Really not much to know, get a solid diplomacy, sense motive, maybe bluff and intimidate. Cha based characters have the advantage there
Bards and rogues make pretty good party "faces" (another term for diplomatic characters).
There's the Master Spy prestige class. Its not necessary to take at all though, just another option.
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Being a decent face is as easy as having Diplomacy trained up and a Charisma score that isn't a single digit number. I'd call it more of a bonus than a lrimary focus. Sense Motive and Knowledge (Local) also help.
But let's be dumb anyway.
-Azata Blooded Aasimar for that bonus Charisma and a +2 racial to Perform checks.
-Geisha Bard for adding half of your level to various Perform checks.
-Versatile Performance on your rediculous Perform Oratory allows you to use it as your grand total for Diplomacy and Sense Motive.
-Throw in Skill Focus on Perform and Prodigy as well. That's a +5 bonjs that doubles when you reach ten ranks.
Bam. Around +20 to Diplomacy and Sense Motive by level 4, and the numbers only get sillier. You have to sacrifice some character power to get there but you've always got spells and tea parties.
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I think if you try to build to be "diplomat and that's all", you'll end up disappointed. Most scenarios have some diplomacy in it, but it's not the majority of the content. So you should have something fun to do the rest of the time. Particularly in combat, which tends to take most of the time. (Everyone should be able to participate with the part of the scenario that takes the longest.)
Also, there's the difficulty of PFS diplomacy to consider. 97% of the time, a PC with a decent Charisma modifier, Diplomacy class skill and maxed ranks can reliably make the DCs, especially with some Aid Another. For those scenarios, devoting many more resources is pure overkill. Resources you could have gotten more fun out of by being good at multiple things.
Then there's the occasional scenario with a really high DC. The highest I've seen so far are 29 in an 8-9 subtier and 34 in a 10-11 subtier. Those are very much intended in a "you're expected to fight this, but some people can talk their way out of it". Those situations are very rare.
There's also sometimes high DCs because you're supposed to gather modifiers before the check, by doing stuff to impress your target or allay his fears and suspicions. In those cases, uber-high Diplomacy lets you brute-force your way through the scenario instead of RPing your way through it - but is that really the aim of making a diplomat PC?
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Melee and diplomacy are not contradictory. Ask any paladin, melee inquisitor, invesigator or bard.
In PFS, you're almost never called upon to use any Charisma skill other than Diplomacy, so even if you dump Cha you can get by just by investing more in Cha or using a trait (Clever Wordplay, Student of Philosophy) to change the stat used.
If you're wanting more casting power, A druid does ok in this role; a human green faith initiate putting their favored class bonus into the special human option can gain their level to diplomacy checks to change someone's attitude (half otherwise) and half their level to sense motive and intimidate(not for demoralizing).
Traits can be used to make these key off wisdom, or there is always the conversion inquisition if you'd rather sacrifice domain casting.
The silver-tongued and focused study alternate racial traits are also worth looking into if your skills are a major focus.
There's some nifty flavor in the Inner Sea Races book for half-orcs:
Some half-orcs use half-orcs' brutish stereotypes to their advantage, causing others to underestimate their intelligence and scheming. Such half-orcs gain a +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive checks. This bonus increases to +4 against other humanoids. They also receive a +2 racial bonus on Bluff checks to feign ignorance and Sense Motive checks to intercept secret messages, and this stacks with the above bonus. This racial trait replaces intimidating, orc ferocity, and weapon familiarity.
Since PFS is largely about dealing with other humanoids you would usually be rocking a +4 in the social skills. As usual, though, humans are better at everything. If you really want to be a skill madman without completely crippling everything else you could do a human empiricist investigator:
16/12/12/18/10/7
Alt racial traits:
Focused study: diplomacy
Silver tongued
Feats: Elongated Cranium (ovoid compression)
Traits: student of philosophy, illuminator
That would make your level one diplomacy modifier a whopping +17 (+1 skill level +3 class skill +4 int +2 silver tongue +2 trait +2 cranium +3 skill focus). You would have the option to tack an inspiration die on top of that. You could also go purchase a cracked magenta ioun stone for another +2.
You'll also be pretty solid on perception, disable device, all knowledges, and most relevant skills starting at level 2. At level 3 you can pick up mutagen and be a passable front line combatant.
I built a shaman diplomat if you want to take a look. He is here, only issue is I have to trade out his ambassador trait for something else due to not worshiping sarenrae so diplomacy will be one lower, not a big change. Otherwise PFS legal.
Traits can be used to make these key off wisdomWhich traits are these?
None that I can find. My mistake, thanks for catching it.
I'm a big fan of Inquisitors with the Conversion Inquisition...
Add Wis to all social skills and get a huge bonus to Sense Motive and Intimidate! Make them Sanctified Slayers for Studied Target... That gives you yet another bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive! XD
Also... Inquisitors in general are awesome!
I'm a big fan of Inquisitors with the Conversion Inquisition...
Add Wis to all social skills and get a huge bonus to Sense Motive and Intimidate! Make them Sanctified Slayers for Studied Target... That gives you yet another bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive! XD
Also... Inquisitors in general are awesome!
I second this. Though, part of me would want to try something like this...
The Bluffmaster
lvl 1: Sanctified Slayer with Conversion Inquisition
lvls 2+ Ranger (with an archetype that replaces wild empathy as you will be horrible at it)
Why ranger? Favored Enemy.
