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What does an intimidate role of 80 do to the average person?
Just wondering how the DM's think it should be played out.

Then what does a intimidate of 80 do while in terrifying rage?

Vs PCs; it does nothing to other PCs unless decided as such through that PC's reaction.

Vs NPCs; It depends on the NPC. 80 is going to scare the average commoner out of their wits, and most soldiers are going to be extremely put-off and in some cases back down. Trained personnel or the like, such as ranking guardsmen or individuals used to dealing with the dangers of adventurers are likely to respond in varying ways, from dismissal, to avoidance, to pre-emptive attacks.

Terrifying Rage: It psychologically forces the character to run out of some form of fear, causing them to run. What, exactly, has scared the character specifically is up to the interpretation of the player, likewise for what machination forced them to run. The intimidate may have forced them to run out of sheer terror, or perhaps distracted them enough and proven that, for the moment, fighting them is bad and preventing them from doing much more than focusing on staying away and savnig their skin.

It's very tricky, suffice. Best approach is WYSIWYG, with Terrifying.

Right thanks

I believe, a long time ago, my Malarite character had a run in with Mavek, the Malar temple huntsman (does he still play here?) and was up against an intimidate roll of 128....

My elf pissed his pants, screamed and fell backward into a river.

That's one response. Some people could get pissed at an intimidate attempt. Some could not react at all, and I don't expect people who face down dragons, the legions of the Abyss, etc. to necessarily be frightened of a greying-haired, crippled halfling. I tend to use it mostly as a sign that PvP is forthcoming if conditions don't change.

So having an intimidate rolled against you several times higher then any of your saves or counter intimite doesn't mean the player needs to react in any way to it?

saw someone roll a 72 in dale, I went with it and assumed I failed that one hard =) but yes its up to RP and player decision.

unless like the storm DM says you need base 20 of this skill to remain standing or otherwise, then I suggest go with it.

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I tend to use it mostly as a sign that PvP is forthcoming if conditions don't change.

I like this too.

I think its terrible RP to ignore a high intimidate roll...

I don't, for the same reason I won't assume a bard with a higher perform score is a better minstrel. I want to be impressed by roleplay, not dice.

Mm it's a tricky one, if a crippled one eyed kobold says 'Boo!' and rolls 12037198 intimidate, what am I supposed to do? He hasn't put any effort into the actual attempt; just assumed that because he's played far more than I have and dumped points into intimidate then I should crap my pants and run crying for my mother. Fair enough, if a character makes a threat and looks tough enough to pose it, then a strong intimidate attempt will decide my character's reaction, though unless I'm playing a terribly cowardly character it will rarely be to flee in a state of distress, more to move on or stop irritating that character, or whatever seems appropriate at the time.

So, if I rped out how terrifying and horridly ugly my necromancer is, andthe inhuman, undead moan he issued shook the trees around you....would that add more to the intimidation?

Or would he need to tear the spine out of a well known and very powerful paladin first?

Tearing out his soul would most likely add more to the scare factor. *sage nod*

Red wrote:

So, if I rped out how terrifying and horridly ugly my necromancer is, andthe inhuman, undead moan he issued shook the trees around you....would that add more to the intimidation?

Or would he need to tear the spine out of a well known and very powerful paladin first?

Well of course, because he is an intimidating looking character who can shake things up and make scary, intimidating noises. But if you did those things, do you really think an intimidate roll would be required? I'd like to see anyone who wouldn't be at least a little taken aback by seeing a well known paladin de-spined in front of them, if not for the horror of the thing then the power said necromancer must hold.

Oh yes, then eating his soul, while singing a well known love song

Have to say this is more enlightening then I espected. Certainly going to take some points I've read into account.

From what I gathered from this, a good context RP, is used to backup your high intimidate for desired results.

Yes, you can't say any old crap and then just because your intimidate is ridiculously high expect anybody to react in that fashion; players can choose to ignore the ROLL but if the context is still frightening enough, you can still achieve the desired effect.

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I don't, for the same reason I won't assume a bard with a higher perform score is a better minstrel. I want to be impressed by roleplay, not dice.

so if I could plug my guitar in and make it hearable you'd give me more points? the perform roll IS the bards skill on the instrument, and their skill with words and singing is obviously the RP part.

