Intimidate During Combat Question - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 9:18:55	Is there a written rule about using the Intimidate skill during combat? My DM claims that in order to intimidate an enemy during combat, we must wait 10 rounds to see if the intimidate check succeeded. Can anyone provide me a book and page number that addresses this? Thanks!
#2 iserith Sep 30, 2014 9:33:16	Your DM made that up. But that's okay because he's empowered to do that. It's not something I would choose to do, but I'm not your DM. There are no specific rules for Intimidation except what is written on page 62 of the Basic Rules: Intimidation. When you attempt to influence someone through overt threats, hostile actions, and physical violence, the DM might ask you to make a Charisma (Intimidation) check. Examples include trying to pry information out of a prisoner, convincing street thugs to back down from a confrontation, or using the edge of a broken bottle to convince a sneering vizier to reconsider a decision.
#3 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 10:18:58	Thanks for your reply. Of course I would defer to the DM's call, however his claim makes the use of intimidate nearly unusable during combat. He claims that he learned this rule from another DM who got it from a manual. I can find nothing that states this rule. In any case, we were in a party of 6 last night, fighting almost 20 Kobolds in one encounter. If we indeed needed to wait 10 rounds that would be about 1560 seconds or 26 minutes in game time to wait before we knew if the enemy was intimidated. Even waiting 10 turns seems excessive as who would stand there intimidating an enemy for a full minute? My take as a DM would be to have the player use his or her turn to do an opposed intimidate check that would resolve immediately. Thanks again for your input.
#4 iserith Sep 30, 2014 10:37:47	Ten rounds is 60 seconds. It's still longer than most combats will actually last. Point him to this thread and he can ask any further questions if he likes. Good luck!
#5 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 11:10:17	Hi, Isn't a round the total of the turns in an encounter? One creature's turn would be 6 seconds and depending on the number of characters and enemies in an encounter there could be more or less than 10 turns in a round correct? Maybe I am getting hung up on semantics here but I think it matters. Thanks! EDIT: I'm incorrect about the time, the PHB states that a round is 6 seconds. I find this odd since as I mentioned we had 20 creatures playing in one encounter so I would think a turn would be 6 seconds and a round would vary.
#6 iserith Sep 30, 2014 11:11:43	BADFISH2 wrote:
#7 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 11:17:31	After thinking about it more that makes sense to me. Thanks for the clairification!
#8 Bloodlust1997 Sep 30, 2014 11:31:52	BADFISH2 wrote:
#9 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 12:04:02	Yeah, this game is on Roll20 so we have a rules thread to discuss these types of things. I suppose we will see what he decides to do. Usually he is reasonable about reversing rules if we present a good case. It isn't a big deal to me, but I like to understand the rules as best I can for when I DM.
#10 Bloodlust1997 Sep 30, 2014 12:50:45	BADFISH2 wrote:
#11 BW0222 Sep 30, 2014 14:09:12	BADFISH2 wrote:
#12 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 15:18:51	Great points everyone and thanks for the input. Even if my DM decides not to change his rule, I now have a much better understanding and framework for using intimidate checks in my own games. A very helpful forum!
#13 Novacat Sep 30, 2014 15:24:06	BADFISH2 wrote:
#14 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 15:31:01	Novacat wrote:
#15 iserith Sep 30, 2014 16:48:27	BADFISH2 wrote:
#16 BADFISH2 Sep 30, 2014 17:12:37	iserith, thanks for the suggestions, that is a great idea. Update: Our DM has looked for himself and indeed cannot find any mention of a time constraint for Intimidate checks in combat so he is going with "The Book." I appreciate everyone's insight and assistance!

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 9:18:55

Is there a written rule about using the Intimidate skill during combat? My DM claims that in order to intimidate an enemy during combat, we must wait 10 rounds to see if the intimidate check succeeded. Can anyone provide me a book and page number that addresses this? Thanks!

iserith

Sep 30, 2014 9:33:16

Your DM made that up. But that's okay because he's empowered to do that. It's not something I would choose to do, but I'm not your DM.

There are no specific rules for Intimidation except what is written on page 62 of the Basic Rules:

Intimidation. When you attempt to influence someone through overt threats, hostile actions, and physical violence, the DM might ask you to make a Charisma (Intimidation) check. Examples include trying to pry information out of a prisoner, convincing street thugs to back down from a confrontation, or using the edge of a broken bottle to convince a sneering vizier to reconsider a decision.

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 10:18:58

Thanks for your reply. Of course I would defer to the DM's call, however his claim makes the use of intimidate nearly unusable during combat. He claims that he learned this rule from another DM who got it from a manual. I can find nothing that states this rule. In any case, we were in a party of 6 last night, fighting almost 20 Kobolds in one encounter. If we indeed needed to wait 10 rounds that would be about 1560 seconds or 26 minutes in game time to wait before we knew if the enemy was intimidated. Even waiting 10 turns seems excessive as who would stand there intimidating an enemy for a full minute?

My take as a DM would be to have the player use his or her turn to do an opposed intimidate check that would resolve immediately.

Thanks again for your input.

iserith

Sep 30, 2014 10:37:47

Ten rounds is 60 seconds. It's still longer than most combats will actually last. Point him to this thread and he can ask any further questions if he likes. Good luck!

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 11:10:17

Hi, Isn't a round the total of the turns in an encounter? One creature's turn would be 6 seconds and depending on the number of characters and enemies in an encounter there could be more or less than 10 turns in a round correct? Maybe I am getting hung up on semantics here but I think it matters. Thanks! EDIT: I'm incorrect about the time, the PHB states that a round is 6 seconds. I find this odd since as I mentioned we had 20 creatures playing in one encounter so I would think a turn would be 6 seconds and a round would vary.

iserith

Sep 30, 2014 11:11:43

BADFISH2 wrote:

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 11:17:31

After thinking about it more that makes sense to me. Thanks for the clairification!

Bloodlust1997

Sep 30, 2014 11:31:52

BADFISH2 wrote:

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 12:04:02

Yeah, this game is on Roll20 so we have a rules thread to discuss these types of things. I suppose we will see what he decides to do. Usually he is reasonable about reversing rules if we present a good case. It isn't a big deal to me, but I like to understand the rules as best I can for when I DM.

#10

Bloodlust1997

Sep 30, 2014 12:50:45

BADFISH2 wrote:

#11

BW0222

Sep 30, 2014 14:09:12

BADFISH2 wrote:

#12

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 15:18:51

Great points everyone and thanks for the input. Even if my DM decides not to change his rule, I now have a much better understanding and framework for using intimidate checks in my own games. A very helpful forum!

#13

Novacat

Sep 30, 2014 15:24:06

BADFISH2 wrote:

#14

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 15:31:01

Novacat wrote:

#15

iserith

Sep 30, 2014 16:48:27

BADFISH2 wrote:

#16

BADFISH2

Sep 30, 2014 17:12:37

iserith, thanks for the suggestions, that is a great idea.

Update: Our DM has looked for himself and indeed cannot find any mention of a time constraint for Intimidate checks in combat so he is going with "The Book."

I appreciate everyone's insight and assistance!