Using a wrist-mounted computer with an artificial personality for social skills?

[Colette Brunel]

Are you playing an android, yet worrying about your dumped Charisma 8 and your -2 penalty to Sense Motive checks? Fret not, for a wrist-mounted computer can handle your social needs!

For (250 * 1.4 + 10) = 360 credits, you can purchase a tier 2 computer with light bulk, an artificial personality, self-charging, and an alarm for security. This computer can go on your wrist, and it has an artificial personality with Bluff +4, Diplomacy +4, Intimidate +4, and Sense Motive +4, so you can delegate most of your social challenges to it.

Considering that starting wealth is 1,000 credits, this seems like a fair deal for skills' sake.

Why talk and read people yourself when you can have your wrist-mounted, holographic vocaloid do the talking and people-reading for you? Of course it will lag behind someone placing ranks in class-skilled social skills, but sometimes, you cannot afford that.

Is this rules-legal?

[Fardragon]

It should work fine over comms, but in a face-to-face meeting some NPCs might react negatively if they are expected to speak to your computer. This could be represented by the GM increasing the DC of the check.

Sense Motive should be fine, but you might want to wear a subtle earpiece when your computer lie detector alerts you that the person you are speaking to is lying.

[kaid]

Give new life to the term speak to the hand

[Ikiry0]

Fardragon wrote:

It should work fine over comms, but in a face-to-face meeting some NPCs might react negatively if they are expected to speak to your computer. This could be represented by the GM increasing the DC of the check.

Sense Motive should be fine, but you might want to wear a subtle earpiece when your computer lie detector alerts you that the person you are speaking to is lying.

Well, Engineers can mount said PC in their brain (Custom Rig) so they'd still be talking to you. Engineers run social on teleprompters and autotune.

I'm honestly ok with this. It's rating is rather low (Equal to someone with 10 in the stat AND it not being a class skill putting ranks in it) so it won't outclass other people.

[Caesar-6]

The artificial personality doesn't give the android character the bonus on his or her skill checks, the a.p. Is making the check. If they added to the bonus of the character, that would be one thing, but they don't.

[gigyas6]

If your character is fine literally talking to people through their wrist or letting another character interact with people instead, even if they technically "own" that character, go for it. Why is that a problem rules-wise? Interacting with other people is what's going to cause issues at that point. Just because the AI can talk real good does not negate the weirdness of the fact that somebody is holding up their smartphone to you so that you can talk with Siri instead of them. I'd imagine that alone would start causing penalties with diplomacy and the like if you started doing it too much and your GM was keen on it.

[Caesar-6]

gigyas6 wrote:

If your character is fine literally talking to people through their wrist or letting another character interact with people instead, even if they technically "own" that character, go for it. Why is that a problem rules-wise? Interacting with other people is what's going to cause issues at that point. Just because the AI can talk real good does not negate the weirdness of the fact that somebody is holding up their smartphone to you so that you can talk with Siri instead of them. I'd imagine that alone would start causing penalties with diplomacy and the like if you started doing it too much and your GM was keen on it.

I don't think anyone said it's a problem from a rules perspective. I was pointng out that it is not the character who is making the skill check, but the artificial personality. So, the character's skill bonus is immaterial because it doesn't apply.

[Wikrin]

Question: Assuming you had the Artificial Personality installed on your Custom Rig which, itself, was jammed into your brain, could the AP provide aid another checks to support your social skills?

[Sadronmeldir]

The wife just pointed out something pretty compelling about this idea... you could still use the AI as an aid another, either backing up the speaker with facts or "alternative facts" to aid in the wearer's checks in most social situations.

[bookrat]

This becomes be all the more amusing when you realize that it's the DM who controls the AI.

Or when you consider that the AI has a greater force of personality than the PC and takes over the PCs life. Hmm... That would make for a really interesting villain.

[gigyas6]

Sixar wrote:

gigyas6 wrote:

If your character is fine literally talking to people through their wrist or letting another character interact with people instead, even if they technically "own" that character, go for it. Why is that a problem rules-wise? Interacting with other people is what's going to cause issues at that point. Just because the AI can talk real good does not negate the weirdness of the fact that somebody is holding up their smartphone to you so that you can talk with Siri instead of them. I'd imagine that alone would start causing penalties with diplomacy and the like if you started doing it too much and your GM was keen on it.

I don't think anyone said it's a problem from a rules perspective. I was pointng out that it is not the character who is making the skill check, but the artificial personality. So, the character's skill bonus is immaterial because it doesn't apply.

I was more responding to the OP, which asked "is this rules-legal?".

[Ikiry0]

bookrat wrote:

This becomes be all the more amusing when you realize that it's the DM who controls the AI.

Or when you consider that the AI has a greater force of personality than the PC and takes over the PCs life. Hmm... That would make for a really interesting villain.

That's...really not how it works. The book expressly mentions that it's not truly sentient. A GM doing that would be being a massive bell end.