By lvl 5, when bluffing against humans you get this (assuming a modest Wis14)
+5 (skill ranks) +3 (class skill) +4 (favored enemy) + 1 (studied target) +2 (wisdom) +1 (cracked mulberry pentacle ioun stone) +1 cracked incadescent blue sphere ioun stone) for a nice +17 to bluff. Add in the deceitful feat for a further +2, pushing you up to +19. Finally, you get traits. Faster Talker for +1 and Fiend Talker for +1. That's +21 bluff by lvl 5. That fully covers the penalty for telling even an unbelievable lie...as long as it is to a human.
Get caught stealthing in the enemy camp? "Yeah...I'm...uhm...the new guy. Just got lost. Mind showing me around?" Watch your GM face palm as your failed recon turns into a guided tour.
Two different competence bonuses don't stack. The cracked magenta prism will give you a +2 competence to whatever skill you like.
Trait bonuses also do not stack. The subjective truth trait gets you a +2 bonus to Bluff to anybody who hasn't caught you in a lie before, and also lets you pretend to be Obi Wan Kenobi.
I'm not sure why you would want Deceitful over Skill Focus. Disguise doesn't come up very often. Skill Focus can also be picked up more cheaply by humans and half-elves.
You can also pump bluff with the silver tongue alt racial for humans or the Overlooked Mastermind for half orcs.
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If you wanted a buff diplomacy on a full spellcaster chassis, you could also go for:
Half-elf or Human (take Skill Focus: Diplomacy) cleric of Saranrae or Iomedae. Glory (heroism) domain and whatever else you feel like.
Put max ranks in Diplomacy.
If you want to go for a super focused build, Str 8, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 18, Cha 16
Feats: Skill Focus Diplomacy (either as half-elf racial bonus or human bonus feat), Selective Channel (diplomacy can't be your only schtick) and whatever else you feel like (swift channel, extra channel, spell focus: Conjuration+augment summoning+sacred summons, Improved Initiative), etc.
The super focused build nets you +10 at level 1 (+4 ranks, +3 stat, +3 skill focus) plus whatever you feel like getting from traits, masterwork tools, magic items, etc. And for important checks, you can use the glory domain ability to add your level again. So by level 5, you're +20 (+9 ranks, +3 stat, +3 skill focus, +5 glory domain power) with minimal investment.
You also have full cleric spellcasting and good channeling ability. (Glory and Sun would make for a good anti-undead cleric).
Bottom line is that it's not hard to get a very good diplomacy score that will be good enough for nearly anything you run into in PFS (or other published adventures) without making significant compromises in your character's other abilities. If when asked what your character's role is, you have to say, "Diplomat, but he's useless otherwise" you're doing it wrong. You can be pretty much as good as anyone else in your primary role and still be a very good diplomat.
This (the alias/profile) is a Swashtigator build I made for a friend. The orator feat replaces intimidate and diplomacy with linguistics, plus Investigator skill ranks and inspiration, plus tengu racial bonuses.
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I like the perform oratory idea. Could that work better as skald? Are there any other classes archetypes that could pull it off while adding more battle utility?
Well the Geisha idea requires you play as a Bard. But it also leans on a Boon race. However, a Skald is more than fine enough. You still have Versatile Performance, all that Knowledge roll fun, and a performance that doesn't require a 10 minute start up time.
Considering the popularity of weapon wielding thickies in your area, it seems like most tables will have multiple people who can benefit from your Raging Song, including you. If you're worried about people ignoring your song because they preffer using Dex or casting, then take a look at the Spell Warrior archetype. It gives a simple enhancement bonus to fiendly weapons but you trade out Spell Kenning.
I'm a huge fan of using Diabolical Negotiator (Inner Sea Gods) if you're willing to be an Asmodean. The feat allows you to use Int or Wis instead of Cha for Diplomacy and removes the cap on attitude shifting. The prerequisite is something you were probably going to get anyway - Skill Focus: Diplomacy.
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I have a Wizard with these 2 Traits http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/social-traits/student-of-philosophy
and http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/equipment-traits/extremely-fashionable
I loose the powerfull +2 Iniative trait but have a heavy Boost on Diplo making it a Class Skill and can have all that using Int.
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I'm a huge fan of using Diabolical Negotiator (Inner Sea Gods) if you're willing to be an Asmodean. The feat allows you to use Int or Wis instead of Cha for Diplomacy and removes the cap on attitude shifting. The prerequisite is something you were probably going to get anyway - Skill Focus: Diplomacy.
Huh. That's a fairly high feat cost, but being able to use wisdom might be neat. The Asmodean thing could be very interesting to roleplay, though.
My son loves using Clever Wordplay to boost his diplomacy for his investigator. There are other skills that sometimes need to be used in lieu of diplomacy but I rank diplomacy right after perception as an important PFS skill.
Hmm
A friend has a Green Faith Initiate Druid, with the Human Favored Class Bonus to get half a point of Diplomacy per level. That means he gets his full level on Diplomacy. Along with several magic items, his Diplomacy skills are through the roof. That leads me to a point I'd like to make: PFS scenarios aren't made for hyperspecialised characters. They take the average player, and tweak it up or down a bit depending on the needs of the scenario. A super-focused character (be it on Diplomacy, any other skill, or combat maneuvers for that matter) will break the scenario. The guy could roll a 1 and still beat the offered Diplomacy DCs easily, I didn't even let him roll anymore. Sure, keep the mystery intact and stuff, but at some point it just felt futile. So, my advice is: don't over-invest. That friend's Druid has sacrificed a lot just to be "the face," and in a lot of scenarios, that won't even matter. And if it matters, it just takes the excitement away. Having a 50/50 chance of failure is maybe a bit disheartening, but knowing you'll ace everything makes it less interesting for the other players and the GM, IMHO. Leave some room for screwups.
(Sorry if you read this and I offended you. I didn't mean to. It's just a personal dislike of the "I don't even have to roll anymore" situations.)