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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9539515" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Right but this gets right back to the exact problem. Yes Mister Mouth of Sauron can intimidate an innkeeper. Could he intimidate the Balrog? Could he intimidate Ancalagon the Black? Sure, maybe a mobster can intimidate someone with soft words and implied threats, "Oh, this would be a very unfortunate set of circumstances to find ourselves in, wouldn't it?" but that wouldn't convince Batman to back off and toe the line. Intimidation only works if you can get the other person to believe you are more powerful than them, or can quickly summon a force that they cannot deal with. And that becomes incredibly difficult to pull off in the situations where social skills are their MOST powerful. You can use persuasion to convince a lich-god who is about to kill you all and turn you into his undead thralls that you can better serve him as willing living agents. You can use persuasion to convince a powerful dragon to lend you money. But if you try to intimidate in these situations, it can almost be laughable, because the entire situation is based on you being the underdog. A dragon, a lich, a powerful fiend, an orc warchief with a thousand men at his back, these are not targets you can easily intimidate without making them seem like cowards who easily fold under pressure. And if it turns out you are lying to make yourself seem scarier.... you are lying. That is deception.</blockquote>

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