That Charisma check (Planar Binding Help)

[Extra Anchovies]

How can an Intelligence-based caster ensure that they'll pass the Charisma check to convince an outsider called by Planar Binding to carry out the requested services? Right now I'm sitting at a piddly +1 to that. I already plan to enter Malconvoker (which eventually lets me do bluff vs. sense motive), but are there any other things that would help?

[Mato]

The easy answer is to increase your charisma. There are two, I think 3rd level, spells worth knowing. The paladin's righteous aura and the domain-specific devil's ego. You can pick them both up as wands and UMD is everyone's friend so you really should invest the cross-class ranks for it. Anyway, both provide a +4 bonus to charisma, one is sacred and the other is profane so they stack with any enhancement item you own. They both are really helpful, specially the paladin's since the duration is measured in hours, since several shapechange-granted abilities tend to be based on charisma. Plus as you have brought up, it helps with planar binding too.

And a circlet of persuasion is a really cheap way of improving your check by +3 too.

[AvatarVecna]

You can boost your Charisma, for one thing. Here's some methods of doing so. Also, there's a Circlet from the DMG that gives a bonus to all Charisma checks; you can just use that, and you might be able to build a custom version that gives a higher bonus, if you can reverse-engineer the cost formula and Diplomancy your DM.

[ekarney]

It's mainly items and a spell or two but it should give you a decent bonus.

Moment of Prescience - Your caster level as an insight bonus to checks such as these. It is an 8th level spell though.

Circlet of Persuasion - +3 bonus.

Cloak of Charisma - +2, +4 or +6 bonus to Charisma,
You should be able to net yourself at least an additional +10, or at the very least +5, using those things.


What class are you entering in with? I'm assuming Wizard, but are you using any variants and such?

Edit: Partially ninja'd

[AmberVael]

Moment of Prescience

Yeah, this is what I was going to suggest. Nothing quite like Moment of Prescience to overpower an ability or skill check.

If you can sneakily get access to it somehow, the Surge of Fortune spell can also just give you a 20 on the check, which is pretty helpful.

[gorfnab]

In the Malconvoker Handbook http://brilliantgameologists.com/boa...s2&topic=289.0 it has a listing after the summon monster info posts on how to make the cha checks for the binding line of spells.

[Grek]

The easy answer is to increase your charisma.

That is actually the hard answer. The easy answer is Geas. Or, if you're using Lesser Planar Binding, Lesser Geas.

Planar Binding has an instantaneous duration, meaning that once you have called the creature, it stays on the plane until something sends it away. If you offer no contract and Geas it to obey your commands, then the only way that outsider is leaving is if someone kills it or banishes it. Which is fine for you, since if the outsider is dead or banished it can't come after you for revenge. And it fits perfectly lorewise with a soon to be Malconvoker: You're not even negotiating with evil, you're binding it and commanding it.

Once you're a Malconvoker, your charisma stops mattering because the Bluff check bonus completely swamps it, and most fiends are terrible at Sense Motive.

[Milo v3]

Pathfinder's Ultimate Magic has a few suggestions in the Binding Outsiders section. For example, you can get a bonus against efreeti by giving them +2 swords and mid-level spell scrolls... or attractive slaves.

[Urpriest]

If you've got Dragon access, there's an article on Iggwilv's Demonomicon that has a whole list of spells that specifically help with the Planar Binding line, including IIRC one that lets you use Int rather than Cha for the check.

[Telonius]

This one might require some alignment gymnastics. But, if you can get your Charisma up to 15, and be a super-goody-two-shoes, you can take the Words of Creation feat. If you research your target's True Name, you can get a +6 on the Charisma check to Compel Service for Planar Binding. Best part of that: the bonus is untyped.