imperious command, fearsome armor

[rycean]

So I've been playing dnd for a few months now and happened to end up as a dm. One of my players is using imperious command and fearsome armor from drow of the under dark to keep everything I throw at him stun locked while he kills it. Am I missing something or does it really work like that?

Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

[Rover]

I generally rule that you can only demoralize an opponent once an encounter.

[Sian]

he still have to succeed a Intimidate check each round to keep the opponents cowering, which means that each round he have to roll an opposed roll of Intimidate vs. 1d20 + Opponent HD + Wisdom Modifier + bonuses against fear ... Mindless creatures are also immune (they're to stupid to react). That and it still costs a move action which means that he only have an standard action each round to attack with

Sooner or later it'll fail.

[rycean]

Thanks for the insight fellas. Just needed to ask as his fear set up is upsetting my other player because he belives its broken.

[Khatoblepas]

It may seem powerful, but with a little bit of tactical thinking, a demoralizer loses most of their bite. Demoralization has a lot of weaknesses:

- Only one enemy per round can be demoralized (w/o Never Outnumbered etc).
- The enemy has to be vunerable to fear (so no undead, constructs, etc)
- The enemy has to be within his melee reach (so no archers, mages, etc)
- An action has to be given up, so no full attacking. (move action intimidate is cool, tho)

Throw more than one enemy at him. Without Never Outnumbered, he can only intimidate one dude at a time, and even with it, he can only do it once per encounter (That particular trick is part of the Barbarian's Timestop, by the way.). Put in some archers, some mages, some monsters that attack from outside of his reach. He can only demoralise those within his reach and who can sense him. You don't have to shut him down, just give him some enemies outside of his ability to deal with with his one trick. You don't even need to houserule anything.

[OldTrees1]

Imperious Command is an action intensive Fear effect. At best he can keep 2 enemies (3 if 9 levels of Fighter) locked while the party deals with them.

Ways to make combat more interesting around this ability:
1) Have encounters where the PCs are outnumbered.
This attack a weak point of Imperious Command (more enemies than actions).
[Pro]This does not negate Imperious Command.
[Pro]This does allow Imperious Command to create teamwork.

2) Have encounters that have fear removal.
This attacks a different weak point (fear is easily removed).
[Con]This does negate Imperious Command.
[Pro]This does allow Imperious Command to create teamwork.

3) Have some enemies that are immune to fear. (There is a 1st level feat that gives Fear Immunity)
This attacks a different weak point (fear is an easy immunity).
[Con]This does negate Imperious Command.
[Con]This does not allow Imperious Command to create teamwork.

[Dienekes]

So I've been playing dnd for a few months now and happened to end up as a dm. One of my players is using imperious command and fearsome armor from drow of the under dark to keep everything I throw at him stun locked while he kills it. Am I missing something or does it really work like that?

Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated.

This is sort of an optimization problem. Honestly, being able to stunlock an opponent with a skill check is a good trick, but hardly game breaking. Assuming that everyone is playing around with those kind of powers. If your other players find this tactic to be overpowered and ruining their fun I'd talk to the optimized player about it. Fear is generally considered only a mild tactic despite it's ability to stunlock because there are a lot of ways to either ignore or negate fear effects. Flip through the player's handbook and you'll see a few outright immune, and a lot of level appropriate creatures that have enough hit dice to overcome Intimidation on a regular basis.

[Andezzar]

3) Have some enemies that are immune to fear. (There is a 1st level feat that gives Fear Immunity)Which feat is that?

[LTwerewolf]

Which feat is that?

The aptly named fearless. (http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-guide-to-faerun--22/fearless--1096/)


Also Death Trance from rokugan campaign setting basically gives the paladin aura.

[Gavinfoxx]

Does he have never outnumbered?

How many enemies are in the waves (it is waves, plural, yes?) that you send at him?

How far away do enemies start? What is the optimal range of the enemies? How big is the characters reach?

[rycean]

He will be getting never out numbered, but after read all of your reponses I'm seeing a lot of stuff I've missed or didn't even know/think about. Most likely due to being a first time dm haha. Thanks a lot guys :)

[Cloud]

It's been said already, but just pointing out again that Never Outnumbered can only be used once per encounter. That's actually a general rule for all skill tricks that a lot of people miss.

At higher levels if your enemies are NPCs as opposed to just ragh monsters, or otherwise have access to spells, Heroes Feast also just flats out make you immune to fear.

In general though if your player wants to spend resources on a trick that has more and more counters as the game goes on, it shouldn't be problem. ...Though anyone serious about fear will get around immunities, though the other suggestions here about waves/numbers/range all help.