Post/Author/DateTime	Post
whitetrolley 11-10-07, 10:09 PM	I am playing the party cleric and I took skills that benefit from my high CHA. But I don't know how to use them. When should I use diplomacy, sense motive and gather info?
Tanegar 11-10-07, 10:24 PM	Er... I find them pretty self-explanatory, myself. Diplomacy is for dealing with potentially hostile NPCs, Sense Motive is for determining when you're being lied to, and Gather Information is for questioning or interrogating people. You might also try reading the skill descriptions in the PHB.
ravenshrike 11-10-07, 10:49 PM	Diplomacy? Diplomacy is what you create a half-elf Binder1BardXMarshallX for. It allows you to auto-win all battles against intelligent non-fanatic(and later fanatic ones too) enemies that can understand you. Mind you, still worthless against things with an intelligence of 2. But the party wizard has Ray of Stupidity for that.
Orenmir 11-10-07, 11:53 PM	When should I use diplomacy? Role-playing your way out of combat that would lead to your death. When should I use sense motive? To determine whether or not you could role-play your way out of combat that would lead to your death. When should I use gather info? To predetermine if you might get yourself into a situation where you would have to determine whether or not you could role-play your way out of combat that would lead to your death.
Axiomatic_vampire 11-11-07, 12:47 AM	Maybe this is a minority thing, but in my experience most DM's like to roll Sense Motive for you, without you knowing it, so they can say "Lord Elkher tells you to expect no trouble on the road (secret roll), but you seem to notice something shifty in the way he says it", or some such. It's generally (expanded skill uses in splatbooks aside) only good for cases where the DM plants false information and you get a chance to notice the chicanery. So, like a lot of skills, depends on the DM giving it a chance to shine. Gather information is useful any time there's something the party (or just you) wants to find out about, but don't know any specific person to ask. You go to a public place and spend an hour on a gather check, maybe hear a good tip on your query, or a lead on who to ask, or some recent news about notable events or people. Again, the DM has to be prepared to give information that way (or wing it) for it to be of much use. Diplomacy, yeah. Some people make it into a dominate monster effect, which is sort of shaky in my opinion though technically possible with a high enough check. It essentially follows a chart of an NPC's attitude toward the party, stretching from hostile to helpful (or fanatical with extremely high checks). If someone is unfriendly, you might get him indifferent, which is always nice. Maybe make an indifferent NPC willing to help (although not at great risk to themselves.) A useful skil.
Jaxgaret 11-11-07, 03:16 AM	Diplomacy's use: Role-playing your way out of combat that would lead to your death. Sense Motive's use: To determine whether or not you could role-play your way out of combat that would lead to your death. Gather Inforomation's use: To predetermine if you might get yourself into a situation where you would have to determine whether or not you could role-play your way out of combat that would lead to your death. This post was full of awesome.
draco1119 11-11-07, 07:01 AM	When should I use diplomacy, sense motive and gather info? When you want to PrC into Shadowbane Inquisitor.
Kanosint 11-11-07, 09:32 AM	Worse, I discovered too late that even Intimidate is useless even with incredibly high Cha and full ranks when your DM thinks you're just rolling for the heck of it and says "He laughs at you". A bloody Drow commoner laughs at my ubermage? Well, I tried blasting him (CE, on edge, hates Elves... I believe it's justified to do that)... "No, errr, cuz, ehm, there's localized antimagic!" "Okay... I bash him with my fists instead..." "No, errr, suddenly there's a Protection against Good around him..." "I'm CE, what should I care?" "Errrr, did I say Protection against Good? I mean Globe of Invulnerability" See where this is going? If your DM only wants you to fight or Diplomacy or Intimidate against specific targets (well, the latter two get unlikely anyways if he's like mine :(), your skill gets useless. Solve it by using the skill on the DM. Cuz there ain't no Globe of Invulnerability IRL :D
Ogiwan 11-11-07, 06:26 PM	It's used when you do that thing called role-playing. You know, actual interaction. Like.....negotiating fare for a ship. Diplomacy check to reduce fare. Or, after you get into a fight in the middle of the town square, and destroy a couple of merchant carts. The Captain of the Guard is probably going to be ****** at you; Diplomacy to make him not want to lock you guys up. Bonus points if you Dip the Captain to detail some men to help you.
StruckingFuggle 11-11-07, 07:12 PM	It's used when you do that thing called role-playing. You know, actual interaction. Like.....negotiating fare for a ship. Diplomacy check to reduce fare. The irony, of course, is that this is perhaps the purest form of roll-playing. :P