Eldariel
2009-04-13, 09:31 PM
You know how skilled scoundrel-types often hide their true thoughts from a variety of magical scrutiny (from everything from a jedi to a witch) not through magic but by simply not thinking of what they don't want to reveal - keeping something trivial, but believable on the top of their mind and masking the truly relevant thoughts in some hidden locations until the scrying is over. The other common trick is stating technical truths that don't reveal the speaker's true knowledge of the subject in the face of a lie detection, be it magic or mechanical.
Now, the thing that caused me to start to think about creating such a skill was the fact that such an effect does already exist in D&D, or more precisely it's the Super Epic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#bluff) (DC 100) use of Bluff. However, due to the size of that DC, it's understandably not a part of even most epic Rogues' arsenal, especially as often when such an ability could be useful, you might be deprived of your magical gear and be unable to count on spellcasting support. So I feel having a separate skill allows setting some reasonable DCs for the actions, thus making them attainable even in standard non-epic games (which the vast majority of them are to my understanding). Basically, the idea is to give non-casters some tools to use against casters; I think D&D does magic just fine, but for some reason doesn't really include many anti-magic measures like you'd expect in a world such as Forgotten Realms. So without further ado:
Control Thoughts (Int) [I think "force of personality" suits a misguiding effort such as this the best, although it does make this feel like something of an active action]; Trained Only - class skill for Rogues, Bards & Monks
You have a certain mastery over your own thinking processes, allowing you to mask your thoughts, purposes, plans, ideas, alignment and other factors from magic to deceive spellcasters industriously working on figuring you out.
DC 15+CL: Fool an effect such as Detect Thoughts. Success means you are able to hide your thoughts from the spell, giving the caster no information on your mind, although the caster knows the spell failed to reveal something. Success by 5 or more means you may supply false information to the caster. This check can be made as a free action when your thoughts are subjected to a foolable effect.
DC 25: Display an alignment other than your own to effects attempting to discern it. A person using some effect that normally discerns your alignment is entitled to an opposed Sense Motive-check to figure out your true alignment. This check can be made as a free action when your thoughts are subjected to a foolable effect.
DC 35: By succeeding a DC 35 Control Thoughts-check as a Full-Round Action, you can induce a state of absence to your mind similar to the effects of the spell Mind Blank (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mindBlank.htm). If you would be targeted by an effect that would be blocked by this, the caster may attempt a caster level check against the results of your the check you made when activating this ability to penetrate this protection. Success indicates that the spell works normally, failure means you're considered to be under the effects of Mind Blank for the purposes of this spell.
The process is strenuous and failing this check means you may not try to induce this state again for 24 hours.
This state lasts for 24 hours unless you choose to end it earlier than that.
Synergy: If you have 5 ranks in Bluff, you gain +2 to all Control Thoughts-checks.
Action: None or Full-Round; see text.
Retry: No, or in 24 hours; see text.
EDIT#1: Switched stat from Cha to Int, added Bard for classes.
Now, the thing that caused me to start to think about creating such a skill was the fact that such an effect does already exist in D&D, or more precisely it's the Super Epic (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#bluff) (DC 100) use of Bluff. However, due to the size of that DC, it's understandably not a part of even most epic Rogues' arsenal, especially as often when such an ability could be useful, you might be deprived of your magical gear and be unable to count on spellcasting support. So I feel having a separate skill allows setting some reasonable DCs for the actions, thus making them attainable even in standard non-epic games (which the vast majority of them are to my understanding). Basically, the idea is to give non-casters some tools to use against casters; I think D&D does magic just fine, but for some reason doesn't really include many anti-magic measures like you'd expect in a world such as Forgotten Realms. So without further ado:
Control Thoughts (Int) [I think "force of personality" suits a misguiding effort such as this the best, although it does make this feel like something of an active action]; Trained Only - class skill for Rogues, Bards & Monks
You have a certain mastery over your own thinking processes, allowing you to mask your thoughts, purposes, plans, ideas, alignment and other factors from magic to deceive spellcasters industriously working on figuring you out.
DC 15+CL: Fool an effect such as Detect Thoughts. Success means you are able to hide your thoughts from the spell, giving the caster no information on your mind, although the caster knows the spell failed to reveal something. Success by 5 or more means you may supply false information to the caster. This check can be made as a free action when your thoughts are subjected to a foolable effect.
DC 25: Display an alignment other than your own to effects attempting to discern it. A person using some effect that normally discerns your alignment is entitled to an opposed Sense Motive-check to figure out your true alignment. This check can be made as a free action when your thoughts are subjected to a foolable effect.
DC 35: By succeeding a DC 35 Control Thoughts-check as a Full-Round Action, you can induce a state of absence to your mind similar to the effects of the spell Mind Blank (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mindBlank.htm). If you would be targeted by an effect that would be blocked by this, the caster may attempt a caster level check against the results of your the check you made when activating this ability to penetrate this protection. Success indicates that the spell works normally, failure means you're considered to be under the effects of Mind Blank for the purposes of this spell.
The process is strenuous and failing this check means you may not try to induce this state again for 24 hours.
This state lasts for 24 hours unless you choose to end it earlier than that.
Synergy: If you have 5 ranks in Bluff, you gain +2 to all Control Thoughts-checks.
Action: None or Full-Round; see text.
Retry: No, or in 24 hours; see text.
EDIT#1: Switched stat from Cha to Int, added Bard for classes.