D&D 3.x Facial illiteracy?

[John98GR]

-4 on all Diplomacy and Sense Motive Checks (basing it on Inattentive which gives you -4 on two skill checks).

 

[Tonguez]

in a fantasy world with multiple races having entirely different facial morphologies I'd assume facial illiteracy would be the default and already incorporated in the insight or persuasion rolls

afterall how is a halfling suppose to read expressions of adragonborn, or a tabaxi who not only have unfamiliar faces but also use tail twitching and ear position etc

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

in a fantasy world with multiple races having entirely different facial morphologies I'd assume facial illiteracy would be the default and already incorporated in the insight or persuasion rolls

afterall how is a halfling suppose to read expressions of adragonborn, or a tabaxi who not only have unfamiliar faces but also use tail twitching and ear position etc

That would depend - do Dragonborn and Tabaxi only live in far-away lands that are rarely visited by Halflings and rarely visit Halfling areas, or do they live in multi-racial/ethnic cosmopilitian cities?

 

[Tonguez]

That would depend - do Dragonborn and Tabaxi only live in far-away lands that are rarely visited by Halflings and rarely visit Halfling areas, or do they live in multi-racial/ethnic cosmopilitian cities?

I suppose it is possible - like rl humans knowing that a dog showing its teeth isn't smiling at you but I expect there to be lots of standard misreads which would already be accounted for in skill checkscwhen interacting with different species