Bluff

Bluff
A character with grades in the Bluff skill can attempt to get another character to believe or do something you ask. Characters with grades in the Sense Motive skill are much less likely to be Bluffed. When determining whether a character can see through the bluff, any character with an equal or greater number of grades in Sense Motive may call the bluff. Below is a listing of difficulty levels, from grade 1 to grade 5.


 * Very Easy: The target wants to believe you.


 * Easy: The bluff is believable and doesn’t affect the target much.


 * Moderate: The bluff is a little hard to believe or puts the target at some risk.


 * Hard: The bluff is hard to believe or puts the target at significant risk.

Some circumstances can make a Bluff less likely to succeed. If the bluff is hard to believe, or the action that the target is asked to take goes against its self-interest, nature, personality, orders, or the like, the bluff may fail. If it is important, you can distinguish between a bluff that fails because the target doesn’t believe it and one that fails because it just asks too much of the target.
 * Very Hard: The bluff is way out there, almost too incredible to consider.

A successful Bluff indicates that the target reacts as you wish, at least for a short time (usually 1 posting round or less) or believes something that you want it to believe. Bluff, however, is not a suggestion spell.

A bluff requires interaction between you and the target. Creatures unaware of you cannot be bluffed.

Feinting in Combat
You can also use Bluff to mislead an opponent in melee combat (so that it can’t dodge your next attack effectively). To feint, you must have more grades in Bluff than your target’s Sense Motive.

Feinting in this way against a nonhumanoid is difficult because it’s harder to read a strange creature’s body language; you take a -1 penalty on your Bluff grade. Against a creature of animal Intelligence it’s even harder; you take a -3 penalty. Against a nonintelligent creature, it’s impossible

Creating a Diversion to Hide
You can use the Bluff skill to help you hide. A successful Bluff gives you the momentary diversion you need to attempt to use the Hide skill while people are aware of you.

Delivering a Secret Message
You can use Bluff to get a message across to another character without others understanding it. You need 2 grades for simple messages, or 4 for complex messages, especially those that rely on getting across new information. Failure by 1 grade or less means you can’t get the message across. Failure by 2 grades or more means that some false information has been implied or inferred. Anyone listening to the exchange can use Sense Motive in order to intercept your message if their Sense Motive grade is higher than the Bluff grade required to send the message.

Retrying
Varies. Generally, a failed Bluff check in social interaction makes the target too suspicious for you to try again in the same circumstances, but you may retry freely on Bluffs made to feint in combat. Retries are also allowed when you are trying to send a message, but you may attempt such a retry only once per round. Each retry carries the same chance of miscommunication.

Special Considerations

 * A ranger gains a +1 bonus to his Bluff grade when using this skill against a favored enemy.
 * The master of a snake familiar gains a +1 bonus to their Bluff grade (they must first expend at least one Skill point on Bluff to gain this bonus).
 * If you have the Persuasive feat, you get a +1 bonus on your Bluff grade (you must first expend at least one Skill point on Bluff to gain this bonus).
 * If you have 3 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +1 bonus to your Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sleight of Hand grades, as well as on Disguise when using that skill while you know you’re being observed and you try to act in character. As with the above, you must first unlock these skills by either using at least one skill point on them at character creation, or by learning them In Character.