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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5751508" data-attributes="member: 42582">I think the last sentence here must be wrong. If the target is permitted to remove itself from the presence of the intimidator, then intimidating becomes a (near-)useless strategy - you can't effectively cow someone, because they are always allowed to run away.To put it another way - being treated as friendly while in your presence means that they are helpful and don't run away. (The original case does raise the issue of what "presence" means - did the PCs voluntary move away from the prisoner, thus permitting him to leave their presence?)I don't think anyone is saying that the NPC should become a puppet. The reason they don't run is not because they have become a puppet. It is because the intimidator has cowed them.The game-mechancial reason for setting strict parameters on what intimidated NPCs can and cannot do is to make Intimidate a mechanically viable option. Otherwise, as [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] has pointed out, the players have a strong if not overwhelming incentive to go straight to combat, given that most GMs don't have NPCs reduced to 0 hp spontaneously run away.</blockquote>