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Hi,

I've played EA for about 43 hours so far and I feel like the most frustrating thing I've encountered so far is the dialogue rolls for convincing an NPC to do something. I've personally vowed to hit that 16 charisma check and loaded a save 20 times before giving up. Now I know how RNGs work and understand the dice aren't rigged but the roll requirements feel at times unbeatable or make you feel like you've offended some divinity of luck, probability and chance.

I have two suggestions that don't require lowering the check thresholds:

1. As your character approval goes up with your companions I feel like you should get a bonus to these checks (maybe excluding intimidation) . For example +0 for neutral, +1 for medium, +2 for high, +3 for very high +4 for exceptional. My reason is that lets face it I bet your friends have talked you into doing something stupid or that you were not inclined not to do. I'm wagering that your level of fondness for said friend directly impacted how hard it was to convince you to do something. Or maybe extra dice rolls based on approval rating. I'd even say its fair that the inverse should exist (penalties for low approval).


2. More flexible and more numerous stat checks. Why is it you only get persuasion or intimidation checks on most dialogue checks? Couldn't you use intelligence to trick someone into revealing more that they should? Wisdom to control the conversation to a path that you know will get them to agree? And if the first check fails maybe you should get a chance to change tactics and try a different check.

If either of these are already mechanics of the game I've overlooked, sorry.

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Originally Posted by TheWasatchCrown


I bet your friends have talked you into doing something stupid or that you were not inclined not to do. I'm wagering that your level of fondness for said friend directly impacted how hard it was to convince you to do something.



+1

Well said and a good idea how to implement that. A similar mechanic could also work in settlements and/or factions. For example you save Arabella so the Druids like you and diplomatic checks will get a +1.

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Exactly!

We all have biases that influence us whether we realize it or not. Most people's sports team is their team because their parents were fans or some nonsensical reason. Bias to your kin, kith and regionality have influenced the course of this world for countless centuries and traditionally in the forgotten realms world it exists too. The Drow from Menzoberranzan are extremely xenophobic in the lore and while less evil so are the Dwarves so you should probably get a bonus for the same race with those two races.

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I've had something similar in mind. I may as well add to it that
1) sometimes it feels really lackluster when you catch someone in a lie, for instance. Your dialogue changes slightly but the response and effect is identical.
2) it feels like you should be able to affect most dice rolls (at least positively, but potentially negatively) by investigating a situation before speaking to a key character. It would make sense that you can add something you revealed about a character to get a bonus to your intimidation check, or if you read a persons diary previous to engaging in dialogue you may get some insight or advantage in certain skill checks.

If it's not touched upon in the rule book it could be motivated by playing the GM card; a simulated GM that rewards you for creativity.

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Originally Posted by frequentic
I've had something similar in mind. I may as well add to it that
1) sometimes it feels really lackluster when you catch someone in a lie, for instance. Your dialogue changes slightly but the response and effect is identical.
2) it feels like you should be able to affect most dice rolls (at least positively, but potentially negatively) by investigating a situation before speaking to a key character. It would make sense that you can add something you revealed about a character to get a bonus to your intimidation check, or if you read a persons diary previous to engaging in dialogue you may get some insight or advantage in certain skill checks.

If it's not touched upon in the rule book it could be motivated by playing the GM card; a simulated GM that rewards you for creativity.


Well it IS touched on in the rulebook. The GM can (and should) often and for the sake of fun go "you succeed" when you attempt something. Skill Checks are meant to be challenges to moving the story forward but they are not meant as roadblocks that stop progress if you fail, rather failure should result in some sort of "loss" (gold, HP, resources, whatever) and still let you progress, or provide you with a different, more dangerous avenue of progress.

I actually really like your point 2 and it could easily be extended to also allow being able to auto-succeed on Skill Checks where you have the right information/item/class/race/whatever in some cases.


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