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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 689768" data-attributes="member: 259">I dunno:  I figure it works a little bit differently.  Intimidate provides a stick that you can use to herd NPCs in the appropriate direction.  But they've got to have a direction they can go in.I can shout at my enemies, "Surrender, you scurvy mutts, or I'll slit your throats and feast on your entrails!"  I've given them a suggested course of action (surrender), and the consequences they'll suffer if they don't (throat slit, entrails turned into halfling-chow).  I want them to believe that if they surrender, they've got a better chance of surviving than if they keep fighting.  That's an easy sell, if I've killed half their companions in two rounds and don't show signs of injury myself.Some of them might run away:  they've seen me stab, but they haven't seen me run, and I've got short stubby legs.  Though I've successfully waved a stick at them, they haven't been herded in the direction I hoped.  But if I pull out a bow and shoot one of them dead, the others might decide to stop running:  I've closed off one direction for them.If two of them drop their weapons and my raging barbarian buddy lops off their heads, the others are suddenly not going to believe my offer of surrender.  They'll start running away again, or else they'll fight back.If I capture them and say, "Tell us everything you know about your half-dragon master, and then I'll kill you," I've waved a stick at them, but I haven't given them any direction to go in.  They're likely to clam up:  if I'm going to kill them anyway, why should they cooperate?If I say, "Tell us everything you know about your half-dragon master, and then I'll take away your weapons and set you free, and if I ever see you again I'll spit your eyes on my dagger and eat them like olives," then I've waved a stick, and I've given them a direction to go in: if they cooperate, they live, and if they don't cooperate, they'll probably die.I think that's what intimidation is all about:  you put two stark choices in front of someone, and make the consequences of choosing the wrong way look too horrible to contemplate.  Daniel</blockquote>

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