GUILD OF LOST LORE · HOMEBREW RULES
Give sharp words and clever feints a place in initiative.
Players already taunt enemies, bark threats, fake openings, and try to break an opponent’s nerve. The fiction is doing something. These optional rules give it a small, predictable mechanical effect without turning every argument into a second combat system.
The aim is not to let Charisma replace a sword. It is to make one good social choice matter for one consequential moment.
THE DESIGN PROBLEM
D&D hears the threat but often ignores it
Other games such as Torg treated taunts, tricks, intimidation, and tests of will as legitimate combat tactics. D&D generally leaves those moments to improvisation. A player delivers a perfect threat, everyone enjoys it, and then initiative continues as though nothing happened.
The obvious fix, letting a skill check inflict a major condition, creates a worse problem. Repeatable fear, lost turns, or unrestricted advantage can outperform class features and spells. It also encourages players to search for the strongest phrase every round instead of responding to the scene.
The mechanic should reward the moment, not become the character’s new rotation.
THE CORE RULE
One social maneuver. One brief opening.
1. Declare
Once per combat, use a bonus action to describe how you taunt, intimidate, trick, or challenge a creature you can see within 60 feet.
2. Set the DC
Your Social DC equals 8 + the ability modifier used by the maneuver. If you are proficient in the named skill, also add your proficiency bonus.
3. Resolve
The target makes the listed saving throw. On a failure, apply the brief effect. On a success, the moment lands fictionally but grants no mechanical benefit.
Eligible targets: The creature must be able to perceive you and understand the intent of the maneuver. It does not need to share a language if your threat or feint is physically clear. Mindless creatures and foes incapable of fear, distraction, or social judgment may be immune at the GM’s discretion.
FOUR MANEUVERS
Choose the pressure you want to create
Taunt
Skill: Charisma (Persuasion)
Save: Wisdom
You call out one foe, insult its pride, or make yourself the threat it cannot ignore. On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you until the start of your next turn.
Use it to: Pull pressure from a wounded ally without magically forcing the enemy to attack you.
Intimidate
Skill: Charisma (Intimidation)
Save: Wisdom
You display force, promise a terrible consequence, or make the target hesitate. On a failed save, the next attack roll the target makes before the start of your next turn is made with disadvantage.
Use it to: Blunt one dangerous attack. This is hesitation, not the frightened condition.
Trick
Skill: Charisma (Deception)
Save: Intelligence
You feign injury, point toward an invented threat, throw a false signal, or sell a convincing opening. On a failed save, the next attack roll made against the target before the start of your next turn has advantage. The effect then ends.
Use it to: Create one opening for whichever ally can exploit it first.
Test of Wills
Skill: Wisdom (Insight)
Save: Charisma
You meet the target’s gaze and expose the doubt behind its aggression. On a failed save, the target cannot take reactions until the start of your next turn.
Use it to: Open an escape route. If the target is bloodied or isolated, the GM should also consider whether it retreats or surrenders.
AT THE TABLE
Reward specificity, not performance skill
A player should describe an approach, but they should not need to deliver a polished speech. The character’s proficiency matters more than the player’s theatrical confidence. “I question whether the captain’s soldiers will still follow him after this” is enough to establish a Test of Wills.
Do not raise or lower the DC because a line sounded clever. The fixed Social DC keeps the rule predictable. Let a particularly good idea change the fiction instead: reveal what rattles the target, make its allies react, or give surrender a believable path.
Do not let it bypass immunity
A creature immune to being frightened can still be tricked or taunted, but a threat alone should not reproduce the frightened condition. Judge the fiction of each maneuver separately.
Do not make every enemy eligible
A skeleton may ignore a taunt. A zealot may welcome intimidation. A beast may understand posture but not a verbal trick. Immunity should follow the creature, not exist merely to cancel a player’s choice.
Bonus-action warning
Bonus actions are not equally valuable to every class. Rogues, monks, and some spellcasters already depend on them, while other characters may have little competition for that space. If this rule consistently favors characters with empty bonus actions, test this variant: each character may use one social maneuver per combat as part of another action on their turn. Keep the once-per-combat limit.
RUN IT TONIGHT
Put four words beside the initiative tracker
Taunt. Intimidate. Trick. Test. Tell the players each character gets one attempt during the fight. When someone naturally does one of those things, pause, name the maneuver, and resolve it. The rule works best when it recognizes play already happening at the table.
A GM Training resource from the Guild of Lost Lore · The Stygian Labyrinth
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