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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4207440" data-attributes="member: 4937">If this is what Intimidate does, then I think it safe to say that there would be no reason whatsoever to ever invest in the skill.  Afterall, if all intimidate does is cause the NPC to act in some manner which is reasonable for having been threatened according to the personality of the NPC, then you can force this behavior from an NPC at any time merely by role playing being threatening - no skill check required.  No.  All three social skills cause NPC's to act in particular ways.  Diplomacy causes an NPC to agree with you (or become agreeable).  Bluff causes an NPC to believe in something that your character does not believe.  Intimidate causes an NPC to do something that they don't want to do and which may not even be in thier interests. Of the three, conceptually intimidate is actually the most powerful since it works even on people who don't like you.  However, intimidate carries a huge drawback.  Whoever you intimidate or try to intimidate becomes more hostile to you.  This makes other sorts of social interaction more difficult - its harder to convince an enemy with diplomacy than a friend.  It's easier to lie to someone who doesn't have good reason to be suspicious of you.  Moreover, in a comparitively short time - usually not long after your out of sight or your back is turned - the intimidated person regains sufficient confidence to act on thier new found hostility.  They start trying to find ways to work against you.  If you turn to intimidate to try to resolve every or even most social confict, pretty soon you find yourself surrounded by enemies.Someone suggested that intimidate had to be impossible in some situations or else there would be no point in having more than one social skill since they would then all be the same.  I would think that there is a very big difference between getting what you wanted from a friendly, trusting, and loyal Duke, and getting what you want from a hostile, furious Duke who will plot his revenge on you at the first oppurtunity.Well, if 4E is written as badly as 3E's social skills, even knowing what the PH says won't clarify how it is supposed to work.</blockquote>

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