Skill checks(bluff, intimidate, etc)

[Farwalker]

Using logic and common sense for me at least would be such as:

Intimidate vs Will save- you are using your willpower to not be intimidated.

Bluff vs Wisdom- are you smart enough to realize the person is lying

Move silently vs listen

hide vs spot

Diplomacy vs Charisma - who has the stronger personality

. . . .just to call out a few main ones.

Also as far as difficultly we all have to be fair and truthful.

The difficulty depends on what information the character knows. If the character has actual evidence the difficulty would be higher for the person who is bluffing and lower for the person who is making the Will save.

Simply "having a suspicion" doesn't seem to be relevent to change the difficulty.

Also level range should matter I think. We can tell a degree of level difference by examining each other. A level 5 and a level 20 character meeting for example. To the level 20, the level 5 character would be effortless and the level 20 character would be impossible for the level 5. It is a matter of skll, power and experiance. Standardly a person of great skill such as a master swordsman has an ability to "judge" the skill or power of an opponent.

As always we have to be truthful and fair.

[Alterity]

The difficulty depends on what information the character knows. If the character has actual evidence the difficulty would be higher for the person who is bluffing and lower for the person who is making the Will save.

Simply "having a suspicion" doesn't seem to be relevent to change the difficulty.

If anything, we can refer to the d20srd site for guidelines:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/bluff.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/intimidate.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/diplomacy.htm

If the the person knows there is no way this could be true (Say... I am trying to bluff Kenshin that Bart just opened an orphanage and is a good guy now) then it would increase it by 20. These are guidelines only. And in some cases the person will not believe it no matter what.

Also level range should matter I think. We can tell a degree of level difference by examining each other. A level 5 and a level 20 character meeting for example. To the level 20, the level 5 character would be effortless and the level 20 character would be impossible for the level 5. It is a matter of skll, power and experiance. Standardly a person of great skill such as a master swordsman has an ability to "judge" the skill or power of an opponent.

Maybe in Intimidate, but I don't think bluffing and diplomacy are effected by strength. To put it simple, children lie to their parents, and the parent is more powerful usually. Diplomacy also typically is used by anyone that doesn't want to fight.

[Vahene]

For the record, I agree with Farwalker's post above.

That being said, my weapon's master/bard/fighter/NW9 has a lot of ranks in Intimidate. If she ever tried to intimidate Pere's sorcerer, Phelan - she'd lose, no matter how high the roll actually was in game. My personal reason as to why: there's no way in the world that anyone with full intimidate ranks (me being one of those people, mind you) is going to be able to intimidate a sorcerer (or wizard for that matter), who has insane will saves (and Phelan's level 20, I believe, so they are pretty high I'm betting).

To me, high will is going to negate intimidate, immunity from fear aside.

Not that I normally use intimidate for anything other than NPC encounters... but, still... thought I'd comment on the subject with my 2 cents.

K