How effective are those skills in play? I can imagine charming mooks left, right and centre. "You don't need to see my badge, civilian!" "I'm undercover." You get the idea.

There are a number of archetypes that fit my plan of a silver-tongued rogue.

First up is the Gambler. Put that 3 into Mind, you get Charisma 10. You already start at Seduction 13, so your six skill points go two each into the remaining, for 12. Sure your Martial Arts will be mook-poor, but you can talk your way out of nearly anything.

Masked Avenger. Say two of your primaries went into Mind, then the two secondaries on Charisma, for 9. Start out with Intimidation 12, buy up the other three at +2 each for 11, leaving you two to boost two of them to 12.

Transformed Dragon. You start with a Charisma of 9. Use those 8 skill bonuses for +2 to each and you have 11 in all four social skills. And still kick ass (ok you might want to save a point or two for Guns).

Course all of these efforts are predicated on social skills being any use at all. What are people's experiences?

Kiero

A recent example: to stop Alex Abel from shutting down the portals in the Netherworld and returning the world to the world of the Mancers (my players' name for that reality, not mine), our Two-Fisted Archaeologist used his social skills combined with extraordinary role-playing to sweep the wife that he never knew he had (lateral reincarnation and a critical shift mixed together), a Pornomancer, off of her feet. Having taken a Mind and Mouth Go North and South from the Love Pirate, he simply stated that though they never had a life in the world he remembered, the world ahead was theirs forever. Again, social skills mixed with role-playing create fabulous moments like that where you hear chanteuse singing in the background.

And he took a bullet for her, so that helped as well.

(for those curious with UA knowledge, yes, I mixed UA with Feng Shui for a campaign and got to use both the Bad Man and Alex Abel in a FS game. The Pornomancer was going to use a major charge that she had gotten to knock out the current world into their version of reality just before the Mancers finished a ritualized version of The Molten Heart and shut down the portals, freezing the world into the world of UA. Unfortunately for Alex Abel, who would then Ascend into becoming The Man Who Did What You Couldn't, the Pornomancer used her charge to knock out Alex Abel's alignment with Ascension. "Oh, Alex," said Victoria, "You dropped your keys again.")

I'm sure the social skills can find a place. I think one reason why they are used so seldom is that they are best deployed against mooks, and the players foten see mooks as a reason to cut loose with their combat abilities.

I'm sure a GM can happily make the social skills relevant. After all, each of them has a use.