Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Bluff
Contents
Bluff
Key Attribute: Intelligence
The bluff skill is a social skill involving the art of trickery. With it you can convince others of something besides the truth, hurt the image of others, and even hide the truth of your being. Return to Top
DC Modifiers
| Size of Bluff | Check Result Modifier |
|---|---|
| The bluff is a minor distortion of facts, or is nestled in lots of other true things | +5 |
| The bluff is well crafted and does not stretch believability | +0 |
| The bluff is a poorly crafted or a little hard to believe without evidence* | -5 |
| The bluff contains several inconsistencies or would be very hard to believe without evidence* | -10 |
| The bluff contains obvious inconsistencies, is actually impossible, or otherwise ridiculous* | -15 |
|
*If you provide corroborating evidence for even the most ridiculous claims you do not suffer this penalty unless the lie is also poorly crafted. | |
Untrained Uses
Combat Distraction
If you just need to buy yourself a moment to escape, it’s hard to beat the old “Hey, what’s that behind you!” As a swift action, you can attempt a similar distraction. The DC for this bluff check is equal to your opponent’s psychology or base attack bonus (whichever is higher) +10. Your opponents' inattention lasts as long as indicated in the check results below. It is generally enough time for a running start, to disappear into a crowd, or even teleport away, and those actions can be invaluable if you have to escape.
This distraction causes your opponents to very briefly turn their attention away from you. In the process, they also turn their attention away from everything on your side of them, so anyone with you who was ready for a break can take advantage of your distraction.
If you are facing multiple attackers, you only roll once against all of their DCs. Anyone that you distract with this ability does not threaten you during your action, but they are not considered flat footed and retain their Dex bonuses to AC. Any who are not distracted are able to act normally, taking whatever attacks of opportunity or other actions they feel appropriate.
Base DC: Opponents’ Base Attack Bonus +10 or Psychology bonus +10, whichever is greater. Your one check result is used against all opponents present.
Check Result:
- DC+5 and above: You are able to take a standard action without being noticed.
- DC+0 to DC+4: You are able to take a move action without being noticed.
- DC-1 to DC-5: You do not distract your opponents, and you know it.
- DC-6 and below: Your opponents have pulled one over on you. They act as if they fell for your clever ruse, but they witness your action and continue threatening any spaces you occupy. They are able to act as they deem appropriate.
Innuendo
Words can mean different things to different people, and you can use that to pass secret messages to others during public conversations. The DC for this check is 15, but may be increased by 5 if you are not sufficiently familiar with the recipient. There is no action for this ability, it simply takes as long as the conversation takes, and you only roll once at the end to see if the ideas were passed successfully. You may choose to make additional checks for additional messages after the first has been completed, regardless of success or failure, but you continue to spend time on the attempt and the target may have a different attitude towards you after your first attempt.
Base DC: 15, +5 if you are not familiar with the target
Check Result:
- DC+5 and above: You pass the exact idea you had intended, regardless of complexity.
- DC+0 to DC+4: You pass only simple ideas. Any complex ideas you wished to pass are lost.
- DC-1 to DC-5: You fail to pass any secret meaning at all. The only thing that came across was what you actually said.
- DC-6 and below: You pass a secret meaning, just not the one you had intended. You are encouraged to suggest an alternate message (preferably humorous or detrimental to your goals), but the final decision of what message was actually passed is up to the GM.
Lie
You generally want people to believe what you tell them, especially if it isn’t the truth. Your bluff check is a measure of how good a lie you’ve told; you gain a modifier to your check based on the content of the lie. To detect your lie, targets must exceed your bluff check with a psychology check of their own; if they don’t exceed your check result they have no reason to suspect that you are lying and believe what you have told them. Telling a lie doesn’t entitle a character to a check, however, and it’s possible to tell enough truths before the lie to trick a character into forgoing their perception check later in a conversation. Note that it’s possible for a high level character to see through your lie automatically, so you may want to only tell them the truth or very convincing lies.
Base DC: N/A
Check Result: Your check result is used as the base Psychology DC for someone to disbelieve your statement. Modify your check result with the above table.
Rank 4 Uses
Assume Identity
Once you look like someone else, it’s important to remain in character. In general, if you assume an alternate identity no one knows any better and you will only be in danger of discovery when people challenge you. Your check result is the DC that a challenger must exceed with their Psychology check to recognize your act.
If you pretend to be a serf or farmer few people are going to care, but you may have difficulties getting into sensitive places. You make checks only when trying to pass yourself off against someone who is suspicious of everyone, like a guard at the town gate or a group in a bar that doesn’t like outsiders. If you are masquerading as a noble, military officer, cleric, or any other person whose status could be checked you need only make a check when someone demands proof of your status or seems confused by your presence. In either case, you only need to make a check against a person or group one time. After the initial check, most challengers will be satisfied and you will likely go for days before having to make another bluff check to avoid discovery. If they find reason to suspect you later, however, they may force you to make an additional check.
The situation is slightly different if you are impersonating a specific, real individual. Aside from having to actually look like them with a disguise, you also have to fool people who know the individual. You still make checks as above unless you are spending time with someone who knows the actual person. When you are with someone who knows the real person, you make checks hourly. If they know the person better than you do, you suffer a penalty to your check result as if you had poorly crafted your bluff; the degree to which they know the individual better than you determines the magnitude of your penalty. You actually are poorly crafting your bluff in all of these cases; it’s just that most people don’t notice.
Base DC: N/A
Check Result: Your check result is used as the base Psychology DC for someone to disbelieve your identity. Modify your check result with the above table.
