Friendly Face

[Story]

Friendly Face (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=2) gives you a +5 circumstance bonus on Gather Information checks, but it only lasts 10 minutes/level while Gather Information checks take 1d4+1 hours. What the heck was WOTC thinking? I know they don't always think through the mechanics very well but this seems a rather obvious oversight.

[Kazyan]

Looks like an entry for the Completely Dysfunctional Handbook. But yeah, the time stipulation on Gather Information is really, really easy to overlook;the writers probably did so.

[hymer]

Do note that it is said to be a 'typical' GI check that takes 1d4+1 hours. I use the skill occasionally when the players are chatting up a city guard or a shopkeeper, and I can't imagine that takes more than a few minutes.
But I agree, it doesn't look like their best laid plan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVNCZTFx65A).

[Cruiser1]

Friendly Face (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=2) gives you a +5 circumstance bonus on Gather Information checks, but it only lasts 10 minutes/level while Gather Information checks take 1d4+1 hours.
At level 18, Friendly Face will last for 180 minutes or 3 hours, for a 50% chance of one casting covering the length of a standard Gather Information check. Extend it or cast it twice (or Persist it since it's Personal range) and you're guaranteed to have enough time.

[The Viscount]

When one asks "what were WotC thinking?" I have found the best answer is often "they weren't." Definitely one for the dysfunctional rules thread.

[Eugenides]

At level 18, Friendly Face will last for 180 minutes or 3 hours, for a 50% chance of one casting covering the length of a standard Gather Information check. Extend it or cast it twice (or Persist it since it's Personal range) and you're guaranteed to have enough time.

At level 18, I probably will have other ways to bypass some information gathering.

[Ifni]

My sorcerer had this spell (starting at level... 10 or 11, I think) and found it a worthwhile investment. It's a L1 spell, she had a ton of L1 slots, so she just recast it (usually extended through a Lesser Metamagic Rod as those things are dirt cheap) and kept it up for the whole adventuring day, same as she did with See Invisibility. My friends' wizards who used it did the same thing, but via a bag of cheap L1 Pearls of Power.

+5 Diplomacy and +5 Gather Information, in a bonus type that stacks with everything, is pretty good for a L1 spell in terms of holding its value at higher levels, assuming you're a character who cares about those skills. It's certainly a cheaper investment than the equivalent number of skill ranks, and it stacks with those skill ranks. But I do agree there's not much point at L1.

[Chilingsworth]

When one asks "what were WotC thinking?" I have found the best answer is often "they weren't." Definitely one for the dysfunctional rules thread.

I believe I have a better answer:

"WotC thinks?" :smalltongue: