Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Affability

Affability
Affability is a social skill. It allows you to influence how people feel about you, and use their fondness for you to push them a bit farther than they would go for others. Those with exceptional skill in Affability can talk others out of blinding rages or into potentially suicidal actions.

Key Attribute: Charisma

Push an Agreement
Sometimes you can present an agreement or offer that the other party is hesitant to accept. Maybe you have to talk people into going along with a crazy plan or otherwise helping you out when they don’t really want to, or maybe they’re just being indecisive. You can push them a bit and get people to agree when they otherwise might not, just because you’re a nice guy who knows how to talk to people.

Agreements that you push will fall into one of three categories for the target: favorable, tolerable, or repugnant. A favorable agreement is one that the target would accept happily, but has some minor reason not to do so immediately. You may need to push a favorable agreement on a target that is looking for a better deal than the one offered, a target that wants to discuss the agreement with others first, or a target that does not understand why it is in their favor. A step down from an favorable agreement is a tolerable one. These agreements must be something the target would consider agreeing to, even if it’s not something that would make them happy. Most hard-fought real compromises (political and otherwise) fall into this category. A tolerable agreement cannot involve the target knowingly doing something self-destructive, against their nature, or otherwise completely opposed to their values, duties, obligations, or self-interest. Repugnant agreements contain those that are obviously somewhat self-destructive, against the target's nature, or otherwise something that they would strongly object to. These are the sorts of things that people simply don’t agree to unless tricked or pushed. You may not push an agreement that would obviously result in the death of the creature.

You may push an agreement onto one target as a 1-minute action. This time is in addition to whatever time was required to offer the agreement in the first place, which may include quite a bit of back and forth from both sides. Once you have presented an agreement and spent the required time pressing it, you make an Affability check against a DC of 13 + the target’s CR + the target’s Wis modifier + the target’s rapport with you. Their acceptance of and feelings towards the deal are indicated in the check results below, as well as a minimum amount of time that they will abide by the various types of agreements. If you fail to live up to your part of the agreement (if any) and the target learns of your violation, they may also break the agreement regardless of the time that has passed. They may instead try to convince you to comply, depending on their temperament, the nature of the agreement, and the severity of your violation.

If you wish to push the same agreement onto multiple targets, you must spend the 1-minute action and make a check for each of them, even if they're all allied. You make a check against each target individually. Note that if you succeed on pushing an agreement onto a portion of a group, you may still wind up with the whole of the group going along with the agreement. This generally happens when you convince a leader or a majority of the group to accept your agreement. While this can get an agreement in place, it won’t stop unconvinced members from attempting to sabotage or obstruct the agreement if they are sufficiently opposed to it. You will almost always have better results if you offer a better deal or convince more people of the merits of your plan (regardless of its actual merits).

Special: If you propose an agreement or a course of action that the other party accepts without pressing or falsehood, no check is allowed. Because no check is needed. When both parties agree to a deal there is no need to push it and no need for a period of compliance since both parties will want to uphold it anyway. If you discern that a target is lying about their intent to complete an agreement, you may push it normally, of course.

Improve Rapport
You know how to win friends and influence people, and a smile or kind word from you can melt even the coldest heart. With a bit of time, you can get people to like you more than they otherwise would. This is a natural shift in rapport, one that is not magically enforced. If you mistreat or disappoint a person after changing their rapport with you, they are likely to respond more negatively than before. After all, no one likes false friends.

Use of this ability is a 10-minute action, which must be spent in uninterrupted conversation or shared activity with a creature. The activity or conversation can change as the result of outside circumstances, but it must continue for the full 10 minutes or you must start over at a later time. At the end of that time you make an Affability check against a DC of 13 + the target’s CR + the target’s Wis modifier + the target’s negative rapport with you, if any. It is harder to make someone who like you when they already dislike you, but not easier to make them like you more when they already like you. The degree to which you improve your rapport with them is determined by your check result.

If you are attempting to improve your standing with multiple targets, you must spend the required time with each target and check against them individually. r check is compared against each of their individual DCs, affecting those with a lower CR first. If you succeed on getting a portion of the group to like you, however, the rest may accept you more readily even if you do not attempt to gain their favor as well. If you are worried about saying something terrible in front of a well regarded individual, you can instead impress their friends and allow them to speak well of you.

You may not retry this check on a creature during the same encounter, but you may use it on someone multiple times over multiple meetings. If you use this ability on a person who remembers you in a later encounter, their actual rapport modifier is replaced by a +5 DC penalty if it would be worse than their normal rapport modifier. It is difficult to remake a strong impression, after all.

