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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LittleFuzzy" data-source="post: 4830735" data-attributes="member: 79881">We can all come up with niche situations and specific examples where it can and should work out differently, but in general if you a player tries and succeeds at intimidating an enemy with the intent of making it surrender, and the DM keeps bringing the enemy back in, it's going to be at the worst possible moment for the PCs because that promotes the dramatic tension which makes the game fun.  Then players are going to A) get pissed of, and B) stop using intimidate because it's not particularly helpful and can, in fact, be harmful.  It would be unwise, for instance, to try and intimidate lurkers because they LIKE backing out of the fight for a little while and coming back in.  Most players are trying to control the battlefield and make it function in more predictable ways, to limit the enemy's options and increase their own.  Intimidate used as outlined in this thread increases the enemy's options and limits the players.Intimidating a monster into surrendering should generally be functionally equivalent to death, because if it's not fairly predictable then players simply aren't going to do it.  It will also make those situations where something different happens more exciting, fun, and memorable.</blockquote>