Half-Elf Emissary - weirdest paragon feature

[RyvenCedrylle]

Let's consider who at this point could be outshining the Bard herself at Diplomacy? It has to be someone carrying around a lot of CHA in the first place - so that's likely to be narrowed down to the Warlock or Sorcerer. Maybe a Rogue, Barbarian or Paladin, but that's a secondary stat for any of them. Point being, 12 of the 18 playable classes aren't packing a CHA close to yours, so while you might be effectively giving them training in Diplomacy (or any CHA skill for that matter), you've still got them in pure stats. Of the other 5 that (might) rival your CHA, only the Paladin and Sorcerer get the chance to train in Diplomacy; anyone else had to blow a feat or play a specific race to do it. Really, you're looking at half-dozen or less builds of all the playable classes than can run with you in optimizing Diplomacy. So even if you're handing that Sorcerer an extra +5 on top of his 10+level, you get Words of Friendship, and you're even. In short, making a character who actually becomes better at Diplomacy than the Bard in the presence of a Half-Elf Emissary is, IMHO, almost a design goal in itself and probably a corner case.

 

[vladbat]

This is actually a really great roleplaying power. It gives bonuses to ALL Cha based skills right?
So while the rogue is using his streetwise skills to get some information out of a 'lady of the evening" the charm and wit rolling off this half-elf bard keep her to distracted to be wary and hide information from the rogue.
While the Dragonborn Fighter is crushing things to smithereens in front of the terrified captive goblin the half elf bard keeps up a constant patter: "You really should just tell him what he wants to know! He won't listen to reason. He has killed 100s of your race!"
And what diplomat has never had to help a fellow negotiator lie?

 

[fissionessence]

This is actually a really great roleplaying power. It gives bonuses to ALL Cha based skills right?
So while the rogue is using his streetwise skills to get some information out of a 'lady of the evening" the charm and wit rolling off this half-elf bard keep her to distracted to be wary and hide information from the rogue.
While the Dragonborn Fighter is crushing things to smithereens in front of the terrified captive goblin the half elf bard keeps up a constant patter: "You really should just tell him what he wants to know! He won't listen to reason. He has killed 100s of your race!"
And what diplomat has never had to help a fellow negotiator lie?

This. You could just use the bonus and never really understand how it makes sense. Because, in this case, the game isn't doing the work for you.

Or you could explain how you're granting the bonus each time an ally takes advantage of it. No description? No bonus.

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