Uses for Intimidate and Diplomacy

[D20Doctor]

I was wondering what are all of the uses for the Intimidate and Diplomacy skills. I have a Charisma based front line fighter and also the party face so I'm look to put together all of the uses of Charisma based skills. Thanks in advance for the help.

I mean like using Intimidate just before initiative a to challenge someone to a duel in order to get bonuses and stuff like that. I didn't plan on using Diplomacy in battle. I guess I'm not very good at clarifing what I mean.

[Morithias]

Given that I know no one is going to say this one. Intimidate is used for Criminal businesses profit checks.

[Duboris]

Diplomacy isn't as handy in a sword-fight as intimidate is. An especially intimidating fighter or barbarian can easily lower the saving throws, armor class, and damage of an enemy through intimidation feats such as Dazzling display.

Diplomacy is better at making fights avoidable.

[hex0]

They ar both good, though 5 ranks in bluff may be better if you can afford it +2 to 3.5 skills synergy. So maxing Intimidate and Bluff with diplomacy on the side is usually the way to go.

[Duboris]

They ar both good, though 5 ranks in bluff may be better if you can afford it +2 to 3.5 skills synergy. So maxing Intimidate and Bluff with diplomacy on the side is usually the way to go.

Assuming, of course, y'know, you don't ever want to hit anything ever again.

[hex0]

What do you mean? What do skills have to do with hiting things?

[Duboris]

What do you mean? What do skills have to do with hiting things?

If he gets all those and focuses solely on those skills, going so far as to center his feats around them, he could easily, through skill checks alone, mingle his way out of almost any painful encounter he wanted, could he not?

[MesiDoomstalker]

I'm with Hex. No sane DM lets you Diplomance your way out of every fight.

[Dr.Epic]

Diplomacy is better at making fights avoidable.

Or lulling them into a false sense of security and killing them in their sleep.:smallwink:

[Duboris]

Well, I look at attempts at diplomacy like this. Only take the ability if you fancy your own physical being good with words, otherwise you end up with stuff like:

"Now tell me, why shouldn't I go about ripping your spine out through your tear duct right this instant?" - Evil Sultan

*Rolls a diplomacy of 34*

"Because." - You

"Well see, I'm enlightened by that. You know what friend, your all right! Let me give you my kingdom, and my whore of a princess daughter. You earned it. My god, you have the most silvery tongue I've ever met. Wiser words have never been spoken!" - Lawful Good Sultan

[karkus]

Are you guys kidding me? I can't believe that OP is wasting a good ability score to accomplish this, and I can't believe that some of you guys think that Intimidate is better than Diplomacy. Do have any idea how unbalanced Diplomacy is??? You don't need to have a good Cha score for it, and hell, you don't even need that many ranks in it. As long as you can get them to listen to you, you can stop a fight all together, or even just convince them to stop fighting you long enough so that they turn their backs, you drink a healing potion, and then start cutting them up again. Why do you think that they had to revise it?

[D20Doctor]

I mean like using Intimidate just before initiative a to challenge someone to a duel in order to get bonuses and stuff like that. I didn't plan on using Diplomacy in battle. I guess I'm not very good at clarifing what I mean.

[Wise Green Bean]

Intimidate has some excellent combat utility beyond what you mentioned. You can demoralize your opponents. With the right feats, you can demoralize a lot of them really freaking well. Off the top of my head, the Drow of the Underdark feat Imperious command works really well for this. And if you haven't already made the character officially, you might want to check out the Zhentarim(forgive the spelling) fighter ACF. The fear handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809) has a lot of good stuff if you want to do that.

[Diovid]

The feats Master Manipulator and Wanderer's Diplomacy both give new uses for diplomacy. The feat Combat Panache does the same for intimidate. The Never Outnumbered interaction skill trick is great for any character that uses intimidate a lot.

[Narren]

Well, I look at attempts at diplomacy like this. Only take the ability if you fancy your own physical being good with words, otherwise you end up with stuff like:

"Now tell me, why shouldn't I go about ripping your spine out through your tear duct right this instant?" - Evil Sultan

*Rolls a diplomacy of 34*

"Because." - You

"Well see, I'm enlightened by that. You know what friend, your all right! Let me give you my kingdom, and my whore of a princess daughter. You earned it. My god, you have the most silvery tongue I've ever met. Wiser words have never been spoken!" - Lawful Good Sultan


I definitely understand your point, and I always ask that my players try to entertain us when they're lying/bribing/charming/scaring someone, but I don't REQUIRE it. If I have a player who is terrible with words, I'm not going to tell him that he can't play a character with high charisma and high diplomacy. That's the same as telling the scrawny guy that he can't play a barbarian because he can barely lift his pencil, let alone swing a blade.

This isn't really a problem in my games, though. It's been my experience that the guys who want to play the party face are the same guys that love to talk.