Interesting comment from a player

[Brain]

I am the player in question who bluffed the guy. Interesting responses so far, and it sounds like a lot of you are open-minded enough where it might have worked in your game.

some more details:

• The "merchant" was a retired adventurer (fighter-type I think) who didn't have the ability to detect magic or identify. He had mentioned that he was thinking about his future and his retirement, thats what triggered me to come up with the "potion of longevity"
• The bluffer in question was a deep halfling, and he went on to talk about how the potion came from the "fountain of youth" which is really located in the underdark (that's why the surfacers never found it etc.)
• Also, used the fact that the guy had never heard of such a potion to my advantage, making the point that if he hadn't heard of it, it must be super rare and powerful
• The character in question is Neutral Evil (although he has undetectable alignment up almost all the time)
• The party was about to leave the area for a different island, so I wasn't that concerned about retribution. (although after reading this thread maybe I should be )
• The only actual claim that I made of the potions properties is that "It can help you live longer" so if the guy gets mad and finds us in the future, there can be more bluffing.

So it wasn't just a roll to bluff the guy, I did a lot of roleplaying and made a fairly convincing argument for my case on the fly. I am pretty proud of it, I'm not usually the best at thinking fast like that and coming off completely smoothly.

Also, I did identify the ring in question later on before wearing it, and it is the real deal. I'm hoping that the guy just drinks the potion before getting it identified and the problem goes away, or that he is "saving" the potion and hides it away somewhere.

 

[the Jester]

Brain summed up most of the points I was going to make for clarification, but let me add one more.

The retired adventurer in question lives in a small town without a wizard who can identify items. The stuff he was selling (including the ring) was his old gear, and he was using it to fund his retirement.

Also, we use the 'exploding dice' variant, and I believe his Sense Motive exploded down. Even with a +20 circumstance bonus (which I did give him) his overall SM check came out to something like a 5, while Brain's Bluff check (iirc) came out around 25. (That's after giving Mr. Merchant his +20!)

 

[reveal]

Also, we use the 'exploding dice' variant

What is this?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

What is this?

I believe it is when you roll a natural 1 or 20, you roll another d20 and subtract or add the result. If you roll another 20, add 20 and roll a third time - etc.

 

[Brain]

I believe it is when you roll a natural 1 or 20, you roll another d20 and subtract or add the result. If you roll another 20, add 20 and roll a third time - etc.

Yep, Thornir Alekeg has it right. One of the players likes to call the 20 roll "exploding" and the 1 roll "imploding" to differentiate between good and bad.

 

[mcrow]

I would allow it if the merchant failed his detect magic badly enough to incorrectly ID the item. If it was only a marginal failure then I would not allow the trade becaue the merchant wouldn't know what it was and will not trade. Obviously if he passed the detect magic then the trade is refused and he may even try to haev the PC turned into the authorites depending on the laws in the given campaign world.

 

[the Jester]

I believe it is when you roll a natural 1 or 20, you roll another d20 and subtract or add the result. If you roll another 20, add 20 and roll a third time - etc.

Yeah, that's it. So a natural 1 or 20 isn't always a miss or hit- but it's possible to succeed (or fail) at almost anything if you get extremely lucky.

 

[reveal]

I believe it is when you roll a natural 1 or 20, you roll another d20 and subtract or add the result. If you roll another 20, add 20 and roll a third time - etc.

Sounds a lot like Earthdawn. If you roll max, you get to re-roll that die and add the results. If you roll max again, wash, rinse, repeat. When would you ever subtract? When you roll a nat 1?

 

[Brain]

Sounds a lot like Earthdawn. If you roll max, you get to re-roll that die and add the results. If you roll max again, wash, rinse, repeat. When would you ever subtract? When you roll a nat 1?

yes, nat 1 you "explode downwards" and start getting a negative roll instead of a positive one.

 

[reveal]

yes, nat 1 you "explode downwards" and start getting a negative roll instead of a positive one.

Rather than ask a bunch of silly questions, is this a published variant or a house-ruled variant? If it's published, where can I find it? I'm just interested in the mechanics.