Intimidate

Intimidate (Cha)
Cooldown: 6 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 it is smaller). If your check beats a DC specific to that creature (supposedly 10 + HD + wis mod), it is intimidated and displays an orange skill icon. For the next 6 seconds you are shifted to the top of its threat list, and it will attack only you (unless it is one of those rare monsters whose AI directs attacks towards unaggroed enemies). In addition, a successful Intimidate check produces aggro hate points as if you had damaged the monster.

Creatures unable to understand speech (such as oozes, animals, mindless undead, and many constructs) are immune to Intimidate.

Tips

 * Intimidates works rather like a "taunt" aggro skill in other MMORPGs. (However, unintelligent monsters are immune to the effect). Plus, barbarians can take an enhancement so that inimidated enemies are shaken, penalizing their actions.


 * 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.



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.

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.