Taunt is used to provoke an enemy into dropping his guard for a short time.
- Ability: charisma
- Classes: barbarian, bard, blackguard, paladin
- Cross-class skill: yes
- Check: The difficulty class is a concentration check made by the target against the character's taunt skill roll. It is considered an attack. If the taunt is successful, the opponent suffers an armor class penalty equal to the difference between the Taunt roll and the defender's roll (to a max of a -6 penalty) for 5 rounds. The target will also suffer a 30% chance of spell failure, if they don't resist the taunt.
- Special: Taunt penalties are not cumulative.
- Use: Select skill and then target creature.
Notes
- If the taunt roll equals the concentration roll, the taunt is successful. There is no AC reduction in this case, but the spell failure aspect does apply.
- This skill cannot be used by someone trying to remain unseen (as its use involves being seen). That is, it cannot be used while invisible or in stealth mode, even if it becomes clear that the target has seen through the attempt to remain unseen.
- This is an excellent way to reduce an opponent's AC — in a sense giving a character up to +6 AB that does not count towards the +20 attack bonus cap.
- Taunt counts as an offensive action but is not an attack per se.
- A character using taunt is flat-footed.
- If a character makes an attack of opportunity while taunting, the taunt is interrupted. However, unless the character exits combat mode, the next taunt is instant, allowing the character to continue attacking without interruption.