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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8472059" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Yes, this. To be clear, I think I agree with [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] as well, for the most part. It’s the DM’s role to describe the environment and determine the outcomes of the players’ actions, calling for a roll if necessary to resolve uncertainty in the outcome. But ultimately it is the DM who determines what is or isn’t certain, so yes, the DM can always decide that a PC’s social action succeeds or fails without need of a roll. I simply tend to find uncertainty in the outcomes of PCs’ social actions more often than not, whereas Lanefan sounds like he tends never to find uncertainty there.As for whether or not the outcome of an NPC’s social action is certain or uncertain, in my evaluation it’s always certain. Because the general rule (to which there are specific exceptions such as spells) is that the player decides what their character thinks and does. So, I when I describe a social action an NPC takes against a PC, since no specific exception is written in the rules for ability checks to the general rule that the player decides what their character thinks and does, it is certain that the player can react however they want to that action. If the player is uncertain how their own character would react, they are of course welcome to use any method they wish to resolve that. Heck, if a player told me they weren’t sure how their character would react and asked me to make an ability check for the NPC, I would.Now, all this is not to say my approach is the only valid one. Many groups have in place some manner of table rule which does constitute specific exceptions to the general rule that the player decides what their character thinks and does under certain circumstances. Such as when the player’s out-of-character knowledge is deemed to be influencing their decision of what to do, or when another character (perhaps an NPC) takes a social action targeting them. That’s perfectly fine, play the game however you like.</blockquote>

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