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I am a bit confused about these skills and how they should be handled by the GM in Pathfinder. Nowhere in the rules do I see that these rolls should be made in secret by the GM. Yet at places like http://www.d20pfsrd.com I see that rolls should be made by the GM in secret.
And to make matters worse I believe I remember that these skills are checked in secret in 3.5.
So does anyone know what the "official" word is on how these skill checks should be handled? I can see how all of these should be made in secret. i.e. when using Intimidate it definitely makes more sense that the PC won't know 100% if their roll was successful and if the person is giving them good information or not. However my players will complain that those rolls should not be made in secret if it isn't "in the rules".
Any help either way would be appreciated, thanks!
I am a bit confused about these skills and how they should be handled by the GM in Pathfinder. Nowhere in the rules do I see that these rolls should be made in secret by the GM. Yet at places like http://www.d20pfsrd.com I see that rolls should be made by the GM in secret.
And to make matters worse I believe I remember that these skills are checked in secret in 3.5.
So does anyone know what the "official" word is on how these skill checks should be handled? I can see how all of these should be made in secret. i.e. when using Intimidate it definitely makes more sense that the PC won't know 100% if their roll was successful and if the person is giving them good information or not. However my players will complain that those rolls should not be made in secret if it isn't "in the rules".
Any help either way would be appreciated, thanks!
With disable device you know if you did good, by whether or not the trap springs. I let the players roll because if they don't bother to call for a roll then they are not checking at all.
Disguises are not opposed without reason anyway so it won't come up unless they are doing suspicious things. For this one I normally roll for my NPC's before the game or I roll in the middle of the game before the situation comes up. The players never know what I am rolling for.
For intimidate, it is a pass or fail. If they passed the guy cooperates, but if he fails the guy does not cooperate. Now if you want the guy to pretend to be intimidated you can bluff against the pc's. Just get a copy of their sense motive modifiers and roll for them behind the screen. Even if they roll a high intimidate check, it does not mean they succeed so it does not matter if they know the roll or not.
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From the core rulebook:
In addition, you should have your own set of dice and some sort of screen you can use to hide your notes, maps, and dice rolls behind. (Although you should be honest about the results of your dice rolls, sometimes the results are not evident, and openly rolling the dice might give away too much information.)
If you need official support, you have it.
Oops. I did not notice this was a rules question somehow.
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Yeah, that ruling from page 8 doesn't really fulfill my question. I know that I CAN make rolls in secret. The question is when a PC tries to use the skill Disable Device, Disguise, or Intimate (when not in combat) who does the roll?
I've seen some people say that the GM does the rolls in secret FOR the player. But nowhere in the rules does it say that the GM will do the rolls in secret. That is what I'm trying to find out.
Who makes those rolls? The PC or the GM in secret?
It's up to the GM to make that decision. I swear I can't understand why if something isn't explicitly written in the rulebook people just don't know what to do. Just because it doesn't say anywhere in the rulebook that humans can't fly are you going to let people fly around whenever they want? After all everyone can take the fly skill.
But hey, just because there are no facing rules printed everyone assumes a person is facing in every direction during a combat round so maybe it's just me.
The rule book is a set of guidelines that are interpreted by the GM. If the players don't want to do what the GM says then maybe they should be playing a different game. If the GM says "we're doing it this way" then that's the way it will be done, period.
I let my players make any foll they call for, and that is how most of us do it despite what the book says.
To answer you question if the book does not tell you to make a roll secretly then don't do it.
I don't know if it changed for certain rolls in PF or not, but checking the PRD or the book should provide the answer.