Balancing Different Playing Styles.

[Ed Zachary]

Think about it though, which is scarier:
a) "I'm gonna break your knee caps."
b) "It really would be a shame if someone cut up your daughter's pretty face."

Depends who you are asking... a soccer mom in American suburbia, or an enemy fighter you're trying to get information from.

[Farcaster]

Anything beyond that is a waste and should be role played out (like diplomacy).

Now, I'm not ready to go completely on the other side and get rid of the skills like this. As has been mentioned, sometimes a character's skill at diplomacy, bluffing, sense motive or whatever may be far less are far more advanced than the player's. A barbarian from the untamed wilds who speaks eloquently and with decorum befitting one of noble birth is just as unrealistic as a highly skilled bard or diplomat who couldn't convince a beggar to take a coin. Skills like diplomacy give you some measure of how good or bad the character should be in these situations.

In my games, I allow a skill like diplomacy to be used in multiple different ways. A well rolled diplomacy check might provide a clue to a PC as to what might be the most effective argument would be given the NPCs apparent motivations. This represents the character's ability to read someone. I may also use it to adjust the NPCs attitude for the purposes of considering the player's argument, allowing the NPC to take what the player said in a more or less favorable light to represent how well the character actually delivered the message. And we also use the skill as a gauge to determine how the character should be roleplayed. If the character has no proficiency in diplomacy, then that should be reflected in how the character talks.

[Ed Zachary]

A brute like a Half Orc Barbarian should be able to put his Strength into his Intimidation rather than Charisma.

A devious Wizard should be able to put his Intelligence into making a clever Intimidation ploy.

[shilar]

I have to agree with Ed. Different classes intimidate differently.There are a lot of ways to scare people. Sometimes its violent, sometimes descriptive, and sometimes cruel. I had a female halfling rouge who was a real flirt. She also liked to sneak attack the soft parts of over amorous NPCs. all I ever had to do was say something like, "so did you hear about (insert name here) I did it to him." Most males just gave me what I wanted.