What happens to minions/associates on successful Intimidate?

[marick]

Ok, so let's say your party is in a big fight, like with an elite leader, a few other monsters, and a bunch of minions, and you manage to get a few big hits on the elite leader, and bloody it, and then your intimidate specialist rolls big, so the leader is now intimidated and surrenders.

What happens next? Do the minions attempt to flee? Drop their weapons? What about the other bad guys?

In other words, can you intimidate your way out of (the rest of) a fight after bloodying the leader?

-marick

 

[Liebot]

As a GM I would say the whole enemy party surrenders at that point. There's a reason leaders are leaders, without them the enemy party dissolves.

 

[Tale]

You can, if the DM says you can. This is a judgement call more than a rule.

 

[DLichen]

Depends on how the big bad surrenders. He may just turn and flee and leave the minions as meat shields, he may force the minions to surrender as well, the minions may actively disobey him and keep fighting. I think there is a good reason why surrender isn't defined by the rules.

Leave it to the flavor of the encounter.

 

[Tale]

This would be a good situation for victory charts!

 

[marick]

OK, so to put this in perspective, I'm the GM. Anybody done this with any fights in KOTS?

 

[Tale]

OK, so to put this in perspective, I'm the GM. Anybody done this with any fights in KOTS?

If it's Kobolds, they definitely surrender.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

I had a little house rule in 3rd Edition that would probably still work with a little adaptation for 4th Ed.

Roll Intimidate vs. Will against one opponent; on a success, the subject is intimidated. If the opponent is above 1/4 of its hit points and is not a minion, it takes a -2 to attacks until the end of your next turn. If the opponent is at 1/4 hit points or less, or is a minion, it flees or surrenders, depending on the creature's inclinations and player roleplay. Players can use Intimidate as a Burst 3 at -5 to the roll.

Seem fair? That's pretty much how I had it work in 3.5.

 

[Bison]

There definately needs to be some kind of tweak for minions and intimidate. One possible soluting I was kicking around with a friend was that if 1/2 of the minions in the battle are killed, then minions will surrender with a successful intimidate.
That kind of preserves the flavor of the bloodied enemy surrenders.

 

[DLichen]

OK, so to put this in perspective, I'm the GM. Anybody done this with any fights in KOTS?

Kobolds have a nifty victory chart, so I think it's nice if they flee, hide in place (ostrich method), but I think they are too cowardly to stand there and take punishment with their leader.

Goblins may do the above, though an aspiring commander might want to take Irontooth's place and rally the men to fight again. Irontooth himself would probably flee if he sees an opening, prefering possible freedom to certain capture, and should probably only surrender if cornered.

As for the cultists, depends on the encounter as before. Do whatever you think is flavorful, though I think pushing for slightly more unorthodox definitions of "surrender" might give you some nice wriggle room later without surprising the players.