I think ignoring a high perform roll is a bit far. "boo you suck because you won't type out songs" O_o

ed: of course there is "shreads like a maniac on a wednesday, using a small fish as a plectrum" instead of perform rolls I guess

I'm iffy about the counter intimidate roll. My character has a 30+ will save but a wisdom mod of +1. If initmidate is a fear based save shouldn't that change to character level+will save?

That said characters who approach mine and *Flex* *Crack knuckles* or *roar* then make an intimidate roll aren't going to strike much fear into my characters considering most of them have been screamed at by balors, dragons and giants who are considerably stronger/scarier than a hulky barbarian with an axe.

If you want to play a Bard and Sing a beautiful song: Impress me with your talents in that direction. I will ignore Perform rolls unless directed by a DM not to.

Same with any other skill roll. Sorry but if I wanted to watch the Dice roll around, i'd be a professional Gambler.

MoshingChris wrote:

If you want to play a Bard and Sing a beautiful song: Impress me with your talents in that direction. I will ignore Perform rolls unless directed by a DM not to.

Same with any other skill roll. Sorry but if I wanted to watch the Dice roll around, i'd be a professional Gambler.

^This essentially.

"What's in that black box?"

"It's something incredibly persuasive. You remember that plan we talked about that you were unsure about? Well, because of the thing in this box you think it's a great idea."

"Urmm...okay. What is it?"

"I don't know. But it's amazing, trust me. It's totally changed your mind."

"How can it have changed my mind when I don't even know what it is? Even *you* don't know what it is!"

"Ahh...but look! It's got 54 written on the side of it."

"Fifty-four? What does that mean? It's got a nightclub from the early eighties in it?"

"No, silly! It's fiftyfours worth of persuasive."

"I think you were doing better with the nightclub."

"Anyway, you're convinced now, so let's go."

"I already told you: I don't have the right armour to go there yet. I'd be zapped by the paralysis spells in two minutes, I'm not going till I can afford the Freedom cloak. After I've got it we'll be fine."

"Hrmm....I'd believe you except you haven't got a box."

"What?"

"You need to show me your black box or else I don't believe you and then we have to go."

"You don't believe I'd die from paralysis?"

"Well, of course you will, it's utterly lethal! Even a child knows that....but I need to see your black box before I believe it"

"Fine, fine
..."*cobbles together a black box with a 37 on the side*

"Right, your box proved it, you'll survive, so saddle up and let's go!"

"No."

"You're a bad roleplayer."

Last edited by Glyph on Wed, Jul 28 2010, 18:18 PM, edited 1 time in total.

thats fair enough but I guess thanks for making bluff useless except at events with that attitude. it just encourages powergaming bards with zero perform skill.

(I know its npc skills but personally if you don't back down ICly from an intimidate of 80 I would raise an eyebrow or two)

I think that clever metaphor pretty much summed this up...

Glyph wrote:

thats fair enough but I guess thanks for making bluff useless except at events with that attitude. it just encourages powergaming bards with zero perform skill.

Powergaming Bards have 50 as a bare minimum, and usually 75, but that's an aside. Bluff and Persuade should be useless except against NPCs, and Intimidate too except as Terrifying Rage's DC.

Unless of course your attitude is that the box of fiftyfour is great roleplay.

Glyph wrote:

Quote:

I don't, for the same reason I won't assume a bard with a higher perform score is a better minstrel. I want to be impressed by roleplay, not dice.

so if I could plug my guitar in and make it hearable you'd give me more points? the perform roll IS the bards skill on the instrument, and their skill with words and singing is obviously the RP part.

I think ignoring a high perform roll is a bit far. "boo you suck because you won't type out songs" O_o

ed: of course there is "shreads like a maniac on a wednesday, using a small fish as a plectrum" instead of perform rolls I guess

If you can't convince me through words that your character is playing awesomely on his lute then your character might as well not be playing awesomely on his lute. If I see "*plays a wonderful tune on the lute*" I'll react as apathetically as if I merely heard a "wonderful" tune on a guitar in real life. Speak to me, then we'll get rolling.

And no, I won't be convinced your character is singing a good song unless you actually type out that song. Basically what Mosh said.

MoshingChris wrote:

If you want to play a Bard and Sing a beautiful song: Impress me with your talents in that direction. I will ignore Perform rolls unless directed by a DM not to.

