It's generally agreed that some form of disguise skill should be part of the new Subterfuge tree.
The current disguise skill is generally agreed to be broken, because it makes it so easy to avoid the consequences of ones actions in PVP.
A large part of the problem is that it's unbreakable (unless someone else has the relevant skill, at which point it breaks automatically).
The most currently favoured proposals to nerf disguise seem to be along the lines of having the skill provide a limited number of aliases which are still broken only by skill rock/paper/scissors, if at all.
I don't like this - I think that even limited alibis will still be nearly as broken in PVP as the current disguise skill is. Also, they mean that disguise is basically only good for long-term plans. I think a potentially very fertile area of design space is e.g. disguising people as swogs on linears.
What I would like to see is a disguise skill that
- - Can be used in a hurry, so that it has linearing applications.
- - Can be used on other people, for the same reason.
- - Stands up or is broken at least partially through "hard" skills.
Some possible outline mechanics for this would be:
- - Physical "tells": When in disguise, you have to tie a certain number of distinctive ribbons around yourself, in a list of locations - neck, wrists, hair etc. You're perfectly at liberty to cover them up, but they have to be there. The higher your skill level is, the fewer ribbons you need to wear.
- - Levels of examination. Anyone can call "detect disguise" at any time. E.g. Disguise 1 breaks if anyone "detect disguise"s you, so works only if you completely avoid suspicion. Disguise 2 breaks if someone e.g. spends a minute examining you closely, Disguise 3 requires them to e.g. pull your nose and similar, disguise 4 requires them to actually spend spend several minutes giving you an intrusive examination, and disguise 5 (a level 8 skill) is unbreakable.
- - Introduce lots of detection. Have disguise roughly as disguise 1 is now, but introduce an easily-aquirable "detect disguise" skill, a spell that does it, and perhaps a rite too. Lose the "harder-to-penetrate" disguise skill. So again, remaining in disguise relies on not arousing suspicion. This falls slightly foul of people meta-gaming based on who is playing a given role, though.