Intimidate Foe

[Khamul]

The mountain Troll has 10 Hate points, but the Heroes uses Intimidate Foe, round after round and soon he is down to Zero Hate points is this possible? really? To me it's kinda silly.

Your 10 cents, please!

[Angelalex242]

Not only is it possible, it's actually a great strategy. His hate score is much lower then his endurance, after all.

[zedturtle]

That's a lot of tests at TN 19. How many points of Hope did the players spend doing that? How many attacks did they give up? How many times did the Troll get to hit someone in Forward stance that didn't strike him?

In short, I think it's balanced.

[zedturtle]

Not only is it possible, it's actually a great strategy. His hate score is much lower then his endurance, after all.

I don't think the question is about whether or not the rule applies, but whether or not it represents the fiction accurately.

[Glorelendil]

Whether or not the fiction of it makes sense sort of depends on how you narrate the Intimidate Foe. If it's literally your Beorning or Dwarf out there waving his axe trying to scare the troll maybe it sounds silly. But maybe what he's really doing is taunting the troll, trying to confuse it and make it frustrated.

If you combine that interpretation with the excellent "house rule" I've heard expressed here* that trolls tend to target whoever did the most damage to them the previous round, all of the sudden you've got a great visual: an armored "tank" hunkered down stabbing at the thing's knees, with a couple other heroes dancing around it yelling and making a commotion...it almost starts to make you feel sorry for the poor brute.

*Not technically a house rule because it doesn't alter any existing rules; more like a great example of LMs using their authority effectively.

[zedturtle]

That's a pretty awesome visual, GE. And, it also explains why the troll is gonna squash that annoying twerp.

[Khamul]

It was the elf doing the most intimidating. The troll was focusing on tearing down the tower at Celduin...
...but next troll....oh the next troll wont be so nice...

[Majestic]

the excellent "house rule" I've heard expressed here* that trolls tend to target whoever did the most damage to them the previous round,

*Not technically a house rule because it doesn't alter any existing rules; more like a great example of LMs using their authority effectively.

FWIW I tend to do that with just about all powerful adversaries, especially ones with Great Size. They tend to target the character who is doing the most damage to them, generally.

All things being equal, and if nobody is doing a lot of damage to them, I'll usually just roll randomly otherwise, to see who they'll attack (among multiple foes engaged in Close Combat with them).

[Feanor]

Suggestion of changing this stupid rule ( beacause thats what it is to me, anyway.)

why is it stupid ?

1 its boring to do it round after round, even if you can use different ways of describing it, fluffwise.
2 its overpowered vs single strong enemies with many hate points, and is therefore abused.
3 it literally means nothing vs many enemies since the LM deducts points the way he sees fit, so barely gets used.
4 hate points for a specific opponent cant be targeted in the rule concerning this.
5 hate points for a specific gruop from the enemies cant be targeted since you are intimidating the creature your LM chooses to decuct hate points from.

suggestion:

Any one character player may roll for awe/battle (intimidate foe action), but ONLY the best roll counts to how many hate points can be deducted per round for a single foe. The other roles made by other players, are just made to have better chances for one of the players scoring a great/xordinary success. This is good for the LM

Also, if a player facing for example one great orc and 2 goblins making an Intimidate Foe vs all the enemies in the combat, he can only do that vs his OWN opponents. ( explanation: how can you intimadate someone your not facing off with ? ) Hence the LM can only deduct hate points for those 3 said enemies in any way he sees fit. ( this is good for the players. )

I recommend using these two rules in conjunction with each other so that balance at least to some degree is maintained. One good/bad thing for both LM and players.

Finally, i should say, that these rules may not be necessary, if the players and LM agrees how to use Intimidate Foe rule according to the situation at hand ( roleplay wise ).

In any way, i find the rule as written, boring, not dramatically appropriate at all, and also easy to abuse by both LM and players.

I have yet to test this out since its a new rule im using, but i have a very strong conviction these two changes will make the rules considering Intimidate Foe, BETTER in almost all aspects that i can think about. I also believe, that this change makes fiction and rule work more coherently.

[zedturtle]

You haven't found that having heroes in Forward stance that are not making 'attacks' get banged up for Intimidate? My players would (we lost two best intimidators, one due to death of the hero and the other due to retirement) do it, but always balance out that with actual combat maneuvers...