Persuasion (Cha)

Persuasion, quite simply, is used to persuade another to accept your point of view, resolve differences and negotiate between two parties, or to haggle over the price of goods.

Persuasion is usually opposed by a character’s Insight skill check, as they weigh and evaluate your words and motivations to come to a conclusion. Their relationship with you combined with the difficulty or risk of what you propose applies a modifier to their Insight check.

Relationships range from Intimate to Nemesis.

• Intimate characters have known you for an extensive period of time and have a strong, abiding love for you. This may be a lover or spouse, a lifelong best friend or blood brother, or a close parent or child.
• Friends have a close, personal relationship with you and are willing to go out of their way to help you. This category also includes (most) siblings. Characters under the influence of charm person and similar effects also fall into this category.
• An Ally is aligned with you, working towards the same end goal or for the same cause or employer. Soldiers of the same army, a cleric of the same faith, and similar individuals with the same objective are allies.
• Acquaintances are familiar enough with you to recognize you by name or face, such as a merchant you have done business with a few times or the barkeep at your favorite tavern.
• Unknown/Indifferent are all individuals who have never met you and likely have never heard of you. Similarly, characters who may know you but genuinely don’t care one way or the other are in this category. If you are particularly famous, even total strangers who have heard of your deeds may fall into another category.
• Unfriendly characters recognize you and have bad memories of the interaction, such as a person you snubbed once or a guard who arrested for your public intoxication. They dislike you but don’t harbor any particular malice towards you.
• Hostile characters have a strong dislike for you or are working towards an opposing goal. These may be characters who have issues with you personally, your team, or just the people you work for.
• A character with Hatred towards you has very strong feelings and is willing to go out of their way to harm you. There is little you can do to sway them in your favor.
• A Nemesis has sworn a personal vendetta against you and may even go so far as to sacrifice their own life if it would but slay or ruin you. Almost nothing will stay their hand from striking against you given the opportunity.

The Risk associated with what you proposal also affects the modifier to their Insight check. However, this can be offset by a high reward. The size of a risk, how appealing any potential reward is, and how much risk the reward offsets is determined by the GM and should be determined from the point of view of the NPC.

• Fortuitous situations have minimal to no risk or offer rewards that massively outstrip any risk. These would be things like offering a large sum of gold for the location of a local tavern, offering to slay a troublesome local monster without payment, or offering information that could lead to the victorious end of a war.
• Favorable situations typically have manageable risks with higher rewards. Offering to aid someone in a battle for a split of the pay or first pick of the loot would often be viewed favorably.
• Average situations have risks with commensurate rewards—high risk but high reward, low risk and low reward, or any other situation where the risk and reward are about the same.
• Unfavorable situations simply do not offer enough reward to even balance the risk.
• Catastrophic situations extreme risk with minimal reward. Even if everything goes to plan, the best likely result will be a pyrrhic victory that will cost those involved far more than they gain.

Persuade

When you attempt to influence a character or a group with tact, social graces, or good nature, you make a Persuasion check. You must be acting in good faith to persuade someone, otherwise you use the Deception skill.

If your check is successful, you have convinced the target of your position. Any agreement that involves a trade of physical goods, money, services, promises, or even abstract concepts like “satisfaction” is considered a binding agreement by the other party, and they will expect you to follow through with your end of the deal as agreed. Some may even require the agreement to be presented in writing.

Attempting to persuade requires interaction between you and the target. Creatures unaware of you cannot be persuaded.

Haggling

A specialized form of persuasion is used for negotiating price when buying or selling goods. A character can oppose a Haggling attempt with Insight, Profession, or their own Persuasion (Haggling) check as they choose.

In general, you can buy an item for its listed price and sell an item for half its listed price. Most merchants won’t deviate from these listed prices; however, in certain situations or for rare or valuable items, merchants may be willing to haggle. (A successful Persuade attempt might also convince a merchant to haggle.)

A haggling attempt applies the Insight modifiers described above, but unless the items are stolen or otherwise dangerous, the Risk is always evaluated as Average. On the other hand, haggling to sell a misidentified or undervalued item may be seen as Favorable or even Fortuitous.

A merchant will always use the market price for a known item or use Profession to Appraise an Item to determine the market price of an unknown item.

For every 5 points that your Haggling attempt exceeds your opponent’s skill check, the merchant will adjust the price in your favor by 5%. Regardless of your haggling attempt, a merchant will never buy an item for more than 75% of market price, nor will they sell an item for less than 75% of market price. If you ever move the price more than 25% in your favor, it’s because the merchant was probably cheating you. (Commodities and intrinsically valuable goods will never be purchased for more than 110% market price or sold for less than 90% of market price.)

If your check succeeds by 4 or less or fails by 4 or less, the price is unchanged. A little friendly haggling may be appreciated, but it doesn’t change the price.

If your Haggling attempt fails by 5 or more, the merchant will adjust the price against you by 5%, either charging your more or paying you less for the items. There is no limit to how much a merchant is willing to overcharge or underpay you.