7.7 Deception (Per)

The Deception skill represents your ability to lie or otherwise mislead people without being caught. Using a Deception check is part of conversation or other actions, so it requires no special action to perform.

7.7.1 Common Deception Tasks

Blend In: If you succeed at an opposed Deception vs. Awareness check, you can avoid notice among a crowd of similar creatures. If you act or look significantly different from the creatures around you, observers gain a bonus to their Awareness check to notice you.

Convey Hidden Message: If you succeed at an opposed Deception vs. Social Insight check, you can convey a hidden message in the guise of an ordinary conversation. Failure means that an observer recognizes that a hidden message is being conveyed, and may even recognize what that message is. In general, you must already have a pre-established code or understanding with the intended recipients of your hidden message so they can grasp its true meaning more easily than outside observers.

Distract: If you succeed at an opposed Deception vs. Social Insight check, you can distract a creature you are talking with. This generally makes the distracted creature briefly partially unaware (50% miss chance, -2 Armor and Ref) of you, which can allow you to hide or backstab them. Normally, the creature realizes that you tricked them once the distraction ends, which prevents them from being distracted again and may influence their behavior.

Fascinate: If you succeed at an opposed Deception vs. Social Insight check, you can keep attention focused on you during a conversation. This generally gives distracted creatures a -5 penalty to the Awareness and Social Insight skills to notice anything other than you. You repeat this check once per minute, with a cumulative -5 penalty for each minute that the distraction has lasted.

Impersonate: If you succeed at an opposed Deception vs. Social Insight check, you can impersonate another creature’s mannerisms and speech patterns. If you are unable to replicate important aspects of the impersonation, such as the beautiful singing voice of a famous bard, you may suffer a penalty to the Deception check. This does not allow you to mimic a creature’s appearance, which requires the Disguise skill.

Lie: If you succeed at an opposed Deception vs. Social Insight check, you can lie without giving any indication that you are lying. Failure means that the observer recognizes that you are intentionally lying. Even if you succeed at this check, you still need the Persuasion skill to believe or take actions based on your lies. This check only prevents a creature from recognizing the lie based on your body language and behavior.

When your overall intention is to mislead or conceal information in a conversation, you may need to make this check even if everything you are saying is technically true. Generally, using half-truths and similar trickery instead of bald-faced lies gives you a bonus to your Deception check, but a skilled observer can still see through your ruse.