Check: A Bluff check is opposed by the target’s Sense Motive check. See the accompanying table for examples of different kinds of bluffs and the modifier to the target’s Sense Motive check for each one.
| Example Circumstances | Sense Motive Modifier |
|---|---|
| The target wants to believe you. | -5 |
| The bluff is believable and doesn’t affect the target much. | +0 |
| The bluff is a little hard to believe or puts the target at some risk. | +5 |
| The bluff is hard to believe or puts the target at significant risk. | +10 |
| The bluff is way out there, almost too incredible to consider. | +20 |
Favourable and unfavourable circumstances weigh heavily on the outcome of a bluff. Two circumstances can weigh against you. The bluff is hard to believe, or the action that the target is asked to take goes against its self-interest, nature, personality, orders or the like. If it’s important, you can distinguish between a bluff that fails because the target doesn’t believe it and one that fails because it just asks too much of the target. For instance, if the target gets a +10 bonus on its Sense Motive check because the bluff demands something risky, and the Sense Motive check succeeds by 10 or less, then the target didn’t so much see through the bluff as prove reluctant to go along with it. A target that succeeds by 11 or more has seen through the bluff.
A successful Bluff check indicates that the target reacts as you wish, at least for a short time (usually 1 round or less) or believes something that you want it to believe. Bluff, however, is not a suggestion spell.
A bluff requires interaction between you and the target. Creatures unaware of you cannot be bluffed.
Feinting in Combat: You can also use Bluff to mislead an opponent in melee combat (so that it can’t dodge your next attack effectively). To feint, make a Bluff check opposed by your target’s Sense Motive check, but in this case, the target may add its base attack bonus to the roll along with any other applicable modifiers.
If your Bluff check result exceeds this special Sense Motive check result, your target is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) for the next melee attack you make against it. This attack must be made on or before your next turn.
Feinting in this way against a non-humanoid is difficult because it’s harder to read a strange creature’s body language; you take a -4 penalty on your Bluff check. Against a creature of animal Intelligence (1 or 2) it’s even harder; you take a -8 penalty. Against a non-intelligent creature, it’s impossible.
Feinting in combat does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Creating a Diversion to Hide: You can use the Bluff skill to help you hide. A successful Bluff check gives you the momentary diversion you need to attempt a Hide check while people are aware of you. This usage does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Delivering a Secret Message: You can use Bluff to get a message across to another character without others understanding it. The DC is 15 for simple messages, or 20 for complex messages, especially those that rely on getting across new information. Failure by 4 or less means you can’t get the message across. Failure by 5 or more means that some false information has been implied or inferred. Anyone listening to the exchange can make a Sense Motive check opposed by the Bluff check you made to transmit in order to intercept your message (see Sense Motive).
You can substitute Dexterity for Charisma when making Bluff checks to deliver a secret message, if you and the recipient are both fluent in Drow Sign Language.
Tail Someone: If you fail a Hide check while tailing someone, you can attempt a Bluff check opposed by your quarry’s Sense Motive check to look innocuous. See the Hide skill for details.
Heckling a Performer: Heckling involves making a Bluff check opposed by the target’s Concentration check. More than one person can aid a heckler, using the aid another action, by making a DC 10 Bluff check.
If you succeed, the performer is distracted by your abuse and taunts, and he must make an immediate Perform check with a -2 penalty. For every 5 points by which your Bluff check exceeds the performer’s Concentration check, the penalty worsens by an additional 2. (So a Bluff check that beats the Concentration check by 11 results in a -6 penalty). This new Perform check is required even if the performer has already made one or more successful checks during the same performance, and the result of the new Perform check replaces any previous result.
If your Bluff check is unsuccessful, the audience sides with the performer, admiring his composure under fire. The performer receives a +2 circumstance bonus on Perform checks for the remainder of the performance, and you have probably now offended the crowd. At the DM’s option, you might have angered powerful nobles in attendance, or you could suffer attack at the hands of an unruly bar crowd — effects vary depending on the setting and mood of the audience. Even if you succeed on the heckle attempt, a chance exists that the performer’s new Perform check is better than his previous result. In such an instance, the crowd responds just as if you had failed your Bluff check to heckle.
