Taunting a foe...


Rules Questions


Hi gang,

I was wondering if there already existed a rule, a feat or a skill to "taunt" a foe...

Example: Say a fighter and a thief are in close combat with the capitain of the guard in an evil city; The fighter would use this skill/feat to coax the evil dude to use his attacks on him instead of the thief (who would have a much harder time dealing with the hits than the fighter), say 1-5 on d6 instead of a fifty-fifty chance to swing at either player characters.

Y'all get what I'm asking? lol

Ultradan

Dark Archive

I cannot think of anything from the core book that acts as rules to "tank". For the most part you just have to RP it out.

Now, having said that, I did find a rage power to do this in the APG, and I am sure that there are some others that I missed in the APG.


Pretty sure there's no 'taunt' like in an MMO (besides that boasting taunt from the APG), one of the good things about tabletop is you have a live GM to control NPC behavior, but there are things you could do that accomplish a similar thing. If you can put the 'confused' condition on him, he'll attack the last one who attacked him, so as long as the fighter always hits second, there you go. You could also simulate an actual real life taunt; if rather than strike, the fighter readied an action to attack if the guard attacked the rogue, and told the guard "common, hit me! I'll give you a free shot you panzy!!" - you've given the DM a choice: the Guard can attack the figher and not get attacked by the fighter because the readied action won't trigger, or go for the rogue and get attacked by both. So - does he go for the hard target and get attacked once, or go for the soft target and get attacked twice? Play it up with some good RP, you might sell the GM that the guard gets so pissed you won't need mechanics to keep him suck on you.


In my game, the quickest way to said reaction would be to impress me with the cleverness of your taunt. If I thought you came up with something good, I'd be happy to send the bad guy over to you.

But this would also depend on things like the bad guy's Intelligence or Wisdom, or even Charisma. If one of these were pretty high, I would consider whether the bad guy saw through the ruse. Similarly, I consider the Intelligence and nature of monsters when deciding who they might view in the party as the biggest threat (a bear might see it as the largest fighter, whereas an experienced hobgoblin might think it's the wizard).

Which is where those scores can come into play, if the GM prefers to rely on dice. For instance, he could just modify a Bluff vs Sense Motive situation to adjudicate, or even just a Charisma versus Wisdom thing.


I would use intimidate to chrome him you are the threat. but I don't think this is within the rules.

Dark Archive

Now, if you want mechanics to play with, you could use Bluff (trying to make him think that the rogue is not a threat) or intimidate (just make him mad at you) versus their sense motive. Then grant bonuses based on what the player used for wording and how "close to home" it hits for the guard.


Ultradan wrote:

Hi gang,

I was wondering if there already existed a rule, a feat or a skill to "taunt" a foe...

Example: Say a fighter and a thief are in close combat with the capitain of the guard in an evil city; The fighter would use this skill/feat to coax the evil dude to use his attacks on him instead of the thief (who would have a much harder time dealing with the hits than the fighter), say 1-5 on d6 instead of a fifty-fifty chance to swing at either player characters.

Y'all get what I'm asking? lol

Ultradan

One of the key considerations is that, unlike WoW, there are "real" enemies that you fight, that make smart choices (if they are suitably high Int). Forcing a specific action on a creature purely using a skill or feat is far too powerful an ability - and I'd be very surprised to see Paizo publish something like that.

*Magically* speaking there are several compel-effects that would work like a taunt. That is a different kettle of fish.


I've never played an MMO, so I had no idea that a 'Taunt' existed in those games... lol

Ultradan

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