Same with any other skill roll. Sorry but if I wanted to watch the Dice roll around, i'd be a professional Gambler.

ROFL...

Anyway, I use the persuasion skills as a addition to RP not an RP roll or shortcut. The problem is how to go about making the skills useful for all levels? Why penalize someone for taking ranks in bluff when OOC'ly it's better spent on epic ranks in Tumble?

So, my basic rule of thumb is based on the actual die roll modified by the ranks taken. A roll of less than 5 would be a failure no matter how many ranks you have, 19-20 would be a success, and anything in between would be a neutral reaction. This makes it so that even someone without any intimidate skill can roll a 20 and 'lean on' someone. Then the actual ranks and Charisma is taken into account, more than twice your characters Will save should have some effect. Whether its blustering, running or indifference is dependant upon your own characters RP.

In the end though, it's really just an RP tool, like an actor needing something to play off of. It's unreasonable for it to be a RP disabling device, it is after all just a number and has only the life that you as a player give it. No life, no real effect.

not everyone is level 30, and not everyone maxes out there stats for ICly interaction. I'm disappointed with this thread. I thought I was playing on an RP server.

maybe I will leave bluff out and spam listen spot open lock pickpocket etc ALL to max then. would you enjoy that? I don't think you would =)

considering I AM getting bluff to max for this exact reason I better be able to use it for something. and I have no intention of rolling bluff infront of PC's because we already established its useless and OOCly gives you away.

intimidate however, whats the alternative, type in caps? good luck with that.

and while I agree with the bard one I don't like the idea that a perform roll is- always- useless in people eyes. its not, someone might be nice enough to drop you 100 coins for your nice solo after you've done a spoken part, who knows.

exactly, i'm getting epic UMD rather than waste my point on a "useless skill" -_-

I never said use it as a shortcut

for example for those who "will ignore any roll...": *dressed as a commoner* Hi, i'm here to deliver the drinks the justicar was after, would you be so kind as to open the gate for me?

then, maybe, roll a bluff check.

or, like I saw the other day "if you all don't leave RIGHT NOW i'm going to be -very- annoyed"

rolls intimidate: 72

O_o you ain't standing about mate thats good RP right there.

Glyph wrote:

intimidate however, whats the alternative, type in caps? good luck with that.

There are many ways to be intimidating, and yelling is one of the lesser ones. Watch some movies, read some books, that always helps me roleplay. I am rarely forced to respect characters in books or movies that have to yell, it's the creepy ones that are the most intimidating.

If you have to fall back on a roll to assert actions that typically lie in the domain of player interaction, then you're robbing both yourself and the other party of what would otherwise be an immersive experience.

..

While I hate the conversation skills out of principle, I still typically pour some points into one of them, out of impulse. On my main, for example, Persuade is one of the skills I regularly take on levelling. However, I will never use that skill in a PC interaction, because it's for my reference; to bring numbers into words would be disastrous for any semblance of immersion that had been established.

Uses of Social skillpoints:
+Props from people who care that you spent points in them to be scary.
+Props probably from DM's who look at your sheet.
+Scare people with crazy DC barb rage.

They are Social skills that affect NPC's. Use this to your advantage when you can.
Boost of self-confidence knowing you've done something right.

You might argue the fact that PvP build power might mean some effect RP. Some would say that if you got to the point in an encounter where PvP is the only option you've painted yourself into a corner.

I would counter that there are things in the module that even the cheesiest powerbuild would never be able to kill.

There's way better things to be doing than sweating this. If your character's suppose to be a smooth talker, or a scary son of a gun, then put the points where you think they should go. Let the rest come out in the wash, ergo: Roleplay it with confidence that you have something displaying this fact on your sheet.

Glyph wrote:

intimidate however, whats the alternative, type in caps? good luck with that.

erroch wrote:

*shoves an adjacent thread into a small box, the whirring of gears is heard followed by the crunching of html tags becoming unpaired. The muffled scream of a thread being deleted is brutally cut short.*

So I hear you have an intimidate thread.

*brushes the top of the box and looks expectantly at Glyph*

Something like that but more verbose and actually relevant?

Edit: typos and made it less potentially graphic....

