Exploring dungeons, overcoming obstacles, and slaying monsters are key parts of D&D adventures. No less important, though, are the social interactions that adventurers have with other inhabitants of the world.
Interaction takes on many forms. You might need to convince an unscrupulous thief to confess to some malfeasance, or you might try to flatter a dragon so that it will spare your life. The DM assumes the roles of any characters who are participating in the interaction that don’t belong to another player at the table. Any such character is called a nonplayer character (NPC).
In general terms, an NPC’s attitude toward you is described as friendly, indifferent, or hostile. Friendly NPCs are predisposed to help you, and hostile ones are inclined to get in your way. It’s easier to get what you want from a friendly NPC, of course.
Social interactions have two primary aspects: roleplaying and ability checks.
Roleplaying is, literally, the act of playing out a role. In this case, it’s you as a player determining how your character thinks, acts, and talks.
Roleplaying is a part of every aspect of the game, and it comes to the fore during social interactions. Your character’s quirks, mannerisms, and personality influence how interactions resolve.
There are two styles you can use when roleplaying your character: the descriptive approach and the active approach. Most players use a combination of the two styles. Use whichever mix of the two works best for you.
With this approach, you describe your character’s words and actions to the DM and the other players. Drawing on your mental image of your character, you tell everyone what your character does and how he or she does it.
For instance, Chris plays Tordek the dwarf. Tordek has a quick temper and blames the elves of the Cloakwood for his family’s misfortune. At a tavern, an obnoxious elf minstrel sits at Tordek’s table and tries to strike up a conversation with the dwarf.
Chris says, “Tordek spits on the floor, growls an insult at the bard, and stomps over to the bar. He sits on a stool and glares at the minstrel before ordering another drink.”
In this example, Chris has conveyed Tordek’s mood and given the DM a clear idea of his character’s attitude and actions.
When using descriptive roleplaying, keep the following things in mind:
Don’t worry about getting things exactly right. Just focus on thinking about what your character would do and describing what you see in your mind.
If descriptive roleplaying tells your DM and your fellow players what your character thinks and does, active roleplaying shows them.
When you use active roleplaying, you speak with your character’s voice, like an actor taking on a role. You might even echo your character’s movements and body language. This approach is more immersive than descriptive roleplaying, though you still need to describe things that can’t be reasonably acted out.
Going back to the example of Chris roleplaying Tordek above, here’s how the scene might play out if Chris used active roleplaying:
Speaking as Tordek, Chris says in a gruff, deep voice, “I was wondering why it suddenly smelled awful in here. If I wanted to hear anything out of you, I’d snap your arm and enjoy your screams.” In his normal voice, Chris then adds, “I get up, glare at the elf, and head to the bar.”
The DM uses your character’s actions and attitudes to determine how an NPC reacts. A cowardly NPC buckles under threats of violence. A stubborn dwarf refuses to let anyone badger her. A vain dragon laps up flattery.
When interacting with an NPC, pay close attention to the DM’s portrayal of the NPC’s mood, dialogue, and personality. You might be able to determine an NPC’s personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds, then play on them to influence the NPC’s attitude.
Interactions in D&D are much like interactions in real life. If you can offer NPCs something they want, threaten them with something they fear, or play on their sympathies and goals, you can use words to get almost anything you want. On the other hand, if you insult a proud warrior or speak ill of a noble’s allies, your efforts to convince or deceive will fall short.
In addition to roleplaying, ability checks are key in determining the outcome of an interaction.
Your roleplaying efforts can alter an NPC’s attitude, but there might still be an element of chance in the situation. For example, your DM can call for a Charisma check at any point during an interaction if he or she wants the dice to play a role in determining an NPC’s reactions. Other checks might be appropriate in certain situations, at your DM’s discretion.
Pay attention to your skill proficiencies when thinking of how you want to interact with an NPC, and stack the deck in your favor by using an approach that relies on your best bonuses and skills. If the group needs to trick a guard into letting them into a castle, the rogue who is proficient in Deception is the best bet to lead the discussion. When negotiating for a hostage’s release, the cleric with Persuasion should do most of the talking.
This section provides a step-by-step, structured way to resolve a social interaction. Much of this structure will be invisible to players in play and are meant as guidelines, not as a substitute for roleplaying.
Determine the starting attitude of the creature or NPC the adventurers are interacting with: friendly, indifferent, or hostile. Alternatively, you can roll on the Reaction Table if you are uncertain of how an NPC would react.
| Reaction Table | |
| 2d6 | Attitude |
| 2-5 | Hostile |
| 6-8 | Indifferent |
| 9-12 | Friendly |
Friendly. A Friendly creature wants to help the adventurers and wishes for them to succeed. For tasks or actions that require no particular risk, effort, or cost, Friendly creatures often help happily, with the Charisma check succeeding automatically. If an element of personal risk is involved, a successful Charisma check is usually required to convince a Friendly creature to take that risk.
