Intimidate: too easy?

[Plane Sailing]

Re: Re: Re: Intimidate: too easy?

Whew, I was beginning to think I was the only one. Got that written up somewhere I can see?

J

It is on my website, under the "amended skills" heading.

Basically:

An Intimidate check can be used in combat as a standard action in order to frighten an opponent. It can be opposed by either an Intimidate or a Concentration check. The person being intimidated adds any bonus against fear saves to this roll.

If immune to fear, they cannot be affected by intimidation.

If the intimidation attempt is successful, the subject becomes shaken, he is filled with dread, and weakens, losing confidence. They will suffer a -2 morale penalty to attack rolls, skill checks and ability checks for 1d3+ your Cha bonus rounds.

Cheers

 

[Rashak Mani]

POISON ! Intimidate the Barbarian by saying you have a poison in your dagger that will make him impotent for life because his thingy will shrivel. That should more than put off any ideas of the Barbarian bashing you to death.

Of course he would kill you in the process... but would suffer for life.

Threats can be also Theives Guild revenge, Gold robbed, family killed, Guards called, Blackmail,.... etc...

(Thou I have to agree the mechanics can be silly sometimes... when you put a d20 for the random factor it becomes too random. With 1 rank only and a 20 rolled on your dice you can scare off a 20th lvl character.)

 

[Bastoche]

how the hell does that babarian knows he's higher level than the rogue ? How does he even knows he's a rogue ?

If I were a 10th level barbarian and the guy in front of me made me believe he's a 20th level rogue, I wouldn't mess with him...

 

[LostSoul]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Intimidate: too easy?

Basically:

That's cool. I might just have to use that.

I think that, as Intimidate stands, you have to apply "situational" modifiers like cwazy.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I ought to add that I allow Fighters to have Profession() and Intimidate as class skills (I can't see why they shouldn't, after all the NPC warrior gets them). Thus giving Intimidate or Concentration as possibilities for the opposed check allows all classes to resist it IMC.

Cheers

 

[android]

I think another thing to remember is how varied the responses to intimidation can be.

The way I see most people speaking leads me to believe that they always play it as one person getting intimidated and backing down from a situation and acquiescing to whatever demands the intimidator is making. this, however, is not always the case imo, and contributes to the thought that intimidate is too powerful.

it boils down to this: not everyone responds the same way. some people cower, some people fight back harder fearing that they have nothing to lose, some people run, some people try and cool the other person off. there are dozens of different responses to someone else's intimidating behavior. ever been out and had someone acting all macho and getting in your face? that's intimidation in it's own form. i bet you don't always respond the same way. sometimes you play it down and avoid conflict. sometimes you end up fighting. it's the nature of social interaction, it doesn't always go like you planned.

my advice is to try and make intimidate more realistic. just because someone thinks you're scary doesn't always take them down the same path.

 

[Plane Sailing]

That is the very reason why I decided to tie it down to a single, simple game mechanic.

Simple mechanics are good, since it is easy to use, easy to apply.

Besides, we've already got Diplomacy for modifying peoples reactions. Why have another Cha-based skill to basically do the same thing (mechanically)?

Cheers

 

[Bastoche]

Besides, we've already got Diplomacy for modifying peoples reactions. Why have another Cha-based skill to basically do the same thing (mechanically)?

Cheers

Check out "perform"...

 

[drnuncheon]

how the hell does that babarian knows he's higher level than the rogue ? How does he even knows he's a rogue ?

He doesn't. But the barbarian knows that he's a 10th level barbarian, and this guy is some weasely little punk he's never heard of before. I don't think it's much of a stretch to believe that a character's confidence increases as his levels do, and it's a lot harder to intimidate someone who is self-confidant.

But if the situation isn't extreme enough for you, how about that same 4th level rogue being able to intimidate a rakshasa* (7 HD) or a mind flayer (8 HD) or a marilith (only 9 HD!) Not on a lucky roll...on average. A first level character being able to intimidate an ogre mage, on average.

J
* - OK, the rakshasa probably gets a hefty bonus for his detect thoughts ability, but you get the idea.

 

[Bastoche]

He doesn't. But the barbarian knows that he's a 10th level barbarian, and this guy is some weasely little punk he's never heard of before. I don't think it's much of a stretch to believe that a character's confidence increases as his levels do, and it's a lot harder to intimidate someone who is self-confidant.

But if the situation isn't extreme enough for you, how about that same 4th level rogue being able to intimidate a rakshasa* (7 HD) or a mind flayer (8 HD) or a marilith (only 9 HD!) Not on a lucky roll...on average. A first level character being able to intimidate an ogre mage, on average.

J
* - OK, the rakshasa probably gets a hefty bonus for his detect thoughts ability, but you get the idea.

Maybe the rogue is a doppleganger. Or a demon lord under disguise... The point is that's intimidation. The idea to scare people off with words. You could give a +X circumstance (rather a penality to the intimidate check...) bonus on anyone who has a supernatural/spell-like/extraordinary ability. Etc.

The very fact that the DC is 10+HD already take into account the fact that a 10th level character has a certain degree of confidence. I really don't see a problem here...