Intimidate Foe

[Feanor]

Sure that can and will STILL be happening, however you end up ruling it. So i dont think what you asked me is relevant. No pun intended.

Of course, its always a player choice how many actions they lay down for a certain thing to happen.

[Feanor]

Our group had this encounter with the werewolf, and we took all his hate points for downwards spiral in just over 1 round. I thought it was a abit abusive, and i thought it as a PLAYER, NOT LM.

[Majestic]

Your players must be pretty impressive with their Awe or Battle, Feanor, as by my calculations they'd need to be hitting TN 18 for the Werewolf of Mirkwood!

My players have used Intimidate Foe a tiny bit with Orcs, but mostly now they just sing (to regain Hope), and don't even use it against tougher foes.

[zedturtle]

Our group had this encounter with the werewolf, and we took all his hate points for downwards spiral in just over 1 round. I thought it was a abit abusive, and i thought it as a PLAYER, NOT LM.

Wow... as Majestic indicated those must be some powerful heroes and/or some good rolls! I guess a kludge would be to have powerful foes like the Werewolf never encountered alone, but that seems not right.

How about capping the maximum loss per round to be the best result? I.e. Four Hate can be drained each round (either by one good roll or several lesser results combined together) but then any other Intimidates don't have any further effect? That would make folks take a more balanced approach, I think.

[Rich H]

How about capping the maximum loss per round to be the best result? I.e. Four Hate can be drained each round (either by one good roll or several lesser results combined together) but then any other Intimidates don't have any further effect? That would make folks take a more balanced approach, I think.

I certainly don't like one option in combat being overused on the grounds that its pretty boring. I've actually played with the players/PCs deciding which opponent(s) they are intimidating (declared before the roll) and them therefore deciding the Hate loss per round but only allowing it to be used once per combat per player and only allowing it to be attempted once per round on a specific opponent or set of opponents. That way, it lets the players target the usage but limits the number of times it can be used and so avoids repetition. This has worked so far for my group but they are good at playing to the spirit of the rules rather than to the letter.

[Angelalex242]

...Looks like it's time for the house rules forum? Cause I think letter of the rules is 'intimidate to your heart's content against that troll till he's weary, then finish him.'

[Glorelendil]

This has worked so far for my group but they are good at playing to the spirit of the rules rather than to the letter.

Cause I think letter of the rules is 'intimidate to your heart's content against that troll till he's weary, then finish him.'

And there you have it: Spirit vs. Letter. I suppose it comes down to why you play games.

[Feanor]

My point was, that my suggestion serves both spirit and letter, coherently. Which is why i fancy that solution.

[Feanor]

as to how good we were while succeding, of course we were lucky. Nevertheless if all players would have just made average rolls, the werewolf would still have been down to 0 in hate points after 2 full rounds...ish, maybe 3.

[Feanor]

Zed, if you read my suggestion as to how to use intimidate foe, the capping part is there.