Gathering info

[Voadam]

My ranger eldritch knight has a level of a modified harper mage class and he loaded up with diplomacy from that level to reflect the fact that I like to talk with NPCs in a friendly way. And so even though we don't generally make diplomacy rolls in our campaign I have it to reflect my interactions. I also consider my character a type of loremaster (harper mages get the bardic lore and I loaded up on knowledges to reflect the character's studies and world hopping edition spanning history) and I use a lot of divinations and such to figure stuff out. So now I find myself soloing and trying to figure out a mystery and get some information from enemies' minions. I find myself using charm person, charm monster, analyze dweomer, and loresights (from the Complete book of Eldritch Might) a lot. The charm monster are to get a target friendly and willing to talk then discuss things in depth, explaining that I am trying to figure things out. It has worked pretty well and I've found out things like who a group of duergar at an evil item auction were working for, the fact that an evil noble house was holding the auction, etc.

How do you handle your investigations in the game as a PC? just a simple die roll for gather info? talking to people? charms? divinations? tracking? scent tracking?

 

[Bront]

How do you handle your investigations in the game as a PC? just a simple die roll for gather info? talking to people? charms? divinations? tracking? scent tracking?

Yes

Player interaction is always good. However, a GM should require a skill check on occasion to make sure that skill points placed in such skills are not wasted. Modify them by RP if needed, but a roll should be made none the less at some point.

As a PC, you use what tools you have available. The more creative, the better. In a well setup scenario, you should be able to solve a problem several different ways.

 

[Mercule]

As for all social skills, roleplaying well will probably give the check bonuses. I always reward descriptive play, whether in socializing with NPCs or in combat. The final decision is made by a die roll, though. A verbose player with a poor social character is not allowed to run rough-shod over a glib player with a strong social character.

 

[moritheil]

Yes

Player interaction is always good. However, a GM should require a skill check on occasion to make sure that skill points placed in such skills are not wasted. Modify them by RP if needed, but a roll should be made none the less at some point.

As a PC, you use what tools you have available. The more creative, the better. In a well setup scenario, you should be able to solve a problem several different ways.

IMHO one should modify the RP interactions by the ability scores and skills of the character, rather than the other way around. Just because a barbarian acts refined and intelligent, and gives a well-thought-out series of responses in discussion, that does not mean that he should get any sort of bonus to the material result of his skill check - particularly if he had an Int 6, in which case he should be penalized for poorly playing his character rather than rewarded.

 

[IronWolf]

As DM I like to see some roleplaying through investigations and such. But if the player requests a gather information check, we roll it and go from there. I like to encourage skill usage along the way I guess.

 

[Voadam]

IMHO one should modify the RP interactions by the ability scores and skills of the character, rather than the other way around. Just because a barbarian acts refined and intelligent, and gives a well-thought-out series of responses in discussion, that does not mean that he should get any sort of bonus to the material result of his skill check - particularly if he had an Int 6, in which case he should be penalized for poorly playing his character rather than rewarded.

See but I like the concept of my viking wizard who knows a lot of lore from in game studying, who works as a witch hunter type with investigations but also goes for political manipulations and seductions.

This came about from in game roleplay development and character history. He started as a 2e fighter with high enough stats to switch class to mage. He has developed over time in game and I don't mind constructing the stats as he levels and converts to new systems (a 1e homebrew system with lots of skills, 3e, then 3.5) to reflect his development. I'd rather do that than stop the character from developing as he has based on his in game interactions.

So I much prefer constructing game stats around how a character develops than limit my roleplay to how a character is originally statted.

 

[der_kluge]

My last group was fond of the social skills. We even had a verb for it "diplome".

As in, "I diplome the guard into letting me pass" - "roll it!"

Bluff can be fun, too.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have used it to find the best priced inns, fair horse traders, to find what goods are going where.