Skill Combat

Paizo's performance combat system can be adapted to create skill challenges. Here's how. You can adapt these rules for other forms of "Combat" as well, especially if you want to run a series of extended and opposed checks (such as for a heist, with the crowd representing a building or structure and its inherit difficulty).

Example of Skill Combat: Influence Combat

Characters sometimes find themselves among a crowd, or even an individual, where the reaction is at least as important as a hand-to-hand combat. Whether a debate or a hurriedly given speech, contests or events regarding Influence hinge on the opportunities at hand.

The following rules for Influence allow you as the GM to run an encounter, or even a series of combat encounters, in which the combatants must not only win the battle, but also win over the crowd. In Influence, a “crowd” is defined as an NPC, or a group of NPCs.

Influencing Crowd Attitudes

A person, or a crowd, remains an active participant within an Influence contest. The audience can bolster or demoralize the competitors with their enthusiasm or scorn, their disbelief or support.

A crowd's attitude is similar to a nonplayer character's attitude when a character uses the raw Diplomacy skill (which this is partially replacing). The DC of an influence check to improve crowd reaction is tied to the crowd's starting or current attitude. For the purposes of Influence, a crowd may be an extended body—such as the nurses at an Althean hospital the PC wishes to interview. That is, Influence may involve a series of extended checks over time. It could also represent a quest to gather information.

Crowd Starting Attitude
Hostile	The crowd does not like/believe what it is seeing. Hostile crowds are hard to win over, and requite greater concentration. Persons attempting Influence such a crowd take a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws. This is a mind-affecting effect. A caster may not attempt to Influence a hostile crowd while casting a spell. If the crowd is hostile toward a side of the Influence combat, and a member of that side fails a Influence check by 5 or more, that side automatically loses the Influence part of the combat. This can be important for the story of the game, or if the PCs are participating in serialized performance combats.
Unfriendly	Unfriendly crowds have a demoralizing effect. In these contests, while the crowd is unfriendly toward a given side, an Influencer takes a –1 penalty on all attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws. This is a mind-affecting effect. A caster may not attempt to influence an Unfriendly crowd while casting a spell.
Indifferent	The crowd is potentially open-minded, but may swing either way. Audience members show little emotion other than anticipation and a desire for daring feats of combat to occur.
Friendly	The crowd is beginning to be swayed toward one side, and potentially or possibly believes you. This friendly reaction grants a +1 morale bonus on all attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws for their chosen side. This is a mind-affecting effect.
Helpful	The crowd is helpful and supportive. A helpful crowd grants its chosen champions a +2 morale bonus on all attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws. This is a mind-affecting effect.

Crowd's Starting Attitude

The first thing a GM must do when handling Influence is determine the crowd's starting attitude. Typically a crowd (defined as an immediate NPC, group of NPCs, or whomever the PCs will be interacting with) starts out with an indifferent attitude (or hostile, if in combat). Favored champions of a specific city may start at a higher attitude step while within that city, while outsiders, prisoners of war, or criminals may start at a lower attitude step.

Influence Check

Whenever a combatant has a chance to affect the crowd's attitude, she makes an Influence check. The check is a Charisma ability check modified by the hit dice of the character plus a bonus based on one of the following: ranks a character has in a related Craft, Profession, or Performance skill (for example, Profession/Merchant would apply when influencing crowds of merchants), or Diplomacy, whichever is highest. Characters also receive a +2 to a check relating to an organization they are an active part of or possess RPP influence with. Making an Influence check varies in terms of action. A speech given during combat may require a full-round action, whereas gathering information on the streets of Veyshan may require several days.

Other suggestions: +1 for being of the same nationality, or -1 for an opposing one.

Hit Dice	Bonus on Influence Check
0	+0
1–5	+1
6–10	+2
11–15	+3
16+	+4

Highest Relevant Craft, Profession, Perform, or Diplomacy Ranks	Bonus on Influence Check
0	+0
1–5	+1
6–10	+2
11–15	+3
16+	+4

Succeeding at an Influence check improves the attitude of the crowd by one step. Unlike skill checks, a roll of a natural 20 on an Influence check always succeeds. Failing the check either leaves the attitude unchanged or, if the check fails by 5 or more, causes the attitude of the crowd to decrease by one step. The DC of the check is determined by the crowd's current attitude, with a number of adjustments to the DC granted by the circumstances of the performance combat. If the crowd's current attitude is helpful, a successful check grants the favored side 1 victory point.

