What skill would you fake your death with?

[Dark Kerman]

Hi playground,

I'm currently designing a changeling factotum who's had an incredibly lively past as a number of different alter egos which he adopts (over the course of about 8 years he's blown through at least 20, with another 17 he flits between). As part of this, I have him down as having faked his death a number of times, and I was wondering which skills (disguise, forgery, bluff, Craft: Fake Death(?)) He would use.

This is more a matter of opinion unless there happen to be rules.

Thanks

DK

[molten_dragon]

It would probably depend on exactly how he was trying to fake his death.

Trying to pretend to be dead while someone is inspecting him? I'd say opposing bluff vs. heal rolls.

Trying to forge a death certificate or other documents related to his death would probably be forgery.

Fooling other people into believing he's someone else other than the 'dead' guy would be bluff and/or disguise.

Trying to make a corpse look like him would probably be disguise.

[PsyBomb]

Disguise plus either Bluff of Perform (Acting). I'd give a special synergy bonus for ranks in Heal, as well.

[Dark Kerman]

Hmm, I was thinking more as in "Oh yeah, old Harry totally died in that fire down Edgar Street, didn't you hear? Corpse was really scorched" Or "Yup, Lisa fell off that waterfall and into the river, to think, they never even found the body".

He does have a good disguise score though (very good in fact) so I suppose leaving a deadringer in his place would be good. :smallbiggrin:

[Zanos]

I'd also say disguise, but I would give the other party an option to make an opposed heal or spot check to detect it, instead of only spot.

You could probably just grab an already dead corpse and disguise it as yourself as well.

[Krobar]

Hmm, I was thinking more as in "Oh yeah, old Harry totally died in that fire down Edgar Street, didn't you hear? Corpse was really scorched" Or "Yup, Lisa fell off that waterfall and into the river, to think, they never even found the body".

He does have a good disguise score though (very good in fact) so I suppose leaving a deadringer in his place would be good. :smallbiggrin:

I would say Bluff, and Disguise.

[sideswipe]

auto hypnosis could work too. the ability to control your breathing down to a level of once or twice a minute (actually possible) and seem like you are dead, but just in a very heavy state of meditation.

[Fenryr]

Feign Death actually exists. Exemplars of Evil, page 21. Alternate Class Feature for Rogue, Monk or Ranger. You do not gain the evasion ability. If your class would grant you improved evasion at a higher level, you instead gain evasion.

As immediate action you you can enter a catatonic state in which you appear to be dead. Raise dead and reincarnation fail. Resurrection and true resurrection ends your feign. You fool spells such as status and deatwatch but a Heal skill check (DC 15 + 1/2 your character lvl + your Con modifier) can discern that you are alive.

[JusticeZero]

Forgery. Travel a lot, have all the legal documents explaining how you died in *insert place that the people you deal with don't spend much time at* returned to them. Also, Gather Information, used in reverse.

[Gildedragon]

Hmm, I was thinking more as in "Oh yeah, old Harry totally died in that fire down Edgar Street, didn't you hear? Corpse was really scorched" Or "Yup, Lisa fell off that waterfall and into the river, to think, they never even found the body".

He does have a good disguise score though (very good in fact) so I suppose leaving a deadringer in his place would be good. :smallbiggrin:

straight up Bluff
Forgery for any official evidence, but Bluff is the skill ya want.

[Fenryr]

There's also the feat Combat Panache (Bluff vs Sense Motive). Fake Death spell from 3.0 and Rigor Mortis from Heroes of Horror in 3.5.

[Dark Kerman]

Cool. Thanks for the feedback people. It's pretty good anyway as he has pretty much all these skills anyhow. Should be fun when I get to play him (And complete his massive backstory)

[Coidzor]

Forgery - Death Certificate

Bluff - Passing yourself off as someone else, less than relevant to a changeling, though. Possibly relevant to help pass off the doctored body disguised as your previous identity as your past self.

Craft (Taxidermy)/Profession (Taxidermist)- Alter the dentalwork of the orc you murdered before burning it in order to produce a believable corpse to pass off as your own.

Disguise - other alterations of the corpse.

Profession(Cadaver Burner) - Doing a good job burning the corpse enough to be recognizable as you but not so much that the fact that it's not you can be detected (easily).

[AMFV]

Epic usage of bluff.

[thatryanguy]

Craft (Practical special effects)

So many shenanigans.