The three pillars of adventure that make up Dungeons & Dragons—exploration, social interaction, and combat—all bring unique situations and mechanics to the table. However, based on the sheer number of character traits devoted to it, you could argue that combat is the most mechanically important pillar of the game.

But social encounters can have as much, if not more, impact on a campaign. These conversations range from everyday interactions to parlaying with demons and can be the difference between getting into a fight and recruiting a powerful ally. In this article, we'll discuss how to make social encounters more dynamic and engaging by employing various strategies to raise the stakes in them.

• Skill Challenges
• Renown
• Social Contests
• Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws

How Are Social Interactions Resolved?

While social interaction might be a core pillar of D&D, there aren't a whole lot of rules on how to run it. The Dungeon Master's Guide has a section under "Running the Game" titled Social Interaction, which contains mechanics Dungeon Masters can use when running social encounters. To summarize these rules, when running social situations, DMs first determine the starting attitude of the creature—friendly, indifferent, or hostile—to the party or character they are engaging. After that, there is a bit of roleplaying to determine which check the character will make. Finally, the DM calls for a check, which the player makes, and the result is compared to the tables provided under Conversation Reaction.

While this method is straightforward, it's far from dynamic. So, let's look at some mechanics we can add to spice up our social interactions.

Making Social Interactions More Dynamic

While everyday social interactions can follow the rules laid out in the Dungeon Master's Guide, pivotal moments in your campaign being resolved by a DC 12 Charisma (Persuasion) check can be anticlimactic for players and DMs. Below are several mechanics you can incorporate to vary the rules of social interaction in your game.

Skill Challenges

Skill challenges are a series of ability checks made in succession. The number of successes and failures are tracked during a skill challenge. When the predetermined number of successes or failures is reached, the skill challenge either succeeds or fails. This mechanic is a wonderful way to add tension to social situations as the results of the encounter slowly unfold before the players.

Example Skill Challenge

The party is trying to convince a shaman to grant them passage to the Feywild so they can pursue an evil being that has been harassing a nearby village. You set the skill challenge's success threshold at three successes before two failures and each check's base DC at 12.

The rogue wants to determine what the shaman's motives are. The DM asks them to make a DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check. The rogue receives a 14, which counts as one success. Seeing as they succeeded, the rogue also learns that the shaman is concerned with the well-being of the nature spirits that inhabit their forest.

Then, the druid explains that their mission will return nature to balance. Seeing as they appealed to what concerns the shaman, the DC of the check is lowered to a 10. The DM asks the druid to make an Intelligence (Nature) check, in which they get a 15. That's two successes.

Finally, the bard tells a story of how their party saved the life of a forest spirit not too long ago. The DM asks the bard to make a DC 10 Charisma (Performance) check. The bard receives an 18, which is the third success. The party has succeeded in their skill challenge and will receive help from the shaman.  

Skill Challenges Variation

Instead of basing the skill challenge's results off of successes and failures, you can use a "success threshold" to determine the level of success a party has. This is an excellent tool if there are different levels of success to achieve. Here's an example of how it works:

In the above situation, the success threshold is 10 for a minor success, 15 for a moderate success, and 18 for a major success. There will be at most three checks made during the skill challenge. The DC for each check is 12. After the character interacts with the shaman, they make an ability check determined by the DM. If the character beats the DC, they total however much they pass the check by and compare it to the success threshold. If the party manages to meet a success threshold before the end of the encounter, they receive the benefits from that threshold. If they fail to meet the lowest success threshold, they fail the encounter.

Using the example above, the rogue passed their check by 2, the druid passed their check by 5, and the bard passed their check by 8. This totals 15, which would result in a moderate success. In this situation, on top of giving the party access to the Feywild, the shaman might provide advice that can help the party hunt the evil spirit. If the party managed to get to a major success, maybe the shaman would have joined the party on their adventure.

Renown

This mechanic is best used for social situations played out over the course of a campaign. The renown system provides characters a bonus in social encounters based on the level of respect they have garnered with a particular faction. By accomplishing tasks for the faction they are trying to persuade, the party gains renown, making typically impossible outcomes more plausible. 

While the renown system can be used differently, the easiest way to incorporate a party's renown into social situations is by affecting the attitude of the faction they are interacting with. The Conversation Reaction table in the Dungeon Master's Guide provides three defined attitudes and associates DCs with certain social checks. For example, the party might be met with hostility when they walk into a Thieves' Guild unannounced. But, after completing a couple of tasks for the guild, they are greeted as comrades. This change in attitude offers the possibility that the Thieves' Guild might do something for the party, even at risk to themselves.

Social Contests

Very rarely does every party involved in a debate see eye to eye. If whoever you are engaged in a social encounter with has a differing opinion, you might need to contest their preconceptions in a battle of wits. Social contests are an excellent way to accomplish this situation within the bounds of D&D's mechanics.

First, each participant chooses the skill they are using. This skill should be relevant to the social encounter they are engaged in. Then, each participant makes an ability check, applying any necessary modifiers. Finally, the results of these checks are compared against each other to determine who succeeds.

Social contests could work particularly well when three parties are involved in an encounter. Two of the parties are hostile to one another, and the third is neutral. Each competing party has the opportunity to sway the neutral party to their side, thereby gaining an upper hand in the events that follow.

Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws

One of the easiest ways to make social encounters more interesting is to note an NPC's ideals, bonds, and flaws. Defining what is important to the character and what can manipulate them makes it easier to reward effective roleplay. When an NPC has established ideals, bonds, and flaws, it allows players to sleuth out what is vital to the character they are talking to, whether by keen observation, clever questioning, or a successful Wisdom (Insight) check. This can allow them to address this information in their roleplay, providing the DM a definitive reason to reduce check DCs, grant advantage, or even adjust the NPC's attitude. 

It's Time to Talk the Talk

Whether bargaining with a shopkeeper or the Lord of the Nine Hells, social interaction is a unique experience in tabletop roleplaying games. There aren't any dialogue trees to choose from nor hints at what an NPC might be thinking beyond what you've personally managed to determine.

All DMs have their own way of resolving social interactions. Some might call for a single Charisma check after the character has said their bit. Others might want to roleplay the entire situation, not calling for a single roll but several throughout the encounter. The mechanics provided in this article can offer you some inspiration for how to make your next social situation particularly dynamic!

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.