Sense Motive

Sense Motive (Wis)

Use this skill to tell when someone is bluffing you. This skill represents sensitivity to the body language, speech habits, and mannerisms of others.

Check: A successful check allows you to avoid being bluffed (see the Bluff skill). You can also use the skill to tell when someone is behaving oddly or to assess someone’s trustworthiness.

In addition, you can use this skill to make a gut assessment of a 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 and honorable. The DC for such a hunch is 20.

Combat Readiness: You get a good idea of an opponent’s general combat skill. This use of the skill requires you to spend a minimum of 3 rounds observing an opponent who is engaged in combat. You can take no other actions in that time other than moving your normal movement rate. You must keep your subject in view at all times. The DC is 20 +1 for every character level your opponent has attained. If successful, you gain a +4 bonus on your first attack roll against the observered opponent. This attack must come within 24 hours of the observation, or the bonus is lost. You cannot gains this bonus against the same opponent twice unless the character’s level changed since you last observed him. When using this ability in a vehicle or starship combat, the DC of the check is 20 + the character level of the vehicle’s or starship’s commander.

Discern Strategy: You can assess a combat situation and determine its true purpose. Using this ability is a full-round action. The DC is 15 +1 for every opponent you face. If successful, you determine your opponents’ true motive (distract you, delay you, or simply destroy you). When using this ability in a vehicle or starship combat, the DC is 15 +1 for every vehicle or ship you face. (A starfighter wing counts as one ship for this purpose.)

Retry: No, though you may make a Sense Motive check for each bluff made on you.

Special: You can take 10 when making a Sense Motive check, but you can’t take 20.

A character with the Sharp-Eyed feat gets a +2 aptitude bonus on Sense Motive checks.

A character with the Skeptical feat gets a +2 aptitude bonus on Sense Motive checks.

Time: Trying to gain information with this skill takes at least 1 minute, and you could spend a whole evening trying to get a sense of the people around you.