Bluff Skill

Check
A Bluff check is opposed by the target’s Sense Motive check. See the accompanying table for examples of different kinds of bluffs and the modifier to the target’s Sense Motive check for each one.

Favorable and unfavorable circumstances weigh heavily on the outcome of a bluff. Two circumstances can weigh against you: The bluff is hard to believe, or the action that the target is asked to take goes against its self-interest, nature, personality, orders, or the like. If it’s important, you can distinguish between a bluff that fails because the target doesn’t believe it and one that fails because it just asks too much of the target. For instance, if the target gets a +10 bonus on its Sense Motive check because the bluff demands something risky, and the Sense Motive check succeeds by 10 or less, then the target didn’t so much see through the bluff as prove reluctant to go along with it. A target that succeeds by 11 or more has seen through the bluff.

You can implant a nonmagical suggestion in a target, display a false alignment, or disguise your surface thoughts.

Display False Alignment
You can fool alignment-sensing effects by displaying a false alignment of your choice. Once set, a false alignment remains as long as you remain conscious and awake.

Disguise Surface Thoughts
If a character attempts to use Sense Motive to detect your surface thoughts.

Action
Varies. A Bluff check made as part of general interaction always takes at least 1 turn, but it can take much longer if you try something elaborate. A Bluff check made to feint in combat or create a diversion to hide is an action. A Bluff check made to deliver a secret message doesn’t take an action; it is part of normal communication.

Try Again
Varies. Generally, a failed Bluff check in social interaction makes the target too suspicious for you to try again in the same circumstances, but you may retry freely on Bluff checks made to feint in combat. Retries are also allowed when you are trying to send a message, but you may attempt such a retry only once per turn.

Each retry carries the same chance of miscommunication.

Synergy
If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 bonus on Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sleight of Hand checks, as well as on Disguise checks made when you know you’re being observed and you try to act in character.