Rank 6 Uses
Mock and Deride
Anyone can heckle a speaker or slander a public figure, but you can do it with style. When others speak and attempt to garner favor for themselves, you can twist their words and otherwise cause them to err. This allows you to counter the Seriously Likeable and Campaigner abilities in the affability skill, blunting the goodwill they would gain or even causing them to lose it entirely. The DC for this check is the check result that you are attempting to counter. If you can engage them directly, the effect of your derision applies to everyone your opponent was using their ability on. Otherwise this lowered result only counts within earshot of yourself (generally a 20’ radius for a massive address). There is no action for this ability, it take as long as the speech you are countering does. You suffer an increased DC if you miss more than the first quarter of your opponent’s action however.
Base DC: Check result of opponent using Seriously Likeable or Campaigner ability from the Affability skill, +2 if present for only ½ to ¾ of the opponent’s action, +5 if present for only ¼ to ½, and +8 if present for less than ¼.
Check Result:
- DC+10 and above: Your opponent treats their check result as 15 points lower.
- DC+5 to DC+9: Your opponent treats their check result as 10 points lower.
- DC+0 to DC+4: Your opponent treats their check result as 5 points lower.
- DC-1 to DC-5: You fail to sway the opinions of those near you away from the honeyed words of your opponent. Their check result remains as they rolled it, and they benefit from it as such.
- DC-6 and below: You make a fool of yourself, and only serve to make your opponent look better. Your opponent treats their check result as 5 points higher.
Rank 8 Uses
| Why don’t I get to roll to set some of the checks to determine my opponent’s DC? |
| Some of these abilities, like lying or acting, are opposed by an ability that has some built in variability. In those cases, the line between success and failure is a bit blurred, so it’s ok if your DC is a few points higher or a few points lower. The divination foiling abilities are opposed by a caster level check, and success or failure there is very clearly delineated. You also have an edge on any caster of the same level as yourself, since their caster level will be 3+ your stat mod lower than your bluff modifier. Because of this edge and the very clear results, if you rolled the check it is possible to make yourself undetectable against an equal level caster. While that may sound good to you if you have the skill, it is not good for the casters or the game in general. And so you don't get to roll those. The fuzzy success line for those cases opposed by skills sidesteps this issue, so they can be rolled regularly. |
Liar’s Aura
There are many situations where you don’t want people to be able to detect your ethical leanings, because they would probably put your head on a spike. As a full-round action you can select which alignment you appear to have. Anytime you are subject to a spell or effect that would interact with your alignment (such as Detect Good, Protection from Evil, or Blasphemy) the effect’s caster must succeed on a caster level check (DC 8 + your Bluff modifier). If they fail this check the spell treats you as if you had whatever false alignment you previously chose. If they succeed on this check the spell ignores your false alignment and affects you based on your actual alignment. Once a false alignment is set, this is a reflexive ability that does not use an action and occurs without your character’s knowledge. You may end this ability at will.
You may also change the apparent strength of your alignment. Changing the strength of your aura by one step (from Moderate to Strong for example) decreases the DC to pierce your ruse by 2 points, two steps decreases the caster check DC by 5 points, and three steps decreases the DC by 8 points. You may not reduce your apparent aura strength below Faint or above Overwhelming with this ability. Magic items are not entirely fooled by your false alignment and will not function for you if they require an alignment other than your actual alignment. They do not respond to your actual alignment in any other way, however, so you could handle an evil tome without concern as long as you were faking an evil alignment.
Rank 10 Uses
False Thoughts
It is generally bad for your health to show the thought police what you actually think of them. Whenever you are subject to a spell or effect that would give another access to your thoughts or memories, the caster must make a caster level check (DC 10 + your Bluff modifier). If they fail, they gain access to a false set of thoughts or memories, made up on the spot by your well trained sub-conscious mind. These thoughts and memories are sufficient to distract a casual invader, but they do not hold up to close scrutiny. For each minute that they eavesdrop on your mind, the caster is allowed a new caster level check; they also gain a cumulative +1 bonus on this check each additional consecutive minute they spend peering into your head. This is a reflexive ability that does not use an action and occurs without your character’s knowledge. You may suppress this ability at will as a non-action, but it is assumed active unless you state otherwise.
With a bit of effort, you can construct a very specific set of thoughts that does stand up to scrutiny. If you spend a full minute in concentration and succeed on a DC 28 bluff check, you can craft a more coherent set of false thoughts, making it harder for eavesdroppers to break through. You decide what thoughts will occupy your false mind; as long as these thoughts are expected or relevant for the person eavesdropping they do not get to make any checks beyond the first. Additionally, you can set your apparent intelligence score to any number 3 through 18, so that anyone detecting your mental abilities detects this apparent mental state. If you prepare incorrectly, the eavesdropper gains additional checks and bonuses as if you had done no preparation at all.
Rank 12 Uses
Not the One You’re Looking For
You can already lie about most things that would give you away, and now you can even lie about being ‘you’ in a deep, fundamental sense. You can trick scry sensors and location divinations into ignoring you. If you are targeted by a scrying spell or other sensor that allows a save, you may choose instead to make a Bluff check at -8. If your check exceeds the save DC, the sensor is unable to detect you. If you make the save by more than 5, you can even choose for it to follow someone else around if you like.
Against other location divinations, many of which allow neither save nor spell resistance, the spell’s caster must succeed on a caster level check (DC 8 + your Bluff modifier) to locate you. If they do not succeed on this check the spell does not return a result. Like other divination foiling Bluff abilities, this occurs reflexively, without your character’s knowledge, and does not use an action. This is a reflexive ability that does not use an action and occurs without your character’s knowledge. You may suppress this ability at will as a non-action, but it is assumed active unless you state otherwise.
