Deception (Cha)
You know how to tell a lie and how to disguise your appearance.
Bluff Check: Deception is an opposed skill check against your opponent’s Sense Motive skill. If you use Deception to fool someone, with a successful check you convince your opponent that what you are saying is true. Deception checks are modified depending upon the believability of the lie. The following modifiers are applied to the roll of the creature attempting to tell the lie. Note that some lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince anyone that they are true (subject to GM discretion).
Circumstances | Check Modifier |
---|---|
The target wants to believe you | +5 |
The lie is believable | +0 |
The lie is unlikely | –5 |
The lie is far-fetched | –10 |
The lie is impossible | –20 |
The target is drunk or impaired | +5 |
You possess convincing proof up to | +10 |
Feint Check: You can use Deception to feint in combat, causing your opponent to be denied his Dexterity bonus to his AC against your next attack. The DC of this check is equal to the target’s CMD. For more information on feinting in combat, see Combat.
Secret Messages Check: You can use Deception to pass hidden messages along to another character without others understanding your true meaning by using innuendo to cloak your actual message. The DC of this check is 15 for simple messages and 20 for complex messages. If you are successful, the target automatically understands you, assuming you are communicating in a language that it understands. If your check fails by 5 or more, you deliver the wrong message. Other creatures that receive the message can decipher it by succeeding at an opposed Sense Motive check against your Deception result.
Disguise Check: Your Deception check result determines how good the disguise is, and it is opposed by others’ Perception check results. If you don’t draw any attention to yourself, others do not get to make Perception checks. If you come to the attention of people who are suspicious (such as a guard who is watching commoners walking through a city gate), it can be assumed that such observers are taking 10 on their Perception checks.
You get only one Deception check per use of the skill, even if several people make Perception checks against it. The Deception check is made secretly, so that you can’t be sure how good the result is.
The effectiveness of your disguise depends on how much you’re changing your appearance. Deception can be used to make yourself appear like a creature that is one size category larger or smaller than your actual size. This does not change your actual size or reach, should you enter combat while wearing such a disguise.
Disguise | Check Modifier |
---|---|
Minor details only | +5 |
Disguised as different gender1 | –2 |
Disguised as different race1 | –2 |
Disguised as different age category1 | –22 |
Disguised as different size category1 | –10 |
1 These modifiers are cumulative; use all that apply.
2 Per step of difference between your actual age category and your disguised age category. The steps are: young (younger than adulthood), adulthood, middle age, old, and venerable.
Familiarity | Viewer’s Perception Check Bonus |
---|---|
Recognizes on sight | +4 |
Friends or associates | +6 |
Close friends | +8 |
Intimate | +10 |
If you are impersonating a particular individual, those who know what that person looks like get a bonus on their Perception checks according to the table below. Furthermore, they are automatically considered to be suspicious of you, so opposed checks are always called for.
An individual makes a Perception check to see through your disguise immediately upon meeting you and again every hour thereafter. If you casually meet a large number of different creatures, each for a short time, check once per day or hour, using an average Perception modifier for the group.
Action: Attempting to deceive someone takes at least 1 round, but can possibly take longer if the lie is elaborate (as determined by the GM on a case-by-case basis).
Feinting in combat is a standard action.
Using Bluff to deliver a secret message takes twice as long as the message would otherwise take to relay.
Creating a disguise requires 1d3 × 10 minutes of work. Using magic (such as the disguise self spell) reduces this action to the time required to cast the spell or trigger the effect.
Try Again: If you fail to deceive someone, further attempts to deceive them are at a –10 penalty and may be impossible (GM discretion).
You can attempt to feint against someone again if you fail. Secret messages can be relayed again if the first attempt fails.
You may try to redo a failed disguise, but once others know that a disguise was attempted, they’ll be more suspicious.
Deception: Hide in Crowds
By assuming a generic appearance, one that fits with a crowd of people, a character can use the Deception skill as if it was Stealth as long as he is a place where the assumed disguise would be ubiquitous. This works even to pass security checkpoints, as long as people of the disguise’s general description would be allowed through. All normal Deception modifiers apply.