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Message: <blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 6969540" data-attributes="member: 12377">Yup, that's exactly what I meant.Let me share my favorite DM Secret Technique for social interaction: If the player makes a convincing argument, then even if the skill check fails, they still "succeed" at convincing the NPC. If the skill check actually succeeds, then they succeed extra better; the NPC does what they want, and is extra helpful about it. But don't tell the players that this is how it works!For example, if you're trying to talk a guard into letting you go past, "Here's 50 gold" might be a very convincing argument. It doesn't matter if the person offering is a Charisma 20 high elf noble or a Charisma 8 dwarven dung-digger; 50 gold is 50 gold. BUT have the player make the Charisma (Persuasion) check anyway. On a failure, the guard grumbles about it, and isn't too shy about reporting the PCs later if there's an incident (leaving the bribery out of the story). On a success, the guard is grateful, gives the PCs some tips about where to find what they are looking for, and won't report them later unless really bad stuff is going down.I do it this way because of exactly the problem you state; I don't want only the characters with high Cha to be effective. But I do want high Cha to be better, so the check is still relevant to give the extra bonus success. And yes, there are situations (where the PC's speech is not convincing) where everything comes down to a Cha check, but if your players put in any effort at all, those should be the exception, not the rule.(FWIW, the DMG system for social interaction based on attitudes is essentially the same thing, but more formally stated.)</blockquote>

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