Use this skill to persuade the chamberlain to let you see the king, to negotiate peace between feuding barbarian tribes or to convince the ogre mages that have captured you that they should ransom you back to your friends instead of twisting your limbs off one by one. Diplomacy includes etiquette, social grace, tact, subtlety and a way with words. A skilled character knows the formal and informal rules of conduct, social expectations, proper forms of address and so on. This skill represents the ability to give others the right impression of oneself, to negotiate effectively and to influence others.
Check: You can change the attitudes of others (non-player characters) with a successful Diplomacy check; see the Influencing NPC Attitudes, below, for basic DCs. In negotiations, participants roll opposed Diplomacy checks and the winner gains the advantage. Opposed checks also resolve situations when two advocates or diplomats plead opposite cases in a hearing before a third party.
You can haggle over prices with a merchant or mediate between disagreeing groups, finding a solution to a diplomatic or legal matter that is satisfactory to everyone regardless of background.
Haggle: You can use the Diplomacy skill to bargain for goods or services, including those of a magical nature. When discussing the sale of an item or service, you can attempt to lower the asking price with a Diplomacy check made to influence NPC attitudes. If you manage to adjust the vendor’s attitude to helpful (most vendors begin as indifferent), the vendor lowers the asking price by 10%. Add the vendor’s Diplomacy check modifier to the DC needed to achieve the result. For example, to adjust the attitude of an indifferent vendor with a Diplomacy modifier of +3 to helpful, you must achieve a result of 33 or higher on your Diplomacy check (a base chance of 30, +3 for target’s Diplomacy modifier). If you worsen the vendor’s attitude, the vendor refuses to sell anything to you at this time. The DM is the final arbiter of any sale of goods and should discourage abuse of this option if it is slowing the game down too much.
Mediate: In order to mediate a disagreement, you must succeed in adjusting each group’s attitude to friendly or better towards the other party in the negotiation. Make a Diplomacy check as normal for influencing NPC attitudes, but add the group leader’s Diplomacy check modifier to the DC needed to achieve the result. For example, to adjust the attitude of an unfriendly group led by an individual with a Diplomacy modifier of +7 to friendly, you would need to roll a result of 32 or higher on your Diplomacy check (a base chance of 25, +7 for target’s Diplomacy modifier). If your check result is less than 12 (a base chance of less than 5, +7 for target’s Diplomacy modifier), the target’s attitude worsens to hostile. The DC increases by 5 if the two parties are of different cultures or races.
Directing Crowds: It takes a DC 15 Diplomacy check or DC 20 Intimidate check to convince a crowd to move in a particular direction, and the crowd must be able to hear or see the character making the attempt. It takes a full-round action to make the Diplomacy check, but only a free action to make the Intimidate check.
If two or more characters are trying to direct a crowd in different directions, they make opposed Diplomacy or Intimidate checks to determine whom the crowd listens to. The crowd ignores everyone if none of the characters’ check results beat the DCs given above.
Action: Changing others’ attitudes with Diplomacy generally takes at least 1 full minute (10 consecutive full-round actions). In some situations, this time requirement may greatly increase. A rushed Diplomacy check can be made as a full-round action, but you take a -10 penalty on the check.
Haggling requires at least 1 full minute, as normal for a Diplomacy check.
Mediation is a long process and cannot often be rushed successfully. Each check requires a full day of game time. You can take a -10 penalty on the check if you wish to attempt a mediation in an hour instead of a day (such as staving off an impending battle).
Try Again: Optional, but not recommended because retries usually do not work. Even if the initial Diplomacy check succeeds, the other character can be persuaded only so far, and a retry may do more harm than good. If the initial check fails, the other character has probably become more firmly committed to his position, and a retry is futile.
You can’t retry a Diplomacy check to haggle.
During mediation, as long as both sides aren’t hostile (that is, as long as at least one side remains unfriendly or better), you can retry a Diplomacy check made to mediate a disagreement. If both parties become hostile at any time after the first check is made, you can’t retry the check.
Special: A half-elf has a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks.
If you have the Negotiator feat, you get a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks.
Synergy:
If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) or Sense Motive, you get a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks.
Use the table below to determine the effectiveness of Diplomacy checks (or Charisma checks) made to influence the attitude of a non-player character, or wild empathy checks made to influence the attitude of an animal or magical beast.
| Initial Attitude | New Attitude (DC to achieve) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostile | Unfriendly | Indifferent | Friendly | Helpful | |
| Hostile | Less than 20 | 20 | 25 | 35 | 50 |
| Unfriendly | Less than 5 | 5 | 15 | 25 | 40 |
| Indifferent | — | Less than 1 | 1 | 15 | 30 |
| Friendly | — | — | Less than 1 | 1 | 20 |
| Helpful | — | — | — | Less than 1 | 1 |
| Attitude | Means | Possible Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Hostile | Will take risks to hurt you | Attack, interfere, berate, flee |
| Unfriendly | Wishes you ill | Mislead, gossip, avoid, watch suspiciously, insult |
| Indifferent | Doesn’t much care | Socially expected interaction |
| Friendly | Wishes you well | Chat, advise, offer limited help, advocate |
| Helpful | Will take risks to help you | Protect, back up, heal, aid |
| Fanatic | Will give life to serve you | Fight to the death against overwhelming odds, throw self in front of onrushing dragon |
Fanatic (Epic): In addition to the obvious effects, any NPC whose attitude is fanatic gains a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution scores, a +1 morale bonus on Will saves and a -1 penalty to AC whenever fighting for you or your cause. This attitude will remain for one day plus one day per point of your Charisma modifier, at which point the NPC’s attitude will revert to its original attitude (or indifferent, if no attitude is specified).
Treat the fanatic attitude as a mind-affecting enchantment effect for purposes of immunity, save bonuses or being detected by the Sense Motive skill. Since it is non-magical, it can’t be dispelled; however, any effect that suppresses or counters mind-affecting effects will affect it normally. A fanatic NPC’s attitude can’t be further adjusted by the use of skills.
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 71), Complete Adventurer (Page 98), Epic Level Handbook (Page 40)