Intimidation
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The Intimidation skill is a variant of Intimidate. It is the skill to use when you are trying to make people do your bidding, or simply to frighten them.
Intimidation (Cha)
Intimidate: With a successful Intimidation check, a character can forcibly persuade another character to perform some task or behave in a certain way. A character’s Intimidation check is opposed by the target’s Will defence. If the character succeeds, he or she may treat the target as friendly for 10 minutes, but only for purposes of actions taken while in the character’s presence. (That is, the target retains his or her normal attitude, but will chat, advise, offer limited help, or advocate on the character’s behalf while intimidated.) As soon as the target feels safe, his attitude becomes one step more hostile towards you.
Circumstances dramatically affect the effectiveness of intimidation. A character immune to fear effects can’t be intimidated.
| Circumstance | DC |
|---|---|
| Target is helpless or at your mercy | +5 |
| Target is disadvantaged | +0 |
| Target is evenly matched with you | -5 |
| You are disadvantaged | -10 |
| You are helpless or at target's mercy | -15 |
There are limits to what a successful Intimidation check can do. The character can’t force someone to obey his or her every command or do something that endangers that person’s life.
If the character fails by more than 5, the target may actually do the opposite of what the character wishes.
Retry: Generally, trying again doesn’t work. Even if the initial check succeeds, the other character can only be persuaded so far. If the initial check fails, the other character has probably become more firmly committed to his or her position, and trying again is futile.
Special: A character can take 10 when making a Intimidation check, but can’t take 20.
Time: Intimidation is at least a full-round action.
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