Diplomacy: I don't think it is broken. Here's why.

[Darklone]

Personally, I think that's a horrible approach. As a DM, I'd never run a game, and as a player, I'd hate to be in a game where the DM would say, "Yeah, your dice may say that you just criticalled the BBEG, but since that wouldn't fit well with my story, you don't do so."

For me, the story is what emerges from the choices and actions of the players and how they interact with the world around them, and whenever dice are being rolled, they are being used to determine the outcome of such interactions.

Seconded. I want to live through stories, not enforce them.

Dice rolls create the best stories and the best heroics. Check out the story in my sig. If I would have cheated to let the PCs survive, it wouldn't have been that special. Not even special at all. As a player, I would have felt betrayed.

So where does the end of that slippery slope lie? Should the BBEG be immune to the PCs' attacks just because the DM wants it to be? Should he automatically be able to escape, even if there isn't any mechnaical justification for it?

For me that's simple. An intelligent BBEG will probably fall for the PCs trick. Once. Next time he'll take care not to get into that situation again.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

It does specify you, but in this instance can you distinguish whether it is you singular or you plural.

English is a horrible language that needs extra words added to define the meaning of other words for clarity. They could have said only your character (you) or you and your traveling group (you).

Technically, "you" is the plural/formal, and "thee" is the singular/informal, and English no longer bothers with these distinctions. A bit annoying, but EVERY language "needs extra words added to define the meaning of other words for clarity."

Personally, I see no problem with you plural, because there is something that everyone is missing. Look under "Action." How many hungry BBEGs (and those that are neither animals nor magical beasts, I must note) will sit a whole minute through a "We come in peace" speech? Think of it in the same way you think of casting a spell for a minute.

 

[LostSoul]

Diplomacy is an odd skill.

When I make an attack roll, I know what that means. If I get a 19, I hit a guy with AC 19. Very simple and straightforward.

When I make a Diplomacy check and shift an NPC's attitude to Helpful, I have no idea what that means. Maybe what I think that means is what the DM thinks that means, and all is cool. Or maybe we don't see eye-to-eye, but it's still cool.

But if I think Helpful means one thing, and the DM thinks Helpful means something else, and it's not cool, then we have a problem.

The solution is pretty simple, though. You sit down and say, "So how do we want to deal with Diplomacy in this game?"

 

[shilsen]

Diplomacy is an odd skill.

When I make an attack roll, I know what that means. If I get a 19, I hit a guy with AC 19. Very simple and straightforward.

When I make a Diplomacy check and shift an NPC's attitude to Helpful, I have no idea what that means. Maybe what I think that means is what the DM thinks that means, and all is cool. Or maybe we don't see eye-to-eye, but it's still cool.

I think there's more of a similarity to the attack roll than you make out to be. When you make an attack roll and succeed, you roll damage. But you don't know for sure, until the DM tells you what it is, what the result of the damage will be. The enemy may be relatively unscathed, may be critically hurt, may drop dead, might be completely untouched (DR or other benefits), etc. Your success and its results are heavily mediated by the specific nature of the enemy and what the DM has decided about it (via hp, immunities, protective spells, etc). Diplomacy is much less codified, but similar.

But if I think Helpful means one thing, and the DM thinks Helpful means something else, and it's not cool, then we have a problem.

The solution is pretty simple, though. You sit down and say, "So how do we want to deal with Diplomacy in this game?"

This I agree with totally.

I would add the caveat that Helpful is not an objective category but varies with the given character, so what one NPC with a Helpful attitude will do for you can be very different from what another Helpful NPC would do.

It's like the way the results of a successful Charm Person is still dependent on the target. He will regard you as a trusted friend and ally, but that's not going to mean the same thing to two different people with very different personalities.