A peek under the bonnet of my D&D 3.5 social interaction house rules.
(If these rules seem overly complex I refer you to the 16 pages of fine-print combat rules in the PHB...)
Foreword: the rules-as-written (RAW) on Diplomacy in the 3.5 PHB are abysmally dire. They contain the kernel of a good idea, but were very badly implemented, for the simple reason that the level / hit dice of the creature you are trying to influence don't come into it at all. This is at odds with the core design aesthetic of D&D which is a game all about progression through power tiers by dealing with a series of increasingly difficult challenges.
Add to this the naive 3.5 design assumption that a Diplomacy check result of 50 to turn any and all Hostiles into Helpfuls must be pretty tough when it's actually achievable by a character of less than 10th level (who could also, by the RAW, turn a Helpful epic-level wizard Fanatical with a similar roll) and you have a recipe for disaster if you follow the letter of the rules. Your choices then are to ignore the rules and do things completely by fiat - and be faced with an annoying succession of judgement calls about NPCs you may have no real 'feel' for, while also waving goodbye to objectivity and fairness - or else write some better ones.
So, I use a homebrew variant Diplomacy system. This handles both 'platonic' Diplomacy and, with an add-on mechanic for non-platonic attraction, it can also deal with matters of the heart (and other parts). There is some fiat judgement involved but it is within a structure.
I don't determine each and every interaction between PCs and NPCs mechanically, I'd hasten to add; these rules are used when there are key moments in which attitudes may be shifted or important decisions are being made.
Diplomatic Attitude Grade (DAG), and Influencing Attitudes
Relevant Skill: Diplomacy
NPCs will have an attitude grade towards PCs. This is pretty similar to the RAW ideas of Indifferent, Friendly, Helpful. There is a Fanatical level in the Epic Level Handbook too. To these, I've added some levels to increase the resolution.
Here they are, including the negative grades, below the Indifferent grade of 0.
Guideline text suggests baseline attitudes depending on circumstances.
5 Fanatical: Will fight anyone for you in a mild rage (+2 STR & CON, -1 AC)
4 Ardent: Someone with whom you have a strong implicit trust and always speak highly of.
3 Enthusiastic: Someone with whom you have a regularly positive personal relationship.
2 Helpful: Someone on the same team, but with whom you have no personal relationship.
1 Friendly: Someone you have met several times with no particularly negative experiences.
0 Indifferent: No relationship whatsoever.
-1 Unfriendly: Someone you have met several times with only negative experiences.
-2 Hostile: Someone on an opposed team, with whom you have no personal relationship.
-3 Aggressive: Someone with whom you have a regularly antagonistic personal relationship.
-4 Belligerent: Someone who has sworn to do you harm, possibly motivated by revenge.
-5 Frenzied: Will attack you in a mild rage (+2 STR & CON, -1 AC)
-6 Super Frenzied: Will attack you in full rage (as per Barbarian rage)
Initial attitude may be determined by the circumstances under which the NPC is meeting the PC. Some stranger in the street is probably going to be Indifferent.
Some NPCs will have a naturally friendly or unfriendly attitude; so they will be, typically, +/- one grade from the expected circumstantial baseline.
Then I roll a modifier specific to the individual upon their first interaction. My method is a 2d6 roll
Two high: +1
Double high: +2
Double six: +3
Double low: -2
Snake Eyes: -3
This directly shifts the grade up and down. Sometimes, I may add a d6 and take best or worst pick of two out of the three die results, if I think the situation warrants an advantage or disadvantage for the PC.
The Diplomacy check comes in when the PC first directly interacts, socially, with the NPC.
I use an opposed Diplomacy roll. This brings Diplomacy skill in line with its evil twin, Intimidate. The PC's Diplomacy skill roll is opposed by the NPCs roll of d20+ECL+Wisdom Mod.
The differential determines changes in the NPC's attitude grade.
Friendly to Helpful needs a +10
Helpful to Enthusiatic needs +15
Enthusiatic to Ardent, +20
Ardent to Fanatical, +25
These stack so to get someone from Indifferent to Fanatical needs a +75 differential on the opposed check.
You can go negative; however, to accidentally shift an NPC's attitude downwards by rubbing them up the wrong way is harder; divide negatives by two and drop fractions, before considering differential impacts.
Ardent to Enthusiatic needs -40
Enthusiatic to Helpful needs -30
Helpful to Friendly needs a -20
Friendly to Indifferent needs a -10
Indifferent to Unfriendly needs a -10
Unfriendly to Hostile needs a -20
...and so on.
How the NPC acts on their attitude will depend on things like the circumstance of the encounter, and their alignment. If they are Hostile, Aggressive or Belligerent they aren't going to immediately attack if they are a lawful person living in a city, but they will think the worst of the PC and if they are sitting in judgement over them for example will assume guilt in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary (possibly being in denial even of such evidence) and push for the maximum sentence. In uncivilised environments they might get more personally actively hostile, or agitate for others to do so.
Note that the system I use to determine whether a PC can persuade an NPC to follow a specific course of action is a bit different to the Influencing Attitude mechanic. Their attitude will have a bearing on that, but so will the risk/reward ratio of the course of action being proposed to them. More on that later.
In Part 2 I look at an optional mechanic to determine physical attraction of the non-platonic variety.
For those uninterested in mechanics to quantify physical attraction, a skip forwards to Part 3 is suggested.
I will add as an afterword, that I have been considering a possible switch to 2d8 or 2d10 rather than the 2d6 method of generating a random +/-3 modifier to initial attitude. The bulk of the time the modifier should not be outside the +/-1 range. With 2d6, I am finding that extreme results tend to come up a little too often. Using dice larger than d6 will reduce the frequency of doubles and max/min outcomes. Only 1% of reactions would generate a -3 modifier with 2d10, which is roughly 1/3rd as often as with the 2d6 method. It's something I may experiment with.
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