Asisreo
Patron Badass
What if the guard is an A-hole and doesn't give a damn about the average begging peons that happen to wander the streets?Sure, if he pays him off, but what if he simply appeals to the guard's better nature to help some poor travelers who don't have the coin to spare? That is also persuasion and you aren't breaking any laws to do it.
Could always be bluffing. Yeah, sure, it looks like the phylactery, but if he shows no signs of being threatening, he may not have to guts to do it or the skill to do it quick enough for them to yield. If the dracolich goes first, he may be able to just escape with it.... Would you even have them roll for that? I mean "I am literally holding your soul in my hand and have no problem ending your immortal existence" is less abotu intimidation and more about the fact that you got a Dracoliches Phylactery. I think that is a situation where you can no longer fail, so no roll even happens.
Which kind of misses the point of using the skill.
Potato farmers are dumb. Sure, they may see your shiny armor and your flaming sword and think "wow, this guy is really strong, maybe I shouldn't mess with him." But they may also see your shiny armor and flaming sword and think "yeah, if I go right for the neck, I think I can take him." Like the idiots people are.1) Does a level 15 fighter even need to roll? Again, I don't really find it compelling to tell me the skill is meant for my level 15 dragonslayer to tell a potato farmer to step aside. I'd like to think I can do that with no problem.
I think you're missing a key component:And this gets right back to the issue, if Intimidate is only useful against people far far weaker than me, or whom I have a sokid undeniable advantage over (like literally knife to their throat) then what use is it? Am I really going to have the rogue roll to intimidate the put purse while he is millimeters from stabbing the guy to death? The only thing the guy can do is call the bluff, and then the player either kills him (losing the information) or backs down (losing the information) and if I succeed... well this guy isn't exactly going to sing my praises for threatening to kill him
2) Intimidate your employees? Really? Imagine you have a boss who constantly "coerces" you into working. Do you think you are going to be happy working their? Think you are going to be loyal? I mean, this is straight out of the Dark Lord's Handbook. You don't go around threatening the help, that just incentivizes them to hate your guts.
You do not care how people feel about you when you intimidate people. You aren't here to make friends, you're here to get what you want and leave. Whatever strength these peasants could muster up to face you is not enough to persuade you. They aren't going to gain enough power to be a problem. You can take out their whole village if need be. The king or presiding noble isn't going to do anything about it because he doesn't care about the common rabble enough to bat an eye. They probably do, but the stupid commoners don't know that. They probably only know the nobility from the knights that tax them every couple of moons.
If you're good-aligned, you're not often going to use intimidation for the reasons you gave. But you needn't always be good-aligned. There's nothing wrong with scaring a few weaklings to have them know your place.