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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arcane Runes Press" data-source="post: 117433" data-attributes="member: 402">The reasons for the Strength based VARIANT RULE on Intimidation are directly outlined in the sidebar. The most important part is "the barbarian, regardless of his might, can still fail to intimidate foes who are cowed by the stylish bard or the magnetic sorcerer."It's a metagame issue.The archetypal Barbarian is a Half-orc. The half-orc gets a -2 penalty to Charisma. WoTC, regardless of what they say about making Charisma better, still considers Charisma to be the dump stat for the warrior types. Look to the default DMG Barbarian. He has an 8 charisma if he is human, a SIX if he is a half-orc.   As it stands, only 2 classes have Intimidation as a class skill, the Barbarian and the Rogue. Problem is that the default sorcerer, bard and paladin,through virtue of their Charisma bonus, begin the game being just as good at Intimidation as the Barbarian without the need to buy a single skill rank.  Basically, WoTC is trying to give one of the only classes with Intimidation as a class skill a reason to take the skill at all. Personally, I applaud the move. I have no problem at all with Strong people being just as good at Intimidation. I view it this way: Both the strong and the charismatic know how to use the gifts the gods gave them to get others to do what they want. As it says in the PHB "Intimidation includes verbal threats and body language." Verbal threats = the silver tongued devil's charismaBody language = the legbreaker's rippling musclesAs the MoTW says regarding using Strength instead of Charisma "This assumes....that he accompanies such attempts with appropriate displays of might." APPROPRIATE displays. In other words, he can cow a group of peasants by smashing his fist through a wall, but that same display is not an APPROPRIATE level of might to intimidate a high level fighter.</blockquote>

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