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Message: <blockquote data-quote="airwalkrr" data-source="post: 6074496" data-attributes="member: 12460">The onus of using a social skill is usually on the PCs. If they want to use the skill, then should state they are using it. This can be a means to bypass roleplaying (if the group is more fond of hack-n-slash than RP) or as a last ditch attempt to salvage a crumbling situation. Upon entering the house, the PC with Diplomacy in question should be prepared to state "I will use Diplomacy to persuade the occupants to allow me to enter." At that point, it might be up to you as the DM to impose the -10 penalty for rushed Diplomacy because you know the people in the house will not entertain the PCs for more than a few seconds (which is reasonable, as many people refuse to speak to door-to-door salesmen and such for more than a few seconds). Or the PCs might have stated their case to the occupants of the house and, seeing that their pleas fall on deaf ears, declare they are attempting a rushed Diplomacy check as a last ditch effort. But Diplomacy (or any social skill) should never be required IMHO to succeed at an encounter and progress the story. If one of the PCs has a clever idea, let it work simply because it is clever. If a PC has a terrible idea, they will probably fail but a skill check could salvage the situation.I can liken this to the PCs trying to cross an icy bridge. It would take a DC 25 Balance check to cross the bridge, but the PCs cleverly have the rogue climb up and rig a rope and pulley or block and tackle system to carry them across. Now if the block and tackle fails because the rogue failed to notice that the rock to which he had fastened the block and tackle was very loose, then the plan fails, but the first PC attempting to cross can still make a Balance check to see if the situation can be salvaged (and if the PCs were smart about it, they sent the character with the best Balance bonus across first).If the PCs dress as town guards and present a (possibly forged) warrant to enter the place, then such a plan is clever and should grant them access. Of course, the owner of the house might be an actuary or administrator who is familiar with the town guard protocol and documentation and represents the PCs for the frauds they are. At this point the PCs can salvage the situation by using Diplomacy to try to convince the owner of the house that their intentions are good and that they merely need to pass through the house to find a secret door which might very well put the occupants of the house at danger. It might lead to a goblin warren, or worse!Finally, a good DM will always have a back-up to his back-up. The players are intended to win, whether by hook or crook. I would never design a situation such that the ONLY means to progress the story is a single secret passage within a single home and that persuading the family to let them in is the only means of ingress. There might be a man-hole to the sewers nearby which also contains a secret passage. As someone mentioned above you can brute-force it and cause a tunnel to collapse under the PCs as they are walking down the street. A member of the Thieves' Guild might be standing on the opposite side of the street, witness the exchange between the PCs and the family in the home and offer to share an alternate entrance to whatever it is they seek to enter (for a fee of course). There are numerous ways to approach this. But never design a story so that the ONLY means of progression hinges on the success of a single skill such as Diplomacy. That might work well in some kinds of video games where your Diplomacy (or whatever negotiating skill it is) has to be at a certain level to ensure that you can survive the dangers beyond, but this does not work well for tabletop role-playing games. The beauty of tabletop games is that there is no limit to where you can go and what you can do. It is a truly open world with limitless possibilities. And you should run your game accordingly.</blockquote>

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