Playing dead in combat

[irdeggman]

Situation:
I'm running a 3.5 D&D game, my characters are 14th and 15th level.
In a battle last session a character (ftr/clr) took a good amount of damage and told me he wanted to go down as if he were incapacitated.
I told him to roll me perform (acting) and he asked if he could roll bluff, to which I told him, "no. roll perform"

What perform type did you make him roll? Act? There is no such thing a s general perform.

What DC did you use?

Perform is not an opposed check skill, unlike Bluff. So technically you can't do a Sense Motive to determine if he is "faking".

Like Craft, Knowledge, and Profession, Perform is actually a number of separate skills.
You could have several Perform skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.
Each of the nine categories of the Perform skill includes a variety of methods, instruments, or techniques, a small list of which is provided for each category below.
• Act (comedy, drama, mime)
• Comedy (buffoonery, limericks, joke-telling)
• Dance (ballet, waltz, jig)
• Keyboard instruments (harpsichord, piano, pipe organ)
• Oratory (epic, ode, storytelling)
• Percussion instruments (bells, chimes, drums, gong)
• String instruments (fiddle, harp, lute, mandolin)
• Wind instruments (flute, pan pipes, recorder, shawm, trumpet)
• Sing (ballad, chant, melody)

Now personally I would have used Bluff and given a bonus due to synergy if he had 5 or more ranks in Perform (acting)

 

[radmod]

What perform type did you make him roll? Act? There is no such thing a s general perform.

Um, I hate to point this out, ir, but
I told him to roll me perform (acting) and he asked if he could roll bluff, to which I told him, "no. roll perform"
as in "no, roll (your) perform (acting)"

Yes, technically, Perform isn't an opposed roll, but I would certainly make it one, in this case.

Now personally I would have used Bluff and given a bonus due to synergy if he had 5 or more ranks in Perform (acting)

You know, I never noticed that there wasn't a synergy there. That sounds like a great idea. That is, a bluff bonus if it were related to acting; not like if someone were feinting which I don't really see as acting.

 

[irdeggman]

Yes, technically, Perform isn't an opposed roll, but I would certainly make it one, in this case.

Actually it if using perform (which is technically always a set DC to check the quality of the performance) you should use the standard DC scales from table 4-3 (pg 43). In this situation is it an very easy/easy/average/tough challenge?

How much does the opponent want to believe the foe is dead?

Does he care if he is dead or just unconscious? In combat unconscious is fine.

I think a lot of people allow someone to play dead in this kind of situation and make it a very easy check (DC 0) so no rolls at all.

You know, I never noticed that there wasn't a synergy there. That sounds like a great idea. That is, a bluff bonus if it were related to acting; not like if someone were feinting which I don't really see as acting.

PHB pg 66

Your DM may limit certain synergies if desired, or he may add
more synergies for specific situations.

In fact there should probably be additinal circumstance bonuses too.

PHB pg 64

I mean the opponent did do sufficient damage to the PC to have the PC worry about his life right?

Sometimes metagaming thoughts accidentally creep into the DM's mind as well as to player's.

 

[Jhaelen]

There has to be a consistent framework.

I agree. The real trick is to know when to ignore the framework