Influence Check DC

The Influence check's DC is based on a number of factors, including the starting or current attitude of the crowd, the size of the crowd, and the number of creatures participating in the influence combat. The base DC of the influence combat check is determined by the current attitude of the crowd toward the side of combat.

Starting or Current Attitude	Base DC to Improve Attitude
Hostile	20
Unfriendly	15
Indifferent	10
Friendly	15
Helpful	20

The base DC is modified by the size of the crowd, the number of participants on each side, and a number of other circumstances.

Size of the Crowd: Larger crowds are harder to sway to one side or the other. It takes great shows of daring or a progression of numerous displays of crowd-pleasing actions to get them to change their attitude. Presented here are the general crowd sizes and their effects on the DC to improve crowd attitudes and gain victory points.

Small Crowd: A small crowd contains no fewer than two and no more than 25 creatures. It does not increase the base DC of all influence combat checks.

Medium Crowd: A medium crowd contains no fewer than 26 and no more than 100 creatures. A medium crowd increases the DC of all influence combat checks by +2.

Large Crowd: A large crowd contains no fewer than 101 and no more than 300 creatures. A large crowd increases the DC of all influence combat checks by +3.

Massive Mob: A massive mob is made up of no fewer than 301 creatures, and its numbers can expand into the thousands. A massive mob increases the DC of all influence combat checks by +4.

Total Number of Combatants: The participation of a large number of combatants increases the difficulty of swaying the crowd. Large groups of combatants make it difficult for a crowd to follow the entire battle and to catch actions from individuals that could possibly sway the audience's attitude. Adjust these modifications as combatants enter or leave the battle.

Small Battle: If the battle is between a total of 2–8 combatants, there is no change to the base DC to improve the attitude of the crowd or gain victory points.

Medium Battle: If the battle is between 9–16 combatants, the DC to improve the attitude of the crowd or gain victory points increases by +4.

Large Battle: A battle with 17 or more total combatants increases the DC to improve the attitude of the crowd by +8.

Other Circumstances That Affect DC: Other circumstances that always affect the DC to improve the attitude of the crowd or gain victory points include the following.

Cheating: If one side visibly cheats or breaks the rules, the DC for that side of the influence combat to improve the attitude of the crowd increases by 2 for the remainder of the influence combat. This increase can occur multiple times in a battle. For the purpose of spotting cheating, determine the base Perception and Sense Motive for the average member of a crowd (usually +0 if you assume an average human) and apply the following modifiers based on crowd size. The DC is based on whatever action the combatant is using to hide any cheating (usually Bluff or Stealth).

Crowd Size	Bonus on Perception and Sense Motive Checks to Spot Cheating
Small crowd	+8
Medium crowd	+12
Large crowd	+16
Massive mob	+20

Outnumbered: If one side of the battle outnumbers the others by less than a 2:1 ratio, the DC for that side to improve the attitude of the crowd or to gain victory points increases by 2. If one side outnumbers all others by a ratio of 2:1 or more, the DC for that side to improve the attitude of the crowd increases by 6. These increases to the DC end or are reduced to the appropriate level if the numbers become even or if the 2:1 ratio of combatants is ever brought down to outnumbering the other sides by less than a 2:1 ratio.

Unfair Advantage: If one side of the battle has an obvious unfair advantage (for example, one side starts the battle in a fortified position or has better weapons and armor, or its opponents are not armed at all), the DC to improve the attitude of the crowd is increased by 2. A GM can increase the DC by as much as 6 if the unfair advantage is severe enough.

Bribery or Coercion: Crowds can be bribed or coerced. Typically a successful bribe or attempt at coercion involves paying some amount of gold based on the crowd size, and succeeding at a Diplomacy check with a DC based on the size of the crowd. If the gold is paid and the Diplomacy check fails, the side gains a penalty for cheating instead, though the gold is still spent. If the check succeeds, the DC to improve crowd reaction and gain victory points decreases by 2. For every 5 points over the DC by which the combatants make the check, the DC to improve the crowd's attitude or to gain a victory point decreases by 1.