Special: If you spend a lot of time with a creature and get on well with them, no check is allowed. Because no check is needed. Spending a large amount of time with a creature should improve your rapport with them naturally, to whatever maximum makes sense in context. A night carousing or working together harmoniously to complete a project really does make people like each other more, even when they're not good at becoming friends normally. If you discern that they are only faking their growing rapport with you or just not warming up as quickly as you'd like, you may use this ability as normal.

Delay Aggression
Sometimes people try to stab you before you can give them a reason not to. You can delay a hostile creature from attacking you and your allies with just a well turned phrase. Delay is the key word here, as it does not last long and you may not hold an opponent back once the attack has begun.

Use of this ability is a standard action. Make an Affability check. The DC for this check is 13 + the EL of the opposing group + the worst rapport with you in the target group. If any leaders of the group have a morale bonus or penalty to saves or attacks, that is also added to the DC. You affect members of the group based on your check result, as indicated below, starting with those members with the lowest CR first. A creature that has already been attacked by you or your allies, or who has already begun to attack you or your allies, is immune to this ability for the remainder of the encounter. They still count as part of the group for the purposes of determining its EL however, and are affected before any creatures with higher CR.

Affected targets pause their aggression for 2 rounds. Affected targets will not approach within 30 (or approach further if they are already within this distance) or take offensive action on their turn. They may take defensive or support actions, however, including maneuvering for position, healing, buffing, and so on. If you wish to delay them after that point, you must succeed on an additional check on your next turn or give them some other reason not to attack, such that they change their mind on their own. Any obvious attempt at escape as well as any obviously aggressive action by you or your affected allies automatically ends this delay, leaving your attackers free to do as they like.

Push a Group Agreement
You've mastered the technique of getting multiple people to go along with a plan at the same time. When you push an agreement, you can try to push it onto a group rather than an individual. This functions as the Push an Agreement ability, except that the DC instead becomes 13 + the group's EL + the highest Wis modifier of someone with authority in the group + the worst rapport modifier of someone in the group with authority. A successful check binds the entire group to the outcome, and will prevent and unconvinced members from trying to sabotage or obstruct the agreement.

Campaigner
You don't need one on one interraction to convince people that you're a great person, you just need time. When you attempt to Improve Rapport, you can do so with an entire group rather than an individual. This functions as the Improve Rapport ability, except that the DC instead becomes 13 + the group's EL + the highest Wis modifier of someone with authority in the group + the worst negative rapport modifier, if any, of someone in the group with authority. A successful check adjusts your rapport with entire group as indicated in the check results.

Purge Aggression
When people take a moment to reconsider When you successfully delay aggression any creature you affect with a CR less than your CR - 4 cease to desire to fight you at all. They won't stand aside and let you do what you like if they have reason not to, but they will resist fighting with you and may stop others on their team from fighting as well. This is a [Compulsion] effect, and will not affect creatures immune to compulsions.

Push a Suicidal Agreement
Your tongue is so gilded you can make really terrible things sound acceptable sometimes. You may push agreements that would result in serious or harm or death to a creature. These are still considered repugnant agreements. This is a [Compulsion] effect, and any save bonuses that a creature has against compulsions are added to the DC for them to accept the agreement. If they are a member of a group half that you are trying to push the agreement on, the bonus is added to their CR for the purposes of determining what the EL of their group would be.

Voice of Serenity
It really is hard to get or stay mad at you, and your voice can calm even the most chaotic of minds. When you turn on the charm, marshals find it hard to inspire either courage or ire against you and even berserkers find you difficult to hate. You can counter morale, emotion, and confusion effects just by talking.

As a standard action, you can make an Affability check to suppress morale, rage, confusion, fascination, or other emotion effects on other creatures within a radius of 15' plus 5' per two ranks you possess in Affability. Effects that you benefit from or suffer are excluded from this, but otherwise all effects in range are targets of this ability including friendly effects, Each effect has a DC equal to its save DC + its level in the case of spells like Mindless Rage or Bless, or 10 + the effect user’s character level + the effect user’s Cha modifier in the case of class abilities like Rage or Inspire Courage that otherwise have no save. You make only a single check, and compare it to each DC to determine if and how well the ability has been suppressed as shown on the table below.

Call of Serenity
You can direct your calming voice to rather than letting it wash over those nearest you. When you use Voice of Serenity you can affect all creatures in a cone out to 10' per rank in Affability, instead of the normal area.

Purge Enmity
You can build someone up and show them what a great person you are even in the middle of talking them out of the grievous bodily harm they would suffer by fighting you. Creatures with a CR less than your CR - 6 have their rapport shifted positively by one degree, to a maximum of friendly. They don’t necessarily become your ally, but they may try to convince any remaining hostile members of the group to just let you go about your business. This is a [Charm] effect, and will not affect creatures immune to charms.