House Rules: Skills - Diplomacy

< House Rules: Skills

You can use this skill to persuade others to agree with your arguments, to resolve differences, and to gather valuable information or rumors from people. This skill is also used to negotiate conflicts by using the proper etiquette and manners suitable to the problem.

Uses


Gather Information (Novice)

You can use Diplomacy to gather information about a specific topic or individual. To do this, you must spend at least 1d4 hours canvassing people at local taverns, markets, and gathering places. The DC of this check depends on the obscurity of the information sought, but for most commonly known facts or rumors it is 10. For obscure or secret knowledge, the DC might increase to 20 or higher. The GM might rule that some topics are simply unknown to common folk.

Action: Using Diplomacy to gather information takes 1d4 hours of work, searching for rumors and informants.

Retry? Yes. You can retry Diplomacy checks made to gather information.

Proficiency:

  • Expert: The time required gather information is halved.
  • Master: You can gather information in 10 minutes by taking a –5 penalty.
  • Legendary: You can gather information in 1d4 minutes with no penalty.

Personal Interactions (Novice)

You can use this skill to persuade others to agree with your arguments, to resolve differences, and to gather valuable information or rumors from people. This skill is also used to negotiate conflicts by using the proper etiquette and manners suitable to the problem. See Personal Interactions to see what modifiers to add to your check and the DC.

You cannot use Diplomacy against a creature that does not understand you or has an Intelligence of 3 or less.

Adjust Relationship
You can spend time with the subject and get to know one another to improve your relationship with them. You may need to make a successful Diplomacy check to request the subject to spend time with you. You must spend 1d4 hours in direct communication with the subject within 24 hours (these hours need not be consecutive). At the end of that time, make your Diplomacy check as if you were making a request. If you succeed, you improve your relationship by one step. If you fail by 4 or less, then your relationship remains unchanged. If you fail by 5 or more, then your relationship worsens by one step, and the subject is unwilling to spend any more time with you in the future without you succeeding a Diplomacy check to Propose spending time together. Relationship changes persist until changed by outside actions.

Adjust Attitude
You can temporarily change the subject's attitude towards you in the short-term. You must spend 1 minutes in direct communication with the subject within 24 hours. At the end of that time, make your Diplomacy check. If you succeed, the subject's attitude towards you improves by one step. For every 5 by which your check result exceeds the DC, the character’s attitude toward you increases by one additional step. A creature’s attitude cannot be shifted more than two steps up in this way, although the GM can override this rule in some situations. If you fail the check by 4 or less, the character’s attitude toward you is unchanged. If you fail by 5 or more, the character’s attitude toward you is decreased by one step.

Any attitude shift caused through Diplomacy generally lasts for 1 day but can last much longer or shorter depending upon the situation (GM discretion). After this duration, the subject's attitude returns to its original level.

Improve Trust
Once per month, you can attempt to improve the trust score between you and the subject by having a positive or profound interaction with him. If successful, your Trust score increases by 1 if the interaction was positive, or by 3 if it was profound. You do not necessarily need to make the Diplomacy check after a positive action right away, and may choose to wait to see if you have a profound interaction with the target within the month of your last check.

Shift Alignment
By spending one hour a with the subject to speak about your personal philosophy and ideals, you can gradually shift his alignment to match yours. To do so, your relationship with the subject must be Friend or Intimate, and his current attitude must be Friendly or Helpful. As long as you maintain that relationship and attitude with the subject, you can spend at least one hour with him per day trying to convince him of your ideals and philosophy. After seven days of doing this, you then make a Diplomacy check against the subject's DC; these days need not be consecutive, but you must add an additional day of interaction for each week that passes between each interaction. Continue doing so until you succeed at the check seven times in a row, at which point the subject's alignment shifts one step closer to your own; you may choose along which axis the shift occurs.

Normally, there is no risk associated with shifting the subject's alignment. However, the risk becomes considerable if the alignment shift results in the loss of class abilities. The DC also increases by 2 for every step the subject's alignment is away from yours. Outsiders with an alignment subtype are normally immune from having their alignment shifted in this way. However, non-mythic Outsiders with an alignment subtype can have their alignment shifted if you have legendary proficiency in Diplomacy or have the Mythic Voice of the Sibyl feat and spend a mythic power each day of interaction; however the risk becomes great, and the DC increases by 5 for each step difference instead of 2.

Negotiate
You can make a proposal or a request to a subject with your words; a Diplomacy check can then persuade them that accepting it is a good idea. Either side of the deal may involve physical goods, money, services, promises, or abstract concepts like "satisfaction."

Action:

  • Adjust Relationship: You must spend at least 1d4 hours in direct communication with the subject within 24 hours.
  • Adjust Attitude: You must spend at least 1 minute in direct communication with the subject within 24 hours.
  • Improve Trust: Varies depending on the interaction taken with the subject.
  • Shift Alignment: At least one hour per day in direct communication with the subject withing 24 hours.
  • Negotiate: Making a request or proposing a deal generally requires at least 3 acts. In many situations, this time requirement may greatly increase.

Retry?

  • Adjusting Relationship: You must wait 24 hours before attempting to spend time with the subject again. If you failed by 5 or more on your previous attempt, you must make a Diplomacy check to make a request to get the subject to accept spending time with you again.
  • Adjusting Attitude: You cannot use Diplomacy to adjust a creature’s attitude more than once in a 24 hour period.
  • Improve Trust: You must wait 1 month before attempting another Diplomacy check after a positive or profound interaction.
  • Shift Alignment: You must spend another seven days of one hour interaction with the subject before making another check.
  • Negotiate: If you alter the parameters of the deal you are proposing, you may try to convince the subject that this new deal is even better than the last one. This is essentially how people haggle. As long as you never roll 10 or less than the DC on your Diplomacy check, you can continue to offer deals. If a request is refused, the result does not change with additional checks, although other requests might be made.

Proficiency:

  • Expert: The time required to adjust a creature’s attitude and relationship is halved.
  • Master: You can attempt to negotiate with 2 acts with no penalty. If you take 1 minute to adjust the subject’s attitude, the duration of the resulting change last a week instead of a day.
  • Legendary: You can attempt to adjust the subject’s attitude in 3 acts with no penalty. If you take 1 minute to adjust the subject’s attitude, the duration of the resulting change last a month instead of a day. You can attempt to shift the alignment of an Outsider with an alignment subtype.

Modifiers


Feat—If you have the Persuasive feat, you gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks. If you have 10 or more ranks in Diplomacy, the bonus increases to +4.
Feat—If you have the Voice of the Sybil feat, you gain a +1 bonus on Diplomacy checks. If you have 10 or more ranks in Diplomacy, the bonus increases to +3.
Feat—If you have the Mythic Voice of the Sybil feat, you gain a +1 bonus per 3 tiers on Diplomacy checks.

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