Crowd Size	Influence DC	Gold Paid
Small crowd	DC 15	25 gp
Medium crowd	DC 20	250 gp
Large crowd	DC 25	750 gp
Massive mob	DC 30	2,000 gp

Affecting the Crowd's Attitude

For a combatant to affect the crowd's reaction in some way, he must usually accomplish some deed (which does not have to be a speech—for example, volunteering for a set of days or returning a stolen item) display that has a chance of motivating the crowd toward a new attitude. The type of action required for the check varies.

When a combatant performs or causes one of the triggers described in the sections that follow, he can typically make a influence combat check as a swift action to improve the attitude of the crowd. The swift action usually involves some form of flourish, display, or show in the attempt to grab the attention of the crowd.

Other times, a influence combat check must be performed. These mandatory influence combat checks are not actions, and usually have detrimental effects if the check is not successful.

The following are the standard triggers for making a performance combat check. The triggers are organized by the action type required to attempt or to make the performance combat check.

Note: The original performance combat rules suggest a number of action types, such as performing a combat maneuver. These are not applicable to influence combat, obviously, so this is where imagination kicks in. The DM might assume in general a standard or full round action based on the character doing something creative--such as using a prop, for example, or creating an illusion to demonstrate a point. During combat, giving a speech should be considered a full-round action...if the influence combat even involves or generally tracks action usage.

Mandatory checks could be triggered by the opponent doing something particularly effective that the characters would then need to counter, not unlike a debate.

Victory Points

When a side is benefiting from a helpful crowd reaction and succeeds at a influence combat check, that side gains a victory point. Victory points are kept in a pool, and can be spent by anyone on a given side of a influence combat at any time during the influence combat, as long as no one on the side objects to the use of the victory point. Victory points can be spent during a performance combat in the following ways. Spending a victory point is not an action.

• A combatant can spend a victory point to gain an automatic success at a influence combat check, but cannot spend the victory point to succeed at a influence combat check while the crowd has a helpful attitude toward that combatant's side of the influence combat.

• A combatant can spend a victory point to make a free or immediate action influence combat check as no action, allowing the combatant to make the check when it is not the combatant's turn without spending an immediate action.

• A combatant can spend a victory point to force an opponent in a influence combat to reroll a influence combat check. The opponent must take the effect of the reroll.

While running a group of serialized influence combats, any unspent victory points are saved and can be used during the next influence combat, and can affect the starting attitude of the crowd.

In the case of serialized combats, decisively winning a check by having a higher crowd attitude than the opposing team or teams at the end of the performance combat wins 1 victory point for each combatant on the winning side.

Splitting Up Victory Points: Sometimes, in the case of team influence combat, the lineup of a influence combat team may change. If this occurs, it may be important to split up any victory points the team has gained. Victory points should be split as evenly as possible among the combatants within a team, with the remainder going to combatants in any way the team chooses (but with no individual player receiving more than 1 point from the remainder). For instance, if a team is made up of four combatants, but at the end of a bout there are 6 victory points, all four combatants gain at least 1 victory point, and two members of the team each receive 1 additional point, as chosen by the members of the team in any way the members deem fair.

Determining a Winner

When the influence combat is concluded, the side with the highest attitude wins over the crowd. In the case of a tie, use victory points to determine the winner. If the bout is still a tie, that influence combat is a tie.

Serialized Influence Checks

If you are running a series of influence combats as part of your campaign, successes and failures for each influence combat can affect the starting attitude of the crowd in future influence combats in the series, both negatively and positively.

If one side of a influence combat loses the influence part of the combat by failing an influence combat check by 5 while the crowd has a hostile attitude, on the very next bout, the crowd starts with an unfriendly attitude instead of the indifferent attitude.

If a side of the influence combat starts with at least 1 victory point per member of the side, the crowd's attitude starts as friendly toward that side instead of indifferent. If the side has at least 3 victory points per member, the crowd starts as helpful instead of indifferent.