Attitude

Players will usually engage in social interaction to forward a goal. They want to extract information, secure aid, win someone's trust, escape punishment, avoid combat, negotiate a treaty, or achieve whatever other objective led to the interaction in the first place. The creatures they interact with also have agendas. These social interactions will typically be run as a free-form role-playing exercise, where dice rarely come into play. However, this makes it ambiguous for the DM to determine how to resolve certain interactions, asking for a check with an arbitrary DC, or no DC at all. Whilst this works fine, it makes it harder on the DM to make living and believable interactions.

## **Attitude**

Attitude reflects to the way a certain person or faction sees the players, and determines how difficult it is to convince them to work with the players, serving as a framework for the DM to base the difficulty of an interaction.

### **Friendly**

A friendly entity wants to help the players and wishes for them to succeed. For tasks or actions that require no particular risk, effort, or cost, friendly entities usually help without question. If an element personal risk is involved, a successful Charisma check might be required to convince a friendly entity to take that risk.

### **Neutral**

An neutral entity will aid or harm the party according to what nets it the most benefits. An entity's neutrality doesn't necessarily make it standoffish or disinterested, they will simply not consider for the players and go on about their own business. A successful Charisma check is necessary when the players try to persuade an indifferent entity to do something.

### **Hostile**

A hostile entity opposes the players and their goals but doesn't necessarily attack them on sight. They may simply consider the party as an obstacle, or as a thorn on their side. The players need to succeed on one or more challenging Charisma checks to convince a hostile entity to do anything on their behalf. That said , a hostile entity might be so ill-disposed toward the party that no Charisma check can improve its attitude, in which case any attempt to sway them through diplomacy fails automatically.

## **Interaction Results**

When the players get to their point - or if you decide the argument has run its course - call for a Charisma check. Any character who has actively participated in the conversation can make the check. Depending on how the players handled the conversation , the Persuasion, Deception , Intimidation or Seduction skill might apply to the check. The creature's current attitude determines the DC required to achieve a specific reaction, as shown in the table below.

 **10** | The entity accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked.
 **15** | The entity accepts a significant risk or sacrifice to do as asked.
 **20** | The entity accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked.

### **Aiding the Check**

Other players who make substantial contributions to the conversation can help a character make the check. If a helping character says or does something that would influence the interaction in a positive way, the character making the Charisma check can do so with advantage. If the other character inadvertently says something counterproductive or offensive, the character making the Charisma check has disadvantage on that check. If many players have contributed significantly to the check, give it a +1 or -1 bonus for each character who contributed to the result of the roll instead of gaining advantage.

### **Multiple Checks**

Certain situations might call for more than one check, particularly if the players come into the interaction with multiple goals. The players may also get another chance to influence the target's Attitude. However, once a Charisma check has been made, further attempts to influence the target of the interaction may run the risk of upsetting or angering the entity, potentially shifting its attitude toward Hostility. For example, a player might be able to diffuse a situation caused by another, and be granted the opportunity to make a Charisma check to repair the entity's Attitude. Conversely, a player that attempts to extort the entity for further benefits might shift its Attitude to be more Hostile after having it raised.

## **Changing Attitudes**

An entity's Attitude isn't static, and is subject to change as the player's interact with it and with the rest of the world - it is even subject to change over the course of an interaction. If the players say or do the right things during an interaction, perhaps by pulling on their interests, weaknesses and bonds, they can make a Hostile entity temporarily Neutral, or make a Neutral entity temporarily Friendly. Likewise, a gaffe, insult, or harmful deed might make a Friendly entity temporarily Neutral or turn a Neutral creature Hostile.

Whether the players can shift an entity's attitude is up to the DM. They decide whether the players have successfully couched their statements in terms that matter to the entity. Typically, a entity's attitude can't shift more than one step during a single interaction , whether temporarily or permanently, but the DM may find it justified to do so anyway.