A question regarding disguises.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

Do people generally still respect the disguise system, even after NWNEE broke it from changing names? How do disguises work regarding the in-game messenger system, will being disguised prevent a messenger from coming to you and revealing your true identity? Actually, how do messengers and stealth work, will they blow your cover if you're stealthing?

[PinataPlethora]

1. No. Not because they're intentionally ignoring it, but because you can't tell someone's disguised unless you examine them, and most players don't walk down the road examining everything. Once they've called you by your floatey name instead of the disguise name in your description, you can't unring that bell.

2. I believe that if you're disguised the messengers won't be able to find you by your character name. Messages will need to be sent to your disguise.

3. Once you've been in stealth mode for several rounds, you'll get a message stating that messengers can no longer reach you. PCs attempting to find you via the messenger service will be unsuccessful. AFAIK, there is no minimum Hide requirement for this feature.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

Investing skill points into bluff or perform is pretty hefty and I'm wondering if it's worth it if I could just achieve the same effect by roleplaying my character in a completely different outfit and not speaking. Not receiving messengers or have alternate messengers depending on name might make it worthwhile though. Are people generally receptive if you send a tell saying "I'm disguised"?

[Dr_Hazard89]

It's not respected because people aren't noticing it in the examine box. I play a character that has physical traits that are in her description but not available on her player model (yet?), and it's made me painfully aware of how few people bother reading descriptions, even brief ones.

Not that I'm blaming them. Totally understandable.

If you're disguised or stealthed they won't find you, but if you're invisible they will .. so watch out for that.

[Kreydis]

Disguises and Stealth (After a few moments) block speedies from messaging your original name. However, I'm not sure how that works with illusions.

Scrying ignores disguises. So if they search for your character's original name, they'll get you and 'break' the disguise.

Also someone -yoinking you will break your stealth. . . Did I bug report that? I probably should. Not sure if -yoink ignores disguise though, so be aware of that if you're a disguised stealther.

Otherwise, as for disguise culture. I make a habit of checking to see if /anyone's/ disguised. Except the painfully obvious 'wearing the same clothing as always.' But the same isn't said about everyone. Not having the game change your name has made more then their fair share of disguises go sour. Usually just play it off and be like. "What are you talking about? I'm ___, not ___." Most palyers will react accordingly, and try to fix their mistake. But if it's a frequent problem, and someone isn't going along with your 'not broken disguise' (Check the combat log, obviously), you should report it, and let the DM's handle it past that point.

I'm wondering if it's worth it if I could just achieve the same effect by roleplaying my character in a completely different outfit and not speaking. ... Are people generally receptive if you send a tell saying "I'm disguised"?

At that point, it's up to the player to go along with your 'disguise.' Generally though, I'm going to say no. Because Arelith has a system in place to mechanically give you what you want. If you want to disguise, just put points into preform or bluff.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

Ooooh, it will show me in the combat log if someone's broken the disguise? That's really helpful, thank you for letting me know!

I must say I'm amazed at just how many systems the server has. On other servers I've played I've never felt squeezed for skill points or feats, I just take the most important things and then stuff for flavour. Here, with the added utility of skills and feats, I really had to look at my build and what I wanted to do and figure out what to take and what to axe. I look forward to gaining more levels and getting to play with some of these systems!

[Rwby]

I always make a point of changing my description, along with the disguise, along with a brief entry statement, as well as the visual appearence of the characters model. If you arrive and say something like [Sophie peers around the corner nervously] and the floaty thing above your had says your name is Jessie, that'll likely prompt people to check your description. [Triggering a disguise check, which they might recongize you, or not with.]

[Nitro]

A problem I often have with the current setup is that I examine people before I'm in range to see if they're disguised or not because I want to skim the description real fast before interactions begin.

[DM Always This Late]

Right now with the system not working optimally mistakes can happen. Just got to be flexible on bothsides and understanding if you are using the disguise mechanic. Mistakes and miss interpretations can happen so best bet is just to be cool and calm.

Any questions or issues that crop up we can help with!