A lot of times, even when the outcome is automatic, I will still call for an ability check to determine degree of success/failure.
For example, if the party intimidates a captured prisoner, sometimes I'll just think to myself, "Yeah, no way this goblin is going to sacrifice his life, he's going to spill his beans." But then I'll have the PCs roll Intimidation and the higher their result the more beans the prisoner spills. Or, maybe on a low Intimidation roll the prisoner makes the PCs promise to let him go before he'll talk, and on a high Intimidation roll he talks first and THEN begs for mercy.
Many people use ability checks only to determine the outcome of an uncertain event, but they fulfill a secondary purpose of reinforcing a character's role or image. E.g. the player who built his character to have a high Intimidation WANTS to be intimidating and wants to intimidate people, and for that player, rolling Intimidate is its own reward. This is why players seem to like rolling ability checks even when it is unnecessary -- it is a way of showing off what their character is all about.
For example, if the party intimidates a captured prisoner, sometimes I'll just think to myself, "Yeah, no way this goblin is going to sacrifice his life, he's going to spill his beans." But then I'll have the PCs roll Intimidation and the higher their result the more beans the prisoner spills. Or, maybe on a low Intimidation roll the prisoner makes the PCs promise to let him go before he'll talk, and on a high Intimidation roll he talks first and THEN begs for mercy.
Many people use ability checks only to determine the outcome of an uncertain event, but they fulfill a secondary purpose of reinforcing a character's role or image. E.g. the player who built his character to have a high Intimidation WANTS to be intimidating and wants to intimidate people, and for that player, rolling Intimidate is its own reward. This is why players seem to like rolling ability checks even when it is unnecessary -- it is a way of showing off what their character is all about.
