D&D 5E Is Intimidate the worse skill in the game?

[Nebulous]

The entire 5e skill system is a train wreck.

I agree. This is one of the top things I want to see Level Up fix. Well, among other top things

 

[Undrave]

Worst skill? No, I would put Slight of Hand and Animal Handling below Intimidation, and probably History as well.

Gotta admit... I completely forgot Sleight-of-Hand was a thing... This is another one where the consequence for failure can be much worse than other skills.

I don't think knowledge skills should be like normal skills at all. I think each class and background should list the types of knowledge the character knows or can choose from and they should otherwise work like languages and tools do. You might need to add 2-3 more skills for that to work well, but I don't think they're quite deserving of being first class skills. Not even Arcana.

Oh that's a good idea! It's pretty neat.

 

[commandercrud]

And why are tool proficiencies sort of but not quite treated like skills, almost.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Intimidate eh?

Well, the party frenzied barbarian has it with the option to instill fear. But Cha12 means he's got a paltry +5, DC13. Not that impressive.

That said, that character is violent, has a bad reputation, and is played to not be likable. He uses intimidate and when it doesn't work, great. Kind of win-win for that kind of play. Takes mature play to work with party goals though.

I'd like to have a Count Dracula type character myself some time. Someone with intimidate and huge Charisma, so it usually works. Got to have some source of power to back it up though, otherwise you come across as some thug/psycho rather than a villainous force.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I'm with passive skill floors.

One Monk had Observant but wasn't trained in Investigation. His passive investigation was (base 10 +5 advantage +2 Int) 17, but when he rolled it'd average 12... Nope, used the PI floor of 17 instead.

Following that, I just use passive scores. Player asks 'Do I know about this demon?', passive Arcana 18 +5 advantage from demonomicon tome, 'Yes, you know about that Horned Devil.'

It became a rule of measure I could immediately compare to:
10 easy
15 moderate
20 hard
25 very hard
30 impossible

In that case, 23 meant I should reveal lots about that monster.

 

[Minigiant]

Well I think the issue is giving Intimidate Persuasion, and Deception the same DC.

NPCs have different personalities and some are easier to Intimidate than Persuade or Deceive.
As a DM, the DC for using Persuasion is usually highest.

 

[Mistwell]

This came up in our game last night. I was trying to persuade a noble who had been working with criminals that the wisest course of action for both of us would be to work together and exchange information. But because a small part of my persuasion suggested the city guard would find out about a tatoo he had of a criminal organization if I left there without knowing what was going on and able to run interference, the DM called for an intimidation check. I was not intending to intimidate him - I was genuinely explaining a likely consequence of us not working together. But, it got me an intimidation check.

I tried to explain to the DM my intent wasn't to intimidate, and he said the NPC perceived it as intimidating for reasons my PC might not know. OK then, my PC is supposed to act intimidating when not intending to intimidate? Should be a winner of a check.

Fortunately I made the check but it nearly blew the entire negotiation.

 

[Minigiant]

This came up in our game last night. I was trying to persuade a noble who had been working with criminals that the wisest course of action for both of us would be to work together and exchange information. But because a small part of my persuasion suggested the city guard would find out about a tatoo he had of a criminal organization if I left there without knowing what was going on and able to run interference, the DM called for an intimidation check. I was not intending to intimidate him - I was genuinely explaining a likely consequence of us not working together. But, it got me an intimidation check.

I tried to explain to the DM my intent wasn't to intimidate, and he said the NPC perceived it as intimidating for reasons my PC might not know. OK then, my PC is supposed to act intimidating when not intending to intimidate? Should be a winner of a check.

Fortunately I made the check but it nearly blew the entire negotiation.

Personally I would have do it as Persuasion.

Coming off wrong or with the wrong personality to me is a function of Charisma.If you have low CHA, you are more likely to come off wrong.

I usually go with this.

• Proposing a deal, exchange, or fact, is Persuasion.
• Lying about who benefits in a deal/exchange or the terms is Deception
• Forcing others to accept a deal, exchange, or fact is Intimidation
• Repeating someone's else's words is Performance

So if your character is attempting to be honest and not forcing the other party, it's Persuasion.

 

[dave2008]

I do think however sometimes that Deception (or Bluff), Intimidate and Persuasion (or Diplomacy) should all just be rolled into one social interaction skill.

I could see that, then possibly use different stats for each check: social interaction (Bluff) = INT mod; social interaction (Persuasion) = CHA mod; social interaction (Intimidate) = STR mod; social interaction (Diplomacy) = WIS mod; etc.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

A lot depends on the DM, but arguably Intimidate is the one skill that you can succeed on your check and still make things much worse. It also doesn't help that a lot of the types of characters that end up with Intimidate are ones that don't exactly have sparkling personalities and high Charisma.

The reason is that Intimidate will usually make things worse in 75% of the time you try to use it to force someone to do something. If you fail you usually shut down the entire social encounter right then and there, and even if you do succeed, that NPC is probably gonna hate you for quite a while. It's almost always a bad idea unless you're dealing with someone you're ready to fight.