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Message: <blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 7040710" data-attributes="member: 12377">Here are some guidelines I follow.1) Since talking is free, I think it's OK to make social interaction checks free, too. In my mind, the check is subservient to the talking: it's something the DM calls for, to help determine the outcome of the talking. It's not something where the player says "I'm going to spend my action this turn talking." Partly this is because I want to encourage social interaction during combat, and partly because it feels more natural to many players that talking is just talking.OTOH if the player DOES say "I'm going to spend my action this turn talking," I think they should be generally rewarded for it. Giving up an action is a big deal. Usually I just incorporate this fact into the NPC's response: if they see that the character has stopped attacking, they'll take that as a sign that the PC is serious about talking rather than fighting.2) In general, I decide the outcome of social interaction before the roll based on what makes sense. Then, I use the results of the roll to determine "degree of success." I do it this way because I really hate when a die roll produces a result that doesn't make sense; but I also want to reward PCs who invest in Charisma skills.But, sometimes I just can't figure out what makes the most sense. In that case, I will let the results of the roll decide.3) The main thing about influencing an NPC is that on a success, their behavior must change somehow. Exactly how depends on the situation. This gives me a lot of flexibility to run NPCs in the way that makes the most sense to me. But the behavior MUST change, which keeps me honest and forces me to concede SOMETHING to the PCs.</blockquote>

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