You ask the target creature a single question. On the subject’s next action, it must answer truthfully in the same language as the question or take 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6) and be sickened for 2d4 rounds. A successful Will save negates the sickening effect and halves the damage.
Suppose someone wants to lie despite this having been cast on them, then pretend that they weren't hurt so that their lie would be believed. Are there any rules that cover this? If not, how would you rule it? Bluff skill versus Sense Motive? (Would the amount of damage affect the DC?) What about a Fortitude save?
I doubt there are rules for this, so this is how I would rule it...
yes, it would be a Bluff Vs. Sense motive, as normal for telling lies, but the Bluff would have a penalty equal to the total damage dealt by the spell, so every round you take damage, faking it gets harder, with an additional penalty of -5 if sickened.
"I'm not lying!"
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Personally, I believe a penalty related to the damage dealt would be too harsh. Add Sickened and -5 on top of that and this will be an impossible check.
It is important to remember that hit points and damage are an abstraction, so 5d6 damage to a 1st level character is completely different than a 10th level character taking the same damage.
Personally, I'd go with both a Fortitude save and then a Bluff check. Same DC as the spell for the Fortitude save and if the character passes, they managed to contain the pain, allowing them to make a Bluff check with no penalty (or just with the sickened if they failed the Will save).
If the Fortitude fails, then have the Bluff check with a -5 or -10 penalty (for unlikely or far-fetched lie), plus the sickened penalty.
The specific situation I'm looking at is level 13 PCs being hit by Confess from an Inquisitor with Caster Level 5, Sense Motive +18. The damage will be a relatively trivial 2d6, but an opposed Bluff check would be extremely hard for a non-specialist, even without penalties.
Trying to lie to a 5th level or higher inquisitor is very difficult. Not only do they have an incredible sense motive, they can also discern lies for 1 round per level. So, you need to be able to make a will save and beat their sense motive. Once the inquisitor has access to discern lies confess is not all that useful of a spell for determine the truth.
I usually don’t bother with confess for an inquisitor for this reason. They get so few spells that taking this to add an additional layer of difficulty is not really worth it. Detect Thoughts is a much better choice if you want to get information from a target.
I found the rule some of you mentioned about knowing if someone made a save:
Succeeding on a Saving Throw
A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature’s saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.
So bluffing not being hurt to the caster is impossible. They'll know you didn't speak the truth because you rolled the save. But you could delay answering, take the damage and then when the spell is no longer in effect say, "All right, I'll talk, the truth is..."
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So bluffing not being hurt to the caster is impossible. They'll know you didn't speak the truth because you rolled the save. But you could delay answering, take the damage and then when the spell is no longer in effect say, "All right, I'll talk, the truth is..."
This isn't true. The inquisitor casts the spell and the character makes the save before the character answers (or not) the answer. This in fact will work in favor of the character, because if they fail the save, the inquisitor will know and then will be either expecting the truth to their answer or the visible pain.
So, because of this, if the character can hide the pain (either with a fortitude save or Bluff vs Heal, or whatever), the inquisitor should be very inclined to believe what the character is saying and I'd even give the character a bonus because now the inquisitor wants to believe the character.
You ask the target creature a single question. On the subject's next action, it must answer truthfully in the same language as the question or take 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6) and be sickened for 2d4 rounds. A successful Will save negates the sickening effect and halves the damage. A creature that is unable to answer still takes damage.
By the description you only have to make the save if you are not willing or able to answer truthfully. The choice to answer is left to the target. The saving throw is also listed as will partial, not will negates. So, when the spell is cast you either decide to answer truthfully, or you resist the spell. The rule specifically states that a caster knows if the target makes his save. So, if the target succeeds on the will save the caster is aware of it. If the target fails his save he is sickened for 2d4 rounds and takes damage. Trying to hide the sickened condition is going to be a lot more difficult than hiding the damage.
Sense motive can also be used to detect if a person is under an enchantment. Since Confess is an enchantment that means you can use sense motive to determine if the target is under the influence of the spell. This means an inquisitor can roll vs the DC of 25 instead of the targets bluff.
I have to agree with Matthew on the fact that you are not going to be able to bluff your way past this.
The spell is language-dependent.
If the target cannot understand or hear what the caster of a language-dependent spell says, the spell has no effect
So deaf or sleeping people would not be affected, and you can't use it as a combat spell just by asking questions in a language your target doesn't know.
Do the rules ever specifically say that by default a save happens right after targeting the creature? I'd assume a save to halve the damage you take would happen if and when you took the damage.
As far as I know there is no rule that states all saves are made when they target the creature. In fact, some spells do not actually target creatures but allow save. Illusions are the best example of this. You only get a save vs an illusion if you interact with the illusion. There are also plenty of spells that allow a save at a later date.
Dominate Person gives you a new save if the command forces you to take actions against its nature. You could tell someone under a Dominate Person to kill anyone coming through this door and the barbarian fails the initial save. The barbarian is going to attempt to kill anything coming through the door. If someone the barbarian loves comes through the door, they get a new save to resist killing their loved one.
A save should take place when the spell affects the target. For most spells that is when the spell is cast on the target, but that is not always the case. With Confess the spell does not affect the target until his next action.