*sigh*

sometimes an "if you don't leave here now, I will hunt down you, your dog and your grandchildren" doesn't get across the fact you are agressivly intimidating them. I reckon like was said previously use it to state your readyness for a battle, or to attempt to further get your point across. ignoring it completely is bad form imo, considering I don't decline pnp spells either.

ed: I will agree that bards simply standing there rolling perform is not good RP but like I said, I never said use it as a shortcut.

I think a well placed Fear spell could substitute intimidation very well >.>

Meh. This sort of thing always bugs me. I generally would like to put bluff/persuade/intimidate points into characters that should have them. If I were creating the characters in PnP, I absolutely would. Unfortunately, I also know (as evidenced above) the majority of players seem like they will simply ignore any kind of rolls despite the fact that I actually invested a significant portion of my limited character resources in honing the above skills.

I would never go "BE SKUR'D!" and then roll an intimidate check.. but I also know that the there's a good chance that I could write the 220 words on an intimidation no matter how well done and roll a 199 or whatever and the person would shrug and be unaffected by it. Bluff also seems to have the opposite effect.. and it seems its almost always better to genuinely lie than tip them off that you're lying by rolling it.

Of course, at the same time I have the nagging feeling that I'll at some point get involved with a DM event where there will finally be a situation in which I would need to bluff or persuade and because its never, ever been useful before, I wont have any skill points in it and therefore fail.

So is it better to lose something like tumble, that would always be useful but fail at the occasional NPC, or invest in something that's useless 99% of the time for that one odd occasion when it could be handy?

Red wrote:

I think its terrible RP to ignore a high intimidate roll...

it depends on the RP for me honestly.

A 'rawr' *rolls 128 intimidate*

Does nothing to me.. seriously.

A *Slowly he unsheathes his red glowing sword which surface seems to be of molten metal with terrorized and agonized faces screaming silently while tearing to the surface, just to vanish again* "You wanted something?" *rolls 30+ intimidate*
Or *Reaching behins his back he clasped open the straps that held his axe in its sheathe and with one strong pull he held it before him, before resting the handle on the ground, leaving several cracks as the massive shaft hits the earth with a tremorlike notion* *rolls 30+ intimidate*

Does a lot more because I can imagine what I'd be terrified of.

HellScourge wrote:

it depends on the RP for me honestly.

A 'rawr' *rolls 128 intimidate*

Does nothing to me.. seriously.

hadeismetirion wrote:

So having an intimidate rolled against you several times higher then any of your saves or counter intimite doesn't mean the player needs to react in any way to it?

*Shrugs* Intimidate only makes you friendly to them for a short amount of time, anyway. Or if you do it in combat it's a -2 penalty to AB, Ability Checks and Saving Throws for one round. In PnP, anyway.

If you want more than that, Roleplay, don't Rollplay.

Quote:

I also know that the there's a good chance that I could write the 220 words on an intimidation no matter how well done and roll a 199 or whatever and the person would shrug and be unaffected by it.

thats just bad RP. and no one here should disagree with that.

I have a similar problem with people "handling their drinks" in game. BULL I say.

Glyph wrote:

Quote:

I also know that the there's a good chance that I could write the 220 words on an intimidation no matter how well done and roll a 199 or whatever and the person would shrug and be unaffected by it.

thats just bad RP. and no one here should disagree with that.

I would respond to this argument with a caution that there's one popular character class which is immune to fear... for a paladin, being intimidated is voluntary.

(I bring this up only because this situation has happened to me: someone tried to intimidate my paladin, and I just shrugged it off and tried to calmly talk the "intimidator" down. This was *not* bad RP. This was *good* RP.)

that I didn't realise, i'm glad you told me. paladins you are forgiven.

Immune to fear

The main reason that fear is such a rare thing among player characters in any setting is that players cannot feel pain inflicted upon their characters. In Amia, this is even worse because characters do not even need to fear permanent death, most of the time.

brooksthegreat wrote:

Meh. This sort of thing always bugs me. I generally would like to put bluff/persuade/intimidate points into characters that should have them. If I were creating the characters in PnP, I absolutely would. Unfortunately, I also know (as evidenced above) the majority of players seem like they will simply ignore any kind of rolls despite the fact that I actually invested a significant portion of my limited character resources in honing the above skills.

