Sense Motive (WIS)

You may use Sense Motive to determine when someone is lying, or to otherwise gauge someone's true intentions.

A successful check lets you avoid being bluffed (see the Con (CHA) skill). You can also use this skill to determine when “something is up” (that is, something odd is going on) or to assess someone’s trustworthiness.

This use of the skill involves making a gut assessment of the social situation. You can get the feeling from another’s behavior that something is wrong, such as when you’re talking to an impostor. Alternatively, you can get the feeling that someone is trustworthy.

The DC is equal to 10 + Con skill bonus of the target. On the result of a failure you are unable to get a read. You do not get a false positive or false negative.

You can tell that someone’s behavior is being influenced by an enchantment effect even if that person isn’t aware of it. The usual DC is 25, but if the target is dominated (see dominate person), the DC is only 15 because of the limited range of the target’s activities.

You may use Sense Motive to detect that a hidden message is being transmitted via the Con skill. In this case, your Sense Motive check is opposed by the Con check of the character transmitting the message. For each piece of information relating to the message that you are missing, you take a –2 penalty on your Sense Motive check. If you succeed by 4 or less, you know that something hidden is being communicated, but you can’t learn anything specific about its content. If you beat the DC by 5 or more, you intercept and understand the message. If you fail by 4 or less, you don’t detect any hidden communication. If you fail by 5 or more, you might infer false information.

As a Swift Action you may Assess a target you can perceive. If you meet the DC you may acquire some basic information about your target such as overall danger the target imposes. For every 5 you exceed the DC by you gain more information. You can ask about a single weakness the creature possesses, a special attack, a statistic compared to your own (response is more, less or equal to).

The DC is set by the target and is equal to 10 + Con skill Bonus of the target.