Deception (Cha)

You can trick and mislead others using disguises, lies, and other forms of subterfuge.

Create a Diversion ◆

Traits: mental

With a gesture, a trick, or some distracting words, you can create a diversion that draws creatures’ attention elsewhere. If you use a gesture or trick, this action gains the manipulate trait. If you use distracting words, it gains the auditory and linguistic traits.

Attempt a single Deception check and compare it to the Perception DCs of the creatures whose attention you’re trying to divert. Whether or not you succeed, creatures you attempt to divert gain a +4 circumstance bonus to their Perception DCs against your attempts to Create a Diversion for 1 minute.

Ezren is a 5th-level wizard and an expert in Crafting. He has a Crafting modifier of +13 and the Magical Crafting feat. With 2 weeks of downtime ahead of him, he decides to craft a striking rune, a 4th-level item. The GM secretly chooses a DC of 19.

The item has a Price of 65 gp, so Ezren prepares 32 gp, 5 sp worth of raw materials. He has another 32 gp, 5 sp worth of raw materials on hand. After spending 4 days building and incanting spells, he rolls a 12 on his Crafting check, for a result of 25. That’s a success! At this point, Ezren can spend the additional 32 gp, 5 sp worth of materials to complete the item immediately for 65 gp. However, Ezren has 10 more days on his hands, so he decides to spend additional time to complete the item. Because he’s a 5th-level character and an expert at Crafting, he reduces the amount he has to pay by 1 gp for each day spent. After spending 10 days working, he reduces the cost to complete the item from 65 gp to 55 gp. He spends the remaining portion of its Price in materials, completes the striking rune, and goes out on his next adventure. (He could have stayed home to keep working on the striking rune, eventually reducing the item’s total Price to just the half he paid up front, but adventuring is far more lucrative!) If Ezren’s Crafting check result were a 29 or higher, he’d have gotten a critical success. In that case, he’d reduce the remaining amount by 2 gp per day, lowering the amount needed to complete the item after 10 additional days of work to 45 gp.

Success You become hidden to each creature whose Perception DC is less than or equal to your result. (The hidden condition allows you to Sneak away, as described on page 252.) This lasts until the end of your turn or until you do anything except Step or use the Hide or the Sneak action of the Stealth skill (pages 251 and 252). If you Strike a creature, the creature remains flat-footed against that attack, and you then become observed. If you do anything else, you become observed just before you act unless the GM determines otherwise.

Failure You don’t divert the attention of any creatures whose Perception DC exceeds your result, and those creatures are aware you were trying to trick them.

Impersonate

Traits: concentrate, exploration, manipulate, secret

You create a disguise to pass yourself off as someone or something you are not. Assembling a convincing disguise takes 10 minutes and requires a disguise kit (found on page 290), but a simpler, quicker disguise might do the job if you’re not trying to imitate a specific individual, at the GM’s discretion.

In most cases, creatures have a chance to detect your deception only if they use the Seek action to attempt Perception checks against your Deception DC. If you attempt to directly interact with someone while disguised, the GM rolls a secret Deception check for you against that creature’s Perception DC instead. If you’re disguised as a specific individual, the GM might give creatures you interact with a circumstance bonus based on how well they know the person you’re imitating, or the GM might roll a secret Deception check even if you aren’t directly interacting with others.

Success You trick the creature into thinking you’re the person you’re disguised as. You might have to attempt a new check if your behavior changes.

Failure The creature can tell you’re not who you claim to be.

Critical Failure The creature can tell you’re not who you claim to be, and it recognizes you if it would know you without a disguise.

Lie

Traits: auditory, concentrate, linguistic, mental, secret

You try to fool someone with an untruth. Doing so takes at least 1 round, or longer if the lie is elaborate. You roll a single Deception check and compare it against the Perception DC of every creature you are trying to fool. The GM might give them a circumstance bonus based on the situation and the nature of the lie you are trying to tell. Elaborate or highly unbelievable lies are much harder to get a creature to believe than simpler and more believable lies, and some lies are so big that it’s impossible to get anyone to believe them.

At the GM’s discretion, if a creature initially believes your lie, it might attempt a Perception check later to Sense Motive against your Deception DC to realize it’s a lie. This usually happens if the creature discovers enough evidence to counter your statements.

Success The target believes your lie.

Failure The target doesn’t believe your lie and gains a +4 circumstance bonus against your attempts to Lie for the duration of your conversation. The target is also more likely to be suspicious of you in the future.

Deception Trained Action

Feint ◆

Traits: mental

Requirements You are within melee reach of the opponent you attempt to Feint.

With a misleading flourish, you leave an opponent unprepared for your real attack. Attempt a Deception check against that opponent’s Perception DC.

Critical Success You throw your enemy’s defenses against you entirely off. The target is flat-footed against melee attacks that you attempt against it until the end of your next turn.

Success Your foe is fooled, but only momentarily. The target is flat-footed against the next melee attack that you attempt against it before the end of your current turn.

Critical Failure Your feint backfires. You are flat-footed against melee attacks the target attempts against you until the end of your next turn.