[RPG] How to improve the Diplomacy skill mechanic in D&D 3.Xe and Pathfinder

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In D&D 3rd Edition, 3.5 Edition, and even Pathfinder, it is ridiculously easy as a player to purposely or inadvertently break the skill system, especially with Diplomacy.

For example: A level 5 Halfling Bard with a Charisma of 18, netting a +4 Ability Score Bonus to all Charisma based checks would have at the bare minimum a +12 to Diplomacy (+4 CHA, +3 Trained class skill, +5 Ranks.) This is discounting the possibility of taking the Skill Focus feat, but even with that the Bard would receive a base of a +15 to Diplomacy! At this point the .5-ling Bard who came up against a CR7 Young Brine Dragon (Bestiary 2, p. 94) would have a Diplomacy DC of only 26 if the Dragon is hostile and a 21 if it is just plain unfriendly. That's the worst case scenario. The Young Brine Dragon is Lawful Neutral, and baring the party from being outright evil, the Dragon is probably indifferent (DC 16). Regardless, with even a fair to middling role, the Bard could raise the creature's attitude quite easily. And this is even discounting the Aid Another ability! If the Bard was a member of a 6 PC party and the other 5 members passed their checks, the Bard would net an additional +10 bonus to the Diplomacy check!

I'm not even talking about a "Min-Maxed" Bard, because then the base bonus would be even higher!

Aside from requiring players to role-play out the Diplomacy fully and disregard all Diplomacy rolls (I know a fair number of DMs, myself included, who prefer either the roll or the role-play and the roll itself) how can this skill be fixed? Diplomacy is a great skill in game, from both a roll and role-playing perspective, and while it is good to be able to haggle, turn enemies into friends, and end potential combats with words, it breaks the game if/when the skill mechanic is abused, purposely or not.

Now, I know that Giant In the Playground had a great but somewhat needlessly complex solution to the problem, but it was just that, needlessly complex. What are some other solutions to the broken Diplomacy skill in 3.0E, 3.5E, and Pathfinder?

Best Answer

[The following is based on my experiences in 3.5e, but from what I know about Pathfinder it should be trivially adapted. Also, I apologize in advance for what I'm certain will be a post filled with incorrect terminology -- I've been playing 4e for quite some time now, and it's been even longer since I last sat down with 3.5e.]

If you think Diplomacy is broken at level 5, just wait until you get to the Epic levels! This is where we were when my DM decided to address it.

They way he approached it was to completely ditch the static DC list -- static DCs make sense for climbing ladders (which don't typically get harder as you get higher in level), but they don't make sense at all when you're dealing with more and more experienced and powerful individuals; just like AC and other such things, as the CR goes up so, too, must the DC.

So he sat down and took the table of Diplomacy skill DCs and turned them into situational modifiers. I think he started with "Neutral" granting a +4 (reasoning being that changing people's minds is not easy, even if they don't dislike/distrust you), and then each step toward Hostile added an additional +2, while each step toward Friendly added a -2.

The resulting modifier was then used on the NPC's own opposed Diplomacy roll. Thus the table of Diplomacy DCs that is so trivial for PCs to game was gone, replaced by opposed checks to modify a character's attitude.

But he went even further. Between each stage on the "trust continuum" (i.e. Friendly, Neutral, Hostile, etc.), the DM added a "half step"; a successful Diplomacy check would move the NPC's attitude half a step, not a full step, thus requiring 2 successes to effect a change in the character's attitude. (When an NPC is on one of these "half steps", his/her attitude is the one "rounded" toward neutral; thus an NPC is effectively Neutral across 3 distinct "steps", but 2 "steps" for all others.)

Finally, he added one more thing: Continued successful/failed checks could move an NPC further than the ends of the "attitude spectrum", although no further mechanical advantages were earned. What it did do was make it less likely for the NPC's attitude to be changed later, by simply keeping track of how many "steps" would need to be adjusted.

These were the mechanical changes he house-ruled into Diplomacy. He also required certain role-play elements to also be met before a Diplomacy check could even be attempted -- the Halfling Bard walking up to the dragon and rolling an impressive 34 Diplomacy is just wasted effort if said dragon isn't even listening! There were also common-sense limitations imposed: a dragon who's entire life is centered around accumulating his horde is not going to just give it up, no matter how many Diplomacy successes the Bard accumulates!