Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgbrowning" data-source="post: 1110668" data-attributes="member: 5724">It's not player knowledge Mistwell, just reality. Here's the problem with using diplomacy as agressively as you suggest...."Diplomacy involves etiquette, social grace, tact, subtlety, and a way with words."Using diplomacy implies that the PC has knowledge of the above. If the PC has never met a group, or interacted with such, how is a PC going to know etiquette, social grace, tact, subtlety, and have a way with words?  Answer: he won't, so diplomacy should be very, very difficult (and more difficult than trying the same thing with a group whose culture he is familiar with)This is why diplomacy only works in certain situations, unlike combat. The PC already possesses all the knowledge he needs to know about combat because that knowledge is independant of interaction with others. Not totally independant, as unique forms of combat may put the PC off guard, but in the game this is easily realized through increased AC, increased damage capability, whatever....Diplomacy, as you would like to use it, relies upon tw0 sublimly ridicules base assumptions.1. The idea that an opponant is forced to listen. Why can't they just scream the entire time, therefore being unable to hear the diplomat's sly words?  (ie. total cover vrs. diplomacy.)2. That PCs with high diplomacy have utter understanding of every single culture's entire breadth of etiquette, tact, and sublety, but they don't know as much when it comes to knowledge checks.  Why have knowledge (religion, local, planes, almost anyone) when you have diplomacy. The PC knows that he's supposed to bow to the foreign king (whose kingdom he'd never heard of before) and place his hands on the ground, say the words, "I am your humble scut boy", follow that up with standing on his head and then bellowing, "FOREVER."This, and your reading of diplomacy as suggested in this thread is patantly ridicules.If you wish to persist in your reading of diplomacy you should make it diplomacy (elves), diplomacy (dwarves) to balance out the exordinate power you're placing in the skill. Diplomacy as written is only a guideline, to help people decide what could possibly happen, to allow GMs to let player's PC's skills affect the outcome as opposed to just players skills.joe b.</blockquote>

Verification