Intimidate

Intimidate (Cha)
Cooldown: 15 Seconds

Activating the Intimidate skill rolls an Intimidate check against all monsters within a short radius of you. There is a -4 penalty per size category by which the monster is larger than you. (Which becomes a bonus if the monster is smaller.) If your check beats a DC specific to that creature (supposedly 10+HD+Wisdom modifier.), the creature is intimidated and displays an orange skill icon.

A successful use of the intimidate skill sets your threat with a monster equal to the highest threat opponent, plus a small buffer based on your size-modified intimidate skill. Additionally, you gain a +50% threat multiplier to all attacks (melee, ranged, and spells) for 6 seconds after successful intimidation. If you have a shield equipped, you will instead gain a +100% threat multiplier for 12 seconds. These effects are applied as a buff to the character and are called Intimidating Presence and Intimidating Presence (Shield), respectively. Note that some rare monsters do not follow the normal threat mechanics.

Intimidate can be used on any creature that possesses any level of intelligence. Completely unintelligent monsters such as some constructs, some undead, and all vermin, are immune to social manipulation.


 * Class Skill for Barbarian, Druid, Fighter, Paladin, Rogue

Tips

 * Intimidates works rather like a "taunt" aggro skill in other MMORPGs. (However, unintelligent monsters are immune to the effect.)


 * To use Intimidate well, you obviously want to be very well protected. Consider Tower Shields, Defensive Fighting, and simply holding down Shift to block. The Combat Expertise feat is a fine way to boost your AC, if you meet the Intelligence requirement. Alternatively, if the opponents are spellcasters, you might like the Resilience feat, which boosts your saving throws. See also intimitanks for extra information.


 * Intimidate simply shifts you on top of the threat list. In order to maintain aggro of a monster, you will need to continue producing threat by dealing damage to it. Consider using threat increasing items such as those with the Incite property.




 * The required skill ranks after all bonus for some no fail skill check targets are as follows:
 * 79 Epic Queen Lailat (Zawabi's Revenge raid)
 * 80 Elite Xy'xxy (Hound of Xoriat raid)
 * 54 Normal Suulomades (A Vision of Destruction raid)

History

 * In Module 4, Intimidate was changed to no longer use an emote animation. It became nearly instant.
 * In Module 7, the cooldown for Intimidate was reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds (same as the duration), and it was given hate generation.
 * In Update 9, the emote animation was returned, the cooldown was increased to 15 seconds and Intimidate was changed to no longer force a monster to attack a player for the full duration, but instead simply grab the monsters attention, and grant a certain amount of hate and short duration +hate multiplier (and increased benefits for shield users).

PnP Differences
The basic effect of Intimidate is different in D&D. In the source game, you can give the targets a variety of commands/suggestions due to their temporary "attitude adjustment". In D&D, any character can attempt to use Intimidate to make enemies shaken, not just Barbarians. In D&D, fear-immune creatures are immune to intimidate. That is notably not the case in DDO.