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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 2557774" data-attributes="member: 3424">I think the rule was changed in 3.5e. The SRD reads:Good on you for checking the rules, though. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />That's one thing I like about the slightly abstract nature of the D&D rules. The player or DM can describe how the gnome demoralized the dragon any way they want - it doesn't have any effect on the actual game result. Maybe the gnome started frothing at the mouth and the dragon thought he was rabid or a frenzied berserker. Maybe he uttered such a horrible threat that the dragon was distracted for six seconds. Maybe he used the favorite catchphrase of a famous gnome dragonslayer. Certainly, I have no problems visualizing something like that happening "out of the blue". Like I mentioned, the dragon doesn't go from confidence to panic in a single round. It's just hesitating for a while, in case things aren't what they seem.I suppose I see it this way. The player describes what he wants to do, and the DM decides what is the best way to determine whether he succeeds or fails. If the player decides that his gnome character wants to try and scare the dragon, and the DM decides that the Intimidate skill doesn't apply, it's like the DM ruling that a character can't use the Hide or Move Silently skills when he's trying to sneak past a monster. I have no problem with the DM saying that the attempt doesn't work if the applying the rules results in an impossibly high DC, or the creature has some special ability that prevents the attempt from working (e.g. a creature immune to fear, in the case of intimidate, or a creature with tremorsense or blindsight in the case of Hide and Move Silently). I do have a problem if the DM ignores the rules or decides that the attempt doesn't work simply because he doesn't want it to. After all, I signed up to play D&D, not DM May I.</blockquote>

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