Intimidate Re-think: tied to Assess?

[Storyteller01]

Several publications have suggested using the Sense Motive skill for just that. Since everyone else mentioned it, guess I will too...


Here's an Intimidation story for ya (a classic, but shortened out of necessity)!

A soldier is walking along when he spies a monk working in a garden. Said soldier decides to attack the monk for a number of reasons (food first among them). After getting a certain distance from the monk, the soldier stops. He suddenly realizes that he does NOT want any part of this monk, and moves on.

The scary part: the monk never looked up, never acknowledged the soldier...

 

[Planesdragon]

Yes it changed.

Charisma has always, always, always been personal presence, not mere attractiveness. It was this way in 2e and 1e, and AFAIK in pre-AD&D versions.

 

[Nifft]

Anyone else remember the 7th ability score, Comliness? Was that in 1e Unearthed Arcana?

-- N

 

[DreamChaser]

Charisma has always, always, always been personal presence, not mere attractiveness. It was this way in 2e and 1e, and AFAIK in pre-AD&D versions.

that's not what I said changed. I said that low charisma = repulsiveness changed. in old additions, it was possible to have certain abilities (charisma notably) have negative scores representing supernatually low levels. In 3.x this isn't possible (especially not with Charisma).

DC

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

that's not what I said changed. I said that low charisma = repulsiveness changed. in old additions, it was possible to have certain abilities (charisma notably) have negative scores representing supernatually low levels. In 3.x this isn't possible (especially not with Charisma).

DC

In earlier versions of D&D, high Charimsa was associated - at least informally - with beauty, and a supernaturally low Charisma (like -7) was associated with repulsiveness. And both were powerful, as opposed to a supernaturally low Strength, which meant nothing at all.

Back then, I had clerics of Lekwaren Leechlord, god of ugliness, who *had* to have low Charisma. In order to not penalize them, I let them have the same "power of Charisma" as a character with a Cha of 21 - the cleric's Cha score.

3.x makes it much more clear that Charisma and beauty aren't the same, and when I DM I no longer make the mistake of describing every high-Cha character as if they were beautiful or handsome. They just have a strong personality, for better or for worse.

If a player wth a high-Cha character described the character as a "slight, beautful elf" - which is perfectly legitimate - I might give the character a circumstance penalty on Intimidate. And a circumsance bonus on Perform, or whatever else seemed appropriate.

The Spectrum Rider

 

[DreamChaser]

right. and like I said, having one score that is good when low (especially the "dump stat") is just ridiculous.

DC