Intimidate, or "whoops I wasted my skill points"

[Saeviomagy]

At present, it seems that intimidate is a waste of skill points. It has the short term effects of bluff or diplomacy, but suffers because:

DMs like to make their NPCs immune to it

It wears off in a few minutes

It carries stiff roleplaying penalties

So - no doubt (in my mind) that as 3.5 has it, it's a waste of skill points. How would you like to see it in 4e?

 

[FadedC]

I'm actually a little surprised it didn't get rolled up into another skill somewhere. But I guess that's true of all the social skills.

With that being said, with NPCs in 4e having the potential to be immune or highly resistant to certain social skills, having intimidate might be a good way to round out the party for social encounters.

 

[MerricB]

Err... how do you know what Intimidate is for in 4e? Have you actually seen the skill description or are you basing this only on the really, really incomplete information in the skill challenges preview?

 

[Ten]

I am very curious where you picked up this information on Intimidate and is usefulness or lack thereof. Did you get to sneak a peek at the books?

 

[Serendipity]

Curiosity - are you presuming that intimidate will work as it does in 3.5 or did I miss a 4e update somewhere?

 

[Simon Marks]

Without knowing what Bluff and Diplomacy are supposed to cover, it's impossible to work out what Intimidate should do.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

At present, it seems that intimidate is a waste of skill points. It has the short term effects of bluff or diplomacy, but suffers because:

DMs like to make their NPCs immune to it

It wears off in a few minutes

It carries stiff roleplaying penalties

So - no doubt (in my mind) that as 3.5 has it, it's a waste of skill points. How would you like to see it in 4e?

Well... Intimidate is perfect for dealing with NPCs who you don't have to or want to deal with again, or who are already unfriendly or hostile to you. It's of a somewhat limited scope, certainly, but not useless as such.

As for 4e, I'd like to get more information about the other social skills first.

 

[Imp]

Intimidate should be more useful than it is in RAW 3rd edition. I've houseruled a few uses for it. For example, it should be more useful for getting enemies to surrender a fight, or flee. "DROP. YOUR. SWORD."

 

[Orcus]

See the new excerpt on skill challenges.

 

[Pale Jackal]

Diplomacy may be superior to Intimidate, but unless your DM allows multiple characters to make the same roll (or allows 'assistance'), then you might as well take Intimidate to round out your options if someone else already has Diplomacy.

Some characters you won't deal with again, sometimes you won't be able to effect a compromise without some threat, and some characters who you are going to deal with again aren't going to put their neck on the line to get revenge. On occassion (sp?) Intimidate will backfire, but really, it shouldn't backfire that often.