For example, when agreeing with Minthara to attack the grove, the game doesn’t give me any indication that it’s going to be possible to then get to the grove before her and prep
Dont she litteraly tells you that she and her army will wait for your signal?
That most cruicial part of her plan is that you will infiltrate the camp, and open the gate? O_o
I didn’t think she told you that until *after* you agree to help her, but could be wrong there. You could well be right that I simply wasn’t paying enough attention to exactly what she was asking me to do.
But by giving me a “[Deception] Yes, I’ll help you” option the game could indicate to me that I’ll have further choices to make later and can still side with the tieflings after all (as well as giving me the more intangible satisfaction of having my intentions recognised by the game and Minthara a fair chance to realise my insincerity).
1) Thats not how [Deception] works ...
[Deception] is used when you are telling somebody a thing they dont believe ... and roll represents chance that they will believe you, or not ...
Here, same as when Nettie demands you to swear you will drink the poison ...
Minthara have no reason to disbelieve you ... therefore you are not [Decieving] her, even if you lie ... you say exactly what she wants to hear.
I’m not clear on why deception wouldn’t be appropriate here. If my character is intending to betray Minthara at the grove, or even is merely playing along and hasn’t decided whether or not they’re going to support her, they’re not telling the truth if they say they will do as she asks. The fact Minthara isn’t expecting a lie here so probably wouldn’t actively be looking for deception argues to me that the deception check might be an easy one, but not that it’s not applicable at all.
If we turn it around, there are occasions where I don’t have any particular reason to disbelieve an NPC but my insight can alert me to something they’re not being wholly truthful about, or I don’t have reason to think what a companion says is not the whole truth but our linked tadpoles reveal there’s more to the story. I think of this as in effect them failing a deception check, and equivalently Minthara’s insight or tadpole could alert her to my not being on the level, despite her not expecting it.
But if there’s actually a different mechanism from deception within 5e that could or should be used to trigger an NPC insight check or special power like the tadpoles when I’m not telling the truth, then I’m happy to be corrected, and to change my suggestion to use whatever that is instead.
