Opposed Ability Check Win Percentages

[RoboEmperor]

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[Shining Wrath]

I think as a DM I would rule that Pit Fiends have a very low tolerance for being annoyed. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, after all, and I think it is a safe assumption that most Pit Fiends are going to respond to being forced to serve a mortal - any mortal - for a period of time roughly the same way you or I would respond to having to being forced to clean a toilet with our tongues.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The reason why I did these calculations is to see how big of an edge Sorcerers have over wizards when the DM forbids enervations, bestow curse, etc.

DM forbiddance of these tactics is DM overreach and completely unnecessary in any case; "Impossible demands or unreasonable commands are never agreed to." That's straight from the spell description. These tactics make it trivial to keep the creature in the trap until it expires but they can -never- force the creature to act as the player wishes until and unless they offer a "reasonable" deal. Guess who gets to determine what's reasonable.

[Kelb_Panthera]

If DM doesn't ban lesser geas and geas during planar binding... then you can just cast geas on the planar bound creature to serve you for one day/caster level, and watch it writhe in agony until it submits to you. No deal necessary because the end of the torture from the geas is a reasonable deal enough :P. Sure the penalties aren't amazing on paper, but geas is supposed to be excruciatingly painful to resist and can kill you.

Nah. The damage/ penalties from (lesser) geas won't completely debilitate the creature before it's sent home and, depending on the creature, can be restored by its allies. Even then, being tortured for an extended period can make the creature much more interested in doing you harm than making any kind of deal or simply drive it insane. While you -can- technically hold them forever (using even more spells and not really giving the creature any time to think because stasis), in most games you won't and when they get loose you've simply traded one problem for a new one if the, now possibly insane, creature doesn't fail.