Pep Talk: You can use this skill to create a sense of confidence in your troops. You can make a group of soldiers believe they are stronger than they actually are, bolstering their morale temporarily. You can also convince them that an enemy force is not quite as powerful as they believe it to be, or that a mission is less dangerous than it truly is. This bolstered confidence does not necessarily last long, and your words might be quickly forgotten if the tide of battle turns against the troops.
Your successful Bluff check opposed by your troops’ Sense Motive check (consider a group of new recruits to have a +1 Sense Motive modifier for this purpose) provides the affected targets a +2 bonus on their next morale check. However, those same troops have a -2 penalty on every subsequent morale check in that battle. The -2 penalty endures past the current battle if the same commander is left in charge of the unit.
Veteran troops (those of 2nd level or higher) are resistant to pep talks, having already experienced the reality of the battlefield. Such troops have a +6 modifier on their Sense Motive checks to oppose your Bluff check.
This ability affects up to ten characters for every rank you have in the Bluff skill. If both new recruits and veterans are present, make a separate check for each. For example, if you wish to bolster the morale of a company of 60 soldiers (40 new recruits and 20 veterans), you must have at least 6 ranks in Bluff and would make two checks, one for the new recruits and another for the veterans. Characters of your level or higher are immune to this effect.
Instill Suggestion in Target (Epic): If you beat the target’s Sense Motive check by 50 or more, you can instill a suggestion in the target’s mind by using the Bluff skill as a full-round action. This is identical to the effect of the suggestion spell, except that it is non-magical and lasts for only 10 minutes. It can be sensed as if it were an enchantment effect (Sense Motive DC 25).
Display False Alignment (Epic): With a DC 70 Bluff check, you can fool alignment-sensing effects by displaying a false alignment of your choice. Once set, a false alignment remains as long as you remain conscious and awake. Setting or changing a false alignment requires a full-round action.
Disguise Surface Thoughts (Epic): With a DC 100 Bluff check, you can fool spells such as detect thoughts (or similar effects) by displaying false surface thoughts. While you can’t completely mask the presence of your thoughts, you can change your apparent Intelligence score (and thus your apparent mental strength) by as much as 10 points and can place any thought in your “surface thoughts” to be read by such spells or effects. If someone attempts to use Sense Motive to detect your surface thoughts, this becomes an opposed check (though any result lower than 100 automatically fails).
Action: Varies. A Bluff check made as part of general interaction always takes at least 1 round (and is at least a full-round action), but it can take much longer if you try something elaborate. A Bluff check made to feint in combat or create a diversion to hide is a standard action.
A Bluff check made to deliver a secret message doesn’t take an action; it is part of normal communication.
An attempt to heckle takes 1 minute.
Try Again: Varies. Generally, a failed Bluff check in social interaction makes the target too suspicious for you to try again in the same circumstances, but you may retry freely on Bluff checks made to feint in combat.
Retries are also allowed when you are trying to send a message, but you may attempt such a retry only once per round. Each retry carries the same chance of mis-communication.
You cannot try to heckle again during the same performance.
You can retry a pep talk, but once you’ve attempted this check in a battle or prior to a battle, you can’t use it again on the same troops for at least 24 hours.
Special: A Ranger gains a bonus on Bluff checks when using this skill against a favoured enemy.
The master of a snake familiar gains a +3 bonus on Bluff checks.
If you have the Persuasive feat, you get a +2 bonus on Bluff checks.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 bonus on Diplomacy, Intimidate and Sleight of Hand checks, as well as on Disguise checks made when you know you’re being observed and you try to act in character.
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 67), Epic Level Handbook (Page 39), Races of Stone (Page 130)