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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6735452" data-attributes="member: 6801286">I'm always careful in my phrasing. I don't explicitly tell them that the shopkeeper is lying, but I may tell them that the shopkeeper seems nervous, and that his hands tremble. For example, I had a situation in a Call of Cthulhu game, where the player was booking a room in a hotel, but the receptionist was staring at him while he was walking up the stairs. He suspected something was up, and thus rolled for his sense motive (or insight, if you will), and he was successful. So I told him that he suspected that the receptionist was waiting for him to be out of view, so she could inform others that he was asking questions. He decided to listen at the top of the stairs, and he heard the receptionist making a phone call.As a DM I give the players clues, tell them what they suspect, or if they have a hunch, but I don't tell them exactly what they think or what their conclusions are. If an npc is lying, then a successful insight might reveal some tells, but whether the npc is actually lying is still up for debate.Similarly, with an intimidate I may tell the players that they feel threatened by an npc. They may even feel like the npc could easily beat them in a fight, even if this isn't the case. But I can't tell them to run away. I once had an npc sailor in a bar successfully intimidate a player (who was playing a dwarf). I told the player that the man towered over him, and was very muscular. He was clearly looking to pick a fight, and he looked like if it came to that, he would probably win. The player then decided to simply leave the bar, and ignore the sailor who was clearly trying to provoke him into a fight. Now that is a successful intimidate. Statistically, the player could have easily defeated the sailor, but he role played it really well. Yep, this often comes up. Sometimes an intimidate can also be a bluff or a deception. Sometimes I leave it up to the players which skill they want to use. And yes, it is a bit silly that a barbarian covered in gore would fail his intimidate check, just because he has a low charisma and/or intimidate score. Social skills in D&D still don't have a very good system. It was inconsistent and confusing in 3rd edition and it still is in 5th edition.You could house rule it, and allow the barbarian to use his strength modifier to roll for his intimidate instead, and add a situational bonus, since he is already covered in gore. In fact, I believe a DM once did this when I was playing a Barbarian in his campaign.</blockquote>

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