War for the Crown: Social Combat

[ManWithDoor]

SOCIAL COMBAT

Every conflict in War for the Crown that takes place in salons and ballrooms is just as real—and as deadly—as its daring sword battles through lost catacombs and secret lairs. PCs will need wit and guile as much as a strong arm. The rules here describe the most common types of social interactions the PCs will engage in: winning favor and influencing NPCs. These rules are a simplified version of the rules for influencing an individual presented in Chapter 3 of Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue.

Dramatis Personae: For social conflicts, NPCs are presented in a Dramatis Personae section with their social stat blocks. A social stat block provides some basic description, including the NPC’s background, appearance, personality, and goals. It also lists rules elements like relevant skill bonuses and the NPCs’ biases, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as their starting attitude toward the PCs, the steps needed to change it, and the benefits the PCs gain for improving an NPC’s
attitude toward them.

Skills: This section lists the NPC’s skill bonuses that are relevant to social interaction, usually including but not limited to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive.

Biases: Biases are subconscious preferences an NPC might not know they have, but that shape who they listen to, what information they dismiss, when they welcome interaction, and what might cause them to refuse outside input. People or circumstances an NPC has a positive bias toward gain a +2 bonus on all checks to influence them, while those they are negatively inclined toward take a –2 penalty on such checks. The modifier from one bias stacks with other biases, so an elven woman trying to influence an NPC who favors elves (+2) but hates women (–2) would cancel out. These
modifiers also stack with strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths: Strengths are particular beliefs, topics, and values an NPC is especially intractable on; any attempt to influence an NPC using one of their strengths takes a –4 penalty. A skinflint politician might have a strength against the plight of the poor, so no matter if a PC tries to sway him using Diplomacy, Intimidate, or any other skill, she takes a –4 penalty if she’s trying to discuss charity or suffering of the needy.

Weaknesses: Weaknesses are approaches, frames, and ideas that an NPC is more likely to be swayed by and that are more useful for influencing them, granting a +4 bonus on influence checks when used. Influence checks against a skinflint politician would gain a +4 bonus, for example, if the PC attempting the skill check opts to offer campaign contributions.

Starting Attitude: This section describes how the NPC initially feels about the PC, referencing the attitudes listed under the Diplomacy skill (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 95).

Influence Checks: This section lists the various skills a PC can use to influence the NPC, as well as the DC for each individual skill. Most NPCs will be more easily influenced by talking about work or hobbies than with a simple Diplomacy skill check. The Skill and DC listed in bold is the discovery check to learn what skills may be used to influence this NPC.

Successes Needed: This section lists the number of successful influence checks PCs must collect to either win an NPC’s favor in the short term or shift their attitude one step closer to helpful in the long term. The adventure and encounter will list which adjustment the PCs need to accomplish.

Special: This section mentions any special conditions, limited availability, or other modifiers that might apply to influencing this NPC.

Benefit: This section lists what rewards the PCs receive for improving this NPC’s attitude.

Story Award: This section lists XP rewards PCs receive for influencing the NPC.


A PC can uncover a bias with a successful DC 20 Sense Motive check, and she can learn an NPC’s strength or weakness with a successful discovery check. These stat blocks also list each NPC’s skill bonuses for common social skills, to account for any unusual actions the PCs might take.

[ManWithDoor]

SOCIAL ROUNDS

Every adventure will provide a timeline for its social-focused story. Each event or occasion in social combat lists a number of social rounds associated with it. During these social rounds, the PCs can attempt skill checks to influence NPCs or to generally engage with NPCs in a specific area of the location. A PC can attempt only one major action each round, including influencing an area, influencing a specific NPC, or attempting some mission or objective-related skill check. PCs can also conduct any number of simple actions, such as eating, drinking, wandering to other areas of an event, and communicating with other PCs.

[ManWithDoor]

INFLUENCING AN AREA

Sometimes, a PC can attempt to influence a crowd in a room, rather than targeting a single individual. The room’s description will list any appropriate skills and their respective DCs. Each area has two thresholds, which represent levels of influence over that area. For every point that the PC’s result on one of these skill checks exceeds the DC, one point is added to a pool specific to
that area. Once the number of points earned by the party as a whole exceeds an area’s threshold value, the GM provides the PCs with the information and story award associated with it.

[ManWithDoor]

INFLUENCING AN NPC

Each social round, a PC can move to any location in an event and select a single NPC in that area as her target to influence. She then attempts either a discovery check or an influence check.

Discovery Checks: A discovery check allows a PC to learn either one of the skills she can use to influence the target or one of the target’s biases, strengths, or weaknesses. The exact skill and DC required for a discovery check varies; the discovery check to learn a skill that can be used for an influence check normally requires a successful Sense Motive or Knowledge (nobility) check, with the DC listed in parenthesis in the Influence entry of the target NPC’s social stat block. Learning a target’s weakness or strength requires a successful skill check using the skills and DCs listed in parenthesis in the appropriate stat block entry, and learning a bias requires a successful DC 20 Sense Motive check; the GM can reveal the skills needed to recognize these statistics without need for a separate discovery check.

Influence Checks: An influence check is an attempt to make a good impression upon or gain the respect of the target. PCs must attempt a skill check using one of the skills listed in the target’s Influence entry; they can either determine what those skills are via a successful discovery check or guess based on their target’s reputation. A successful skill check against the listed DC counts as one
success, indicating growing affection or respect for the PC. Each target’s entry lists the total number of successes needed to achieve a desired outcome (see Winning Favor and Changing Attitudes below). At the GM’s discretion, PCs can attempt to use a skill that is not listed in an NPC’s stat block but is related to the listed skills; however, doing so increases the influence check DC by 5. A PC earns one additional success if her influence check result exceeds the listed DC by 5 or more. A failed discovery or influence check can be attempted again in subsequent rounds with no penalty unless otherwise noted.

Winning Favor: In some cases, such as making small talk at parties, a PC only needs to win an NPC’s favor. The intention is to make a good first impression and be remembered in the future. In these circumstances, a PC only needs to accumulate the specified number of successes to win whatever listed benefits the NPC provides, though said benefits rarely last beyond the social event in question.

Changing Attitudes: Making long-lasting changes to an NPC’s attitude is more difficult and time-consuming. Unlike winning favor, where the PCs simply hope to leave a good impression for a night, the PCs now hope to make friends and allies, win hearts and minds, and cause long-term adjustments to NPCs’ outlooks. In social encounters where the PCs will seek to change NPCs’ attitudes, each NPC’s starting attitude toward the PCs is listed in their influence section, and every time the PCs accumulate the listed number of successes, the NPC’s attitude shifts one step closer to helpful. The accumulated successes are then cleared and the process begins again. Generally,
social rounds are much longer when changing attitudes, and there may only be a few during any given event, but the PCs will have more opportunities to influence these NPCs in the future. This extended time frame can also work against the PCs; for every week that passes without interacting with an NPC whose attitude the PCs are trying to change, they lose one success accumulated toward winning over that NPC. The passage of time and loss of successes can’t worsen an NPC’s attitude, though special events might.