Indifferent. This is the default Attitude for DM controlled creatures. An Indifferent creature might help or hinder the party, depending on what the creature sees as most beneficial. A creature’s indifference doesn’t necessarily make it standoffish or disinterested. Indifferent creatures might be polite and genial, surly and irritable, or anything in between. A successful Charisma check is usually necessary when the adventurers try to influence an Indifferent creature to do something.
Hostile. A Hostile creature opposes the adventurers and their goals but doesn’t necessarily attack them on sight. The adventurers need to succeed on one or more Charisma checks to convince a Hostile creature to do anything on the party’s behalf; however, the DM might determine that the Hostile creature is so ill-disposed toward the characters that no Charisma check can sway it. In which case, the first check fails automatically and no further attempts can be made to sway the creature unless its Attitude shifts.
Play out the conversation. Let the adventurers make their points, trying to frame their statements in terms that are meaningful to the creature they are interacting with.
Changing Attitude. The attitude of a creature might change over the course of a conversation. If the adventurers say or do the right things during an interaction (perhaps by touching on a creature's ideal, bond, or flaw), they can make a hostile creature temporarily indifferent, or make an indifferent creature temporarily friendly. Likewise, a gaffe, insult, or harmful deed might make a friendly creature temporarily indifferent or turn an indifferent creature hostile.
Whether the adventurers can shift a creature's attitude is up to the DM. The DM decides whether the adventurer have successfully couched their statements in terms that matter to the creature. Typically, a creature's attitude can't shift more than one step during a single interaction, whether temporarily or permanently.
Determining Characteristics. The adventurers don't necessarily enter into a social interaction with a full understanding of a creature's ideal. bond, or flaw. If they want to shift a creature's attitude by playing on these characteristics, they first need to determine what the creature cares about. They can guess, but doing so runs the risk of shifting the creature's attitude in the wrong direction if they guess badly.
After interacting with a creature long enough to get a sense of its personality traits and characteristics through conversation, an adventurer can attempt a Wisdom (Insight) check to uncover one of the creature's characteristics. The DM sets the DC and a check that fails by 10 or more might misidentify a characteristic, giving the Adventurers a false characteristic. For example, if an old sage's flaw is that he is prejudiced against the uneducated, an adventurer who badly fails the check might be told that the sage enjoys personally seeing to the education of the downtrodden.
Given time, adventurers can also learn about a creature's characteristics from other sources, including its friends and allies, personal letters, and publicly told stories. Acquiring such information might be the basis of an entirely different set of social interactions.
When the adventurers get to the point of their request, demand, or suggestion-or if the DM decides the conversation has run its course-call for a Charisma check. Any character who has actively participated in the conversation can make the check. Depending on how the adventurers handled the conversation, and/or the nature of the creature, the Animal Handling, Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion might apply to the check as shown in the following table. Other skills, such as Performance or even unusual choices like a knowledge, such as Arcana or History, might even apply in social situations depending on the type of conversation being had, but this is always up to the discretion of the DM in addition to the roleplaying occurring as a part of the social interaction.
| Influence Skills | |
| Skill | Interaction |
| Animal Handling | Gently coaxing a Beast or Monstrosity |
| Deception | Deceiving a creature that can understand you |
| Intimidation | Intimidating a creature |
| Persuasion | Persuading a creature that can understand you |
The creature's current attitude determines the DC required to achieve a specific reaction, as shown in the examples in the Conversation Reaction table.
| Conversation Reaction | |
| DC | Friendly Creature's Reaction |
| 0 | The creature does as asked without taking risks or making sacrifices. |
| 10 | The creature accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked. |
| 20 | The creature accepts a significant risk or sacrifice to do as asked. |
| DC | Indifferent Creature's Reaction |
| 0 | The creature offers no help but does no harm. |
| 10 | The creature does as asked as long as no risk or sacrifice is involved. |
| 20 | The creature accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked. |
| DC | Hostile Creature's Reaction |
| 0 | The creature opposes the adventurer's actions and might take risks to do so. |
| 10 | The creature offers to help but does no harm. |
| 20 | The creature does as asked as long as there are no risks or sacrifices involved. |
Aiding the Check. Other characters who make substantial contributions to the conversation can help the character making the check. If a helping character says or does something that would influence the interaction in a positive way, the character making the Charisma check can do so with advantage. If the other character inadvertently says something counterproductive or offensive, the character making the Charisma check has disadvantage on that check.
Multiple Checks. Certain situations might call for more than one check, particularly if the adventurers come into the interaction with multiple goals.
Additional Help. In some situations, it might help a given social interaction if the party has some idea of what the creature or creatures they are interacting with wants or needs. In such cases, you can use the suggested skills and example tables for Parleying With Monsters to try and enhance their odds of success.
Once a Charisma check has been made, further attempts to influence the target of the interaction might be fruitless or run the risk of upsetting or angering the subject creature, potentially shifting its attitude toward hostility. Use your best judgment. For example, if the party's rogue says something that pushes a noble's attitude toward the party from indifferent to hostile, another character might be able to diffuse the noble's hostility with clever roleplaying and a successful Charisma (Persuasion) check.