What makes a Party face?

[Arc_knight25]

Now, I know that Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate are the big ones to get your points across in game.

I just feel like there is more variables at work.

Lets say for example, a Wizard needs to convey to the town about this ancient magical gate that could destroy the town.

The Wizard knows what needs to be done and said and has the knowledge to support his arguement. But since he doesn't have a good interaction skill the town may not listen to him.

While a Rogue in the same situation may have no idea what the gate does but since he has ranks in an interaction skill he'll have an easier time bending the towns ear.

So is just skill ranks in the Interaction skills what make a Party face?

[Traab]

From a mechanics standpoint yeah, those skills makes being the party face easier. From a roleplay standpoint, things like your wizard example should always be considered. Someone with high levels of diplomacy is a general party face. He can work in most scenarios and do it well. Your wizard would only be very useful as the face in that one narrow example, because people are more willing to believe a weatherman when he says a tornado is coming even if he is an ass about it.

[geonova]

as well as the interaction skills, a party face is mainly a roleplaying position, so some DMs will add penalties to you if what you say isn't good enough to support your rolls

[Arc_knight25]

Would it be a fair assumtion that a more experience player could be a party face even without the interaction skills to aid in them in this role?

I just feel like there is only a few ways to be good a party face. 1 having a good interaction skill the other using spells to just get what you want.

Now the 2nd can have some serious problems if a DC is made.

[geonova]

if your spellcasters are using spells to emulate a party face/ get what they want, then a normal party face is redundant, although you can laugh as your party's alignments start to shift towards evil

[Asrrin]

Any player can be a party face, but some characters make it more easy than others, especially with skills and/or spells.

GITP is a prime example where Roy is most often the spokesperson for the group despite his skills as a fighter. Elan, the bard, should normally have the mechanical skills to function is a "better" party face, but Elan's personality precludes this option.

[Chronos]

There are also some harder-to-pin-down advantages to some classes. For instance, if you're known to be a paladin, or a cleric of the locally-dominant Lawful Good god, people are more likely to afford you some respect, and assume that you're dealing straight with them.

[Tegannie]

Another factor is the situation: in the Underdark, our Drow rogue was our party face most of the time, while on the surface, our Elf cleric is. But, when we were dealing with my chacater's people (a homebrew, tiny fey race) (and a similar people in the Underdark who really hated Drow), I became the party face, with a little bit of help from the others b/c ooc I'm not very good at that.

As mentioned before, roleplaying is a big part of it. In another game, I'm a Changling favored soul, but because ooc I'm shy and not very good at being the party face yet, our duskblade tends to take on that role.

[Person_Man]

I would say having high Sense Motive and Diplomacy are all that's really required. Sense Motive is even more important the Diplo in my games - you can often convince NPCs of things just by roleplaying intelligently. But if an NPC is lying to you, there's basically no other way to know besides magic or psionics, and even then they can be bypassed more easily then really high Sense Motive.

It's also nice but not required to be able to read minds and/or use Compulsions. If your Skill fails for whatever reason, they provide a redundancy.

[Arc_knight25]

So from what I'm gathering, all you need to be a good party face mechanics wise is Diplomacy, Sense Motive and of course Spells to aid or make those skills redundent.

But from a Player point of view anyone can be the party face, all that is needed is experience in asking relevent questions and potentially seeing when a trap is coming.

This second point though has its drawbacks since your to be RP your character. Player Knowledge shoudn't override Character Knowledge.

i.e

You have an experienced player playing a Fighter. And the newest player to the group plays a charismatic Bard. The Fighter Player knows what questions to ask and how to ask them, while the New Bard may just be asking questions and getting side tracked by some other line of questioning straying from what the Party is trying to aim for.

OOC chat at the table will help this.

I guess this scenario is very much like GITP.