You know how to tell a lie.
Check: Bluff is an opposed skill check against your opponent’s Sense Motive skill.
Table: Bluff Modifiers
| Circumstances | Bluff 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 |
| Fast-Talk | –10 |
| Feign Injury | –2 per step |
| Quick Secret Message | –10 |
Uses
Convey Secret Message (Skilled)
You can use Bluff to pass hidden messages to another character without others understanding your true meaning. 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 speaking in a language that it understands. If your check fails by 5 or more, you deliver the wrong message. Other creatures that hear the message can decipher the message by succeeding at an opposed Sense Motive check against your Bluff result.
Action: Delivering a secret message generally takes twice as long as the message would otherwise take to relay.
Retry? Yes. Secret messages can be relayed again if the first attempt fails.
Deceive or Lie (Novice)
If you use Bluff to fool someone, with a successful check you convince your opponent that what you are saying is true. Bluff 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).
Retry? If you fail to deceive someone, any further checks made to deceive them are made at a –10 penalty and may be impossible (GM discretion).
Proficiency:
- Expert: The penalty to Bluff a creature after a failed check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: You take no penalty to Bluff a creature after a failed check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Fast-Talk (Skilled)
You can attempt to tell a lie to a target so quickly that it goes unquestioned. Doing so requires half the normal time to convince the target, to a minimum of 2 acts, but in doing so you take a –10 penalty on your Bluff check.
Retry? If you fail to deceive someone, any further checks made to deceive them are made at a –10 penalty and may be impossible (GM discretion).
Proficiency:
- Expert: The penalty to Bluff a creature after a failed check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: You take no penalty to Bluff a creature after a failed check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Feign Harmlessness (Novice)
It’s often useful to attempt to convince your enemies you are no threat to them.
Check: You attempt to use Bluff to convince your target you are harmless through your actions and posture, opposed by a Sense Motive check. If you are at least one size category smaller than your target and have taken no effective offensive actions that your target has seen, you gain a +5 circumstance bonus on this check. Even if you have proven yourself capable of dealing damage, an effort to present your previous success as a one-time fluke takes only a –10 penalty on the check.
Action: Taking steps to appear harmless requires a full action, though a GM may require more involved Bluff attempts to take longer.
Retry? You can attempt to feign harmlessness to the same target again, but each previous failed check grants a cumulative +5 bonus to your target's check. This bonus resets after 1 hour has passed.
Proficiency:
- Expert: Your target's bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: Your target gains no bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Feign Injury (Novice)
Whenever you are dealt damage, you can make a Bluff check as a reaction to convince foes you have been injured to a different extent than you truly have been, opposed by a Sense Motive check. You can appear to be uninjured, mildly injured (with more than half your total hit points remaining), significantly injured (reduced to less than half hit points), disabled (at 0 hit points), dying (at negative hit points), or dead. For each step away from your true condition you pretend to be, you suffer a cumulative –2 penalty on your Bluff check. If you pretend to be dying or dead, you must fall prone accordingly (a free action).
Action: 1 reaction.
Retry? You can attempt to feign injury to the same target again, but each previous failed check grants a cumulative +5 bonus to your target's check. This bonus resets after 1 hour has passed.
Proficiency:
- Expert: Your target's bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: Your target gains no bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Feint in Combat (Novice)
You can also use Bluff 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 10 + your opponent’s base attack bonus + your opponent’s Wisdom modifier. If your opponent is trained in Sense Motive, the DC is instead equal to 10 + your opponent’s Sense Motive bonus, if higher. For more information on feinting in combat, see Combat.
Action: Feinting in combat is a standard action.
Retry? Yes. You can attempt to feint against someone again if you fail.
Proficiency:
- Expert: Your target's bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: Your target gains no bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Fool Magic (Master)
Creatures magically attempting to read your thoughts, detect your alignment, or reveal when you are lying must attempt a caster level check (DC = 11 + your ranks in Bluff ) or the effect reveals nothing.
Intoxicating Flattery (Expert)
You can flatter a creature in a protracted interaction (taking at least 1 minute) to bestow in them an inflated sense of self worth that muddles their judgment. At the end of the tirade of flattery, attempt a Bluff check against a DC equal to 10 + the creature’s HD + the creature’s Wisdom modifier or equal to 10 + the creature’s Sense Motive modifier, whichever is higher. If you succeed, the target takes a –2 penalty on Will saving throws, Wisdom-based skill checks, and Wisdom ability checks for 1 hour; the penalty increases by 2 for every 5 by which your result exceeds the DC. The target can remove the effect early by taking 10 minutes to compose herself. If you fail this check, any creature who witnesses the failure is immune to your flattery from this feat for 24 hours. If you fail by 5 or more, the target’s attitude toward you decreases by 1 step and her trust score decreases by 5.
- Master: The duration of the penalty increases to 1 day, and the target must spend 1 hour to compose herself.
- Legendary: The duration of the penalty increases to 1 week, and the target must spend 1 day to compose herself.
Perform Inconspicuous Action (Skilled)
You can avoid drawing attention to yourself when performing conspicuous actions such as picking up an object in a museum where handling the exhibits is frowned upon but not a matter of grave concern, or closely studying someone across a room at a party.
Check: Your Bluff check is opposed by observers’ Sense Motive checks. You can’t attempt the check if your very presence is suspicious (which you could prevent by altering your appearance with the Disguise skill).
Action: You attempt the Bluff check as part of performing the action you wish to render inconspicuous. Normally, you must take twice as long as normal to perform the action in order to make it inconspicuous. Double the number of acts required to perform your action.
Retry? You can attempt to perform another inconspicous action the same observers again, but each previous failed check grants a cumulative +5 bonus to your observers' check. This bonus resets after 1 hour has passed.
Proficiency:
- Expert: Your target's bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: Your target gains no bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Quick Secret Message (Skilled)
You can attempt to deliver a secret message in no more time than it would normally take to deliver openly, but you take a –10 penalty on your Bluff check for doing so.
Proficiency:
- Expert: The penalty to Bluff is halved.
- Master: You take no penalty to Bluff to deliver a quick message.
Suggest Course of Action (Skilled)
You can use Bluff and Diplomacy together to make a request of a creature, without it even realizing you have made the request.
Check: You can gradually coax a target into thinking a suggestion is entirely its own idea, making the creature more likely to act on the idea than if you had suggested it outright. You discuss topics subtly relevant to the request, asking leading questions and narrowing the scope of the conversation so that the target eventually decides to take a specific action you have led it to.
You first attempt a Bluff check to convince the target that your request was actually its idea, opposed by the target's Sense Motive check. This is always treated as far-fetched circumstances, resulting in a –10 penalty on the check. If successful, you then attempt a Diplomacy check to make the request of the creature, treating its attitude toward you as indifferent for this single request (regardless of its actual attitude).
Action: Planting the notion and then coaxing a target into suggesting the notion himself each require at least 1 minute of continuous interaction. This can be difficult to arrange with a hostile or unfriendly creature.
Retry? You can attempt to suggest another course of action to the same target again, but each previous failed check grants a cumulative +5 bonus to your target's check. This bonus resets after 1 hour has passed.
Proficiency:
- Expert: Your target's bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check is halved unless you failed by 5 or more.
- Master: Your target gains no bonus to Sense Motive after you failed your check unless you failed by 5 or more.
Suggestion (Legendary)
You can make a suggestion (as the spell, maximum duration 1 hour) to a creature within 30 feet (Will negates, DC = 15 + your Charisma modifier). Whenever the suggested creature is specifically confronted with proof of your manipulation, it receives another saving throw. This is an extraordinary mind-affecting compulsion.
Action: Making a suggestion with Bluff takes a full action.
Retry? A creature that saves against your suggestion is immune to further uses of this effect for 24 hours.
Modifiers
- Familiar—A spellcaster with a snake familiar gains a +3 bonus on Bluff checks.
- Feats—If you have the Deceitful feat, you gain a +2 bonus on Bluff skill checks. If you have 10 or more ranks in Bluff, the bonus increases to +4.