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Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder 1E | Pathfinder 2E | Starfinder

General Skills
Acrobatics | Arcana | Athletics | Crafting | Deception | Diplomacy | Intimidation | Lore | Medicine | Nature | Occultism | Performance | Religion | Society | Stealth | Survival | Thievery

Performance (Cha)

Source Core Rulebook pg. 250 1.1
You are skilled at a form of performance, using your talents to impress a crowd or make a living.

Performance Trained Actions

Basic Competence

Some performances require you to be more than just charismatic, and if you don't meet the demands of the art form or the audience, the GM might apply a penalty based on the relevant ability score. For example, if you're dancing and have a negative Dexterity modifier, you might take a penalty to your attempt at dancing. Likewise, if you are orating and have a negative Intelligence modifier, you might have to hope your raw Charisma can overcome the penalties from your intellectual shortcomings—or ask someone to help write your speeches!

Performance Traits

When you use an action that utilizes the Performance skill, it gains one or more traits relevant to the type of performance. The GM might change these depending on the circumstances, but the most common performance-based traits are listed below.

Performance Traits

PerformanceAdditional Traits
Act or perform comedyauditory, linguistic, and visual
Dancemove and visual
Play an instrumentAuditory and manipulate
Orate or singAuditory and linguistic

Performance Untrained Actions

Perform Single Action

Concentrate
Source Core Rulebook pg. 250 1.1
When making a brief performance—one song, a quick dance, or a few jokes—you use the Perform action. This action is most useful when you want to prove your capability or impress someone quickly. Performing rarely has an impact on its own, but it might influence the DCs of subsequent Diplomacy checks against the observers—or even change their attitudes—if the GM sees fit.

Critical Success Your performance impresses the observers, and they’re likely to share stories of your ability.
Success You prove yourself, and observers appreciate the quality of your performance.
Failure Your performance falls flat.
Critical Failure You demonstrate only incompetence.

Sample Perform Tasks

Untrained audience of commoners
Trained audience of artisans
Expert audience of merchants or minor nobles
Master audience of high nobility or minor royalty
Legendary audience of major royalty or otherworldly beings