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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 2723939" data-attributes="member: 2067">"I don't like Detect Evil because it detects evil!""I don't like Sense Motive because it senses motives!"Sense Motive doesn't tell PC's the truth. Just that what they are being told might not be it. The intrigue isn't in believing a lie, it's in finding out the truth behind all the lies.And any sufficiently intrigue-based campaign is going to have creatures with Bluff skills so high that they act like a Suggestion spell. And probably shiny magic to back it up. Intrigue means, in part, finding out the truth -- liars and manipulators, Bluffers and Diplomats, are some of the most prominent foes in such a campaign. The PC's will be victims, especially of "boss-level" challenges.Walking polygraph machines? Hardly. More like confused pawns who don't know which lie to trust. Do they trust the dark mysterious figure who said it was The King who released the demons, whom they could tell was hiding something? Or do they trust the shady, twitchy emissary who said it was Baron Von Evil that release the demons, whom they could tell was distracted and not telling them the entire story? Or do they trust the bard who tipped them off in the first place, who dresses a little too richly and talks a little too smoothly, but they haven't caught in a fib yet? And what are those orphans hiding in their ratty overcoats that is so important?! HMM?!Drive your players crazy with suspicion. This keeps the skill powerful (they know not to entirely trust what these people say), while keeping intrigue thick (well what CAN you trust?!).</blockquote>

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