediate action to adopt this approach outside of combat, but you must already be maintaining this approach to use it when you are unaware of the magical attempt. (If it is not clear, the GM can call for a Sense Motive check opposed by the caster’s Bluff check.) You continue to fool the effect until it stops applying to you for at least 1 hour or you abandon this approach; if it resumes after that point, you must attempt a new check.

Impossible Palm [utility] (Su)

Prerequisites: Sleight of Hand 5 ranks, Subterfuge sphere.

You take no penalty to Sleight of Hand checks for palming an item up to the size of your body. When you successfully palm an item, you can spend 1 use of skill leverage to shrink it by one size category until you no longer carry it, you become helpless, or you carry a heavy load. This reduces its weight to one-eighth its original weight and allows you to palm an item up to one size category larger than you are.

For every 5 ranks in Sleight of Hand you possess beyond 5, you can shrink the item by an additional size category (dividing its weight by 8 for each additional size category you shrink it: 1/64 when shrunk two categories, 1/512 when shrunk three categories, or 1/4,096 when shrunk four categories).

Lightning Disguise

Prerequisites: Disguise 7 ranks, Subterfuge sphere (Faster Disguise).

You can use fast disguise as a move action.

Sequester Memories [utility]

Prerequisites: Disguise 5 ranks, Subterfuge sphere.

As part of adopting a Subterfuge sphere approach, you may bury certain information that you know. Anyone attempting to extract buried information on that topic from you must succeed at a Sense Motive check opposed by your Disguise check or fail to discover it. You can still form new memories about the topic while this information is buried. You may dismiss the effects of this talent by changing your approach or by taking a swift action to recuperate your buried memories.

Drawbacks

Deft [alternate start] [utility start]

You use Sleight of Hand (instead of Disguise) as the associated skill for this sphere. You lose the fast disguise ability and cannot gain (disguise) talents; you gain the Effortless Theft talent instead.

Fashionista

You lose the confident subtlety approach and Baffling Revelation ability. You gain a (disguise) talent of your choice instead.

Impressionist

You are adept at mimicking voices and sounds you hear. You lose the confident subtlety approach, and gain the Unrecognizable Mannerisms talent instead.

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