I would never go "BE SKUR'D!" and then roll an intimidate check.. but I also know that the there's a good chance that I could write the 220 words on an intimidation no matter how well done and roll a 199 or whatever and the person would shrug and be unaffected by it. Bluff also seems to have the opposite effect.. and it seems its almost always better to genuinely lie than tip them off that you're lying by rolling it.

Of course, at the same time I have the nagging feeling that I'll at some point get involved with a DM event where there will finally be a situation in which I would need to bluff or persuade and because its never, ever been useful before, I wont have any skill points in it and therefore fail.

So is it better to lose something like tumble, that would always be useful but fail at the occasional NPC, or invest in something that's useless 99% of the time for that one odd occasion when it could be handy?

This guy knows whats up. The culture of Amia is that bluff, persuade or intimidate rolls are ignored. If people are being lazy RPers, then they should be ignored. But people generally ignore them anyway. So why put ranks in them? Put effort into your intimidating RP speech, don't roll the dice, and sink your hard earned skill ranks into tumble instead, come and join the giant island of circus acrobats, where people backflip to work everyday and commando roll down the street!

Logicality wrote:

The main reason that fear is such a rare thing among player characters in any setting is that players cannot feel pain inflicted upon their characters. In Amia, this is even worse because characters do not even need to fear permanent death, most of the time.

There is technology to solve that problem *fondly remembers his electroshock controllers*

DMs do check these things occasionally in events, though. And then sacrificing some build for RP's sake really pays off.

Not sure if this has been addressed already in this thread or not as it's a lot to read and I have a short break here at work.

But, under no circumstances should a skill roll replace good RP. My character will not think you're an intimidating person just because you roll OVER 9000 on an intimidate roll. Just like my character will not think your character is a good singer/artist because you emoted "*sings a song*" and rolled OVER 9000 on perform.

My answer: If you want my character to be intimidated, give him a reason to be. Using skill rolls will get you nowhere with me in RP if they are not directly battle-related (i.e. grapple checks/save rolls/etc).

That's my short rant on the subject at hand.

Rolls of the dice should not be ignored, Dungeons and Dragons (which is what we all are playing here) is a D20 based system.
It might not be a perfect system, but show me one...
The system is there for fairness, this is a game by the way, games are made for people to have fun.

Sometimes very skilled individuals make mistakes, it happens because no one is perfect. This is what the dice rolls represent.

Try making your roll first, then RP from the roll good or bad results,
so you had an off day, happens to me all the time, maybe today is a great day and fate shines on you.

Someday I might like to roll up a Bard, I can't carry a tune in a bucket, and my guitar skills are fading fast, basically, I suck.
But if my bard rolls a high score, then he's doing well regardless of my lame attempt...the point here is that I am making the attempt.
I agree that if someone rolls a high score and they are not even trying, it's a waste of time.
And yes, this is a RP based server, and the RP is paramount, but the dice rolls are what they are and should not be ignored.

(D&D is also about the RP, not just the roll of a die, just to make clear)

Broken Record Broken Record.

This is a persistent world based on Forgotten Realms PnP, it however is not PnP. Amia has grossly high skill rolls compounded by the Mythal Crafting system.

In PnP I may be lucky to hit 50 in a skill.

On Amia i can easily get 90 in multiple skills.

On Amia i can take two classes and net a minimum of 50 in every skill discipline just by gearing.

Again and I say it so often I'm considering getting it tattooed to my forehead. Alot of things do not translate well from PnP, ergo you need to allow for mechanics descrepancies and compensate for them.

As such I will continue to ignore skill rolls unless otherwise directed or your RP is reflective of your 100+ skill.

Not a broken record, just played so often you know the words by heart.

So what for the grossly high skill rolls, most of that stuff is readily available to those with the cash.
Some kids out there are just breaking into this game and NWN is a great place to start.
My meaning is that not everyone has their own subthread in the Roleplay Praise Thread, we can't all be uber RP'ers, and you shouldn't base your characters' actions based on someone's OOC lack of skill, especially if they made a good dice roll and a decent attempt at the RP.
You might as well say that DM's are useless too, except for events and such. That's what DM's and dice are for, to keep the game rolling.

A 5'?" pale lady in miniskirt, supposedly looking beautiful or whatever will not intimidate Rikku with a 100 point roll... He'll call her a Sinner of Lust, tell her to clothe herself, and move on...

Someone with a 20 point roll could intimidate him if they know what he actually fears of course....

Intimidate

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