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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 691945" data-attributes="member: 4937">I have house rules on phobias.  Among other things If you are phobic of insects then they gain a bonus of +4 to intimidate you, and you have a -1 on all rolls in thier presence.However, insects, even the stinging ones, are a classic example of how intimidation is about persuasion not just fear.  When a wasp intimidates a human, the likely result is the human finding a book or newspaper or shoe.LuYangShih: Well, arguably if the inhabitants of the world instinctively feared things based on a magical perception, then it would be ranks in spell casting or equivalent powers that would give you a bonus to your intimidation.  But, we have a hard time relating to that sort of world, and moreover it is not clear that most things have that magical perception.  Intimidate doesn't work on the level of logic, or at least it doesn't work primarily on the level of logic.  Diplomacy appeals to a characters logic.  Intimidate works on the level of basic instincts.  I dare say most people who aren't familiar with them find horses and elephants intimidating even when the horses and elephants aren't trying.It is clear that in D&D most things share this worlds perception of size through vision.  In this world, size heavily influences how easily someone intimidates something.  If you don't think so, then probably someone bigger than you has never tried to intimidate you.  It is reasonable and conveinent to assume whenever we can that the D&D world works alot like the real one.  I can gaurantee you that if a 12' tall 2500 pound man tried to intimidate you in the real world, that you'd find him pretty intimidating.  A 12' tall man seems like a credible threat.  Until he demonstrates otherwise, a 12 inch tall man does not.  Actually demonstrating the ability to harm the person you are trying to intimidate is itself a reasonably good positive modifier, which concievably overcomes the size problem.   But you probably don't need alot of convincing that a 12' tall 2500 pound guy has the capacity to harm you.</blockquote>

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