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<blockquote data-quote="AndrewRogue" data-source="post: 4203880" data-attributes="member: 60448">Intimidate is pretty simple as far as skills go. The problem is most people don't really understand how it was intended (as near as I can discern from how the mechanics work).Intimidate is supposed to be used to get others, WHO WOULD NOT NORMALLY BE INCLINED TO DO SO, to go along with you out of a fear of harm (with you/your presence as a focal point). What does this mean? It means that your epic fighter doesn't need to roll intimidate against Joe Blow commoner. He simply makes a small display of power, and Joe Blow (unless he has some reason to NOT be afraid of this) will bend over backwards to do whatever he says.The fact is that intimidate is supposed to be used against people who you can't scare through other means at your disposal. Intimidate is intended to be something far more sinister. Yeah, dude with a big gun pointing at you? Scary? Sure. The natural reaction is to wet yourself and to listen. But what if you can take gunshots at pointblank in the face? Then, no matter how much that guy brandies about that gun, you aren't going to be scared. That's where Intimidate comes in.Which, really, is why it doesn't work in this encounter and, to me, that makes sense. Hell, it can even work out in a perfectly sensible matter. The PCs repeatedly attempt to intimidate the Duke, thereby failing the encounter. However, they've also put him in a position where he can't decline their help. So, the encounter plays off like it had succeeded... until the Duke's men betray the PCs or something similar.Really, this is a pretty cool and elegant system that I dig. I'd like to read more about &quot;creating&quot; them and running with off skills, but this satisfies me.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AndrewRogue, post: 4203880, member: 60448"] Intimidate is pretty simple as far as skills go. The problem is most people don't really understand how it was intended (as near as I can discern from how the mechanics work). Intimidate is supposed to be used to get others, WHO WOULD NOT NORMALLY BE INCLINED TO DO SO, to go along with you out of a fear of harm (with you/your presence as a focal point). What does this mean? It means that your epic fighter doesn't need to roll intimidate against Joe Blow commoner. He simply makes a small display of power, and Joe Blow (unless he has some reason to NOT be afraid of this) will bend over backwards to do whatever he says. The fact is that intimidate is supposed to be used against people who you can't scare through other means at your disposal. Intimidate is intended to be something far more sinister. Yeah, dude with a big gun pointing at you? Scary? Sure. The natural reaction is to wet yourself and to listen. But what if you can take gunshots at pointblank in the face? Then, no matter how much that guy brandies about that gun, you aren't going to be scared. That's where Intimidate comes in. Which, really, is why it doesn't work in this encounter and, to me, that makes sense. Hell, it can even work out in a perfectly sensible matter. The PCs repeatedly attempt to intimidate the Duke, thereby failing the encounter. However, they've also put him in a position where he can't decline their help. So, the encounter plays off like it had succeeded... until the Duke's men betray the PCs or something similar. Really, this is a pretty cool and elegant system that I dig. I'd like to read more about "creating" them and running with off skills, but this satisfies me. [/QUOTE]

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