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Hello all, Im a fairly new GM so Im still working my way through some of the more confusing rules. Tonight's session involved a relatively non-violent confrontation with a powerful sentient undead. One of the PCs attempted an intimidate check against the creature, which I allowed to be on the side of caution, but I honestly wasn't sure if it was possible. Undead are immune to all mind altering and fear based effects, so does intimidate count as either in this instance? Thanks alot for the help.
No, they would not be able to intimidate an undead creature, for several reasons. Because they are undead they are not living and therefor not subject to being afraid similar to the living. They are immune to fear as you stated and while fear is NOT the same as intimidate, undead are immune to it. Sentient undead is STILL undead.
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The subject becomes friendly. He isn't necessarily frightened though. If you pull a gun on me, I may deduce that it's in my best interest to cooperate with you, i.e. to act friendly towards you, even though I may not be scared at all. I just don't want you to pull the trigger. When you leave, I may very well report you to the authorities.
I'm with Snobi here. While immune to fear, sentient undead can still act in a logical manner consistent with self-preservation. When faced with a clearly superior opponent (ie, fail an intimidate check) I would rule they might act friendly in the short term to bide their time.
For instance, I'd think that it might be pretty intimidating to a lich if you put its phylactery in a bag of holding and held that over a portable hole :)
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Ah, so it would be on highly dependent on circumstances then?
Intimidate says "You can use this skill to frighten your opponents or to get them to act in a way that benefits you." Personally, I associate the frighten part with the Demoralize use of Intimidate and the "get them to act in a way that benefits you" part with the normal use of Intimidate, i.e. improving their attitude to friendly. Thus, I would rule that as long as the PC shares a language with the opponent and makes his check, that he successfully intimidates him. If the player actually described his character doing what you described above (i.e. coming up with a good idea like that), rather than just saying "I intimidate him", as DM, I may give him a small +2 bonus to his check.
Isn't this mostly a diplomacy check? I mean it sounds like one to me, since you are dealing with intelligent undead....
Diplomacy can be used with undead. Perhaps that is what your player actually wanted to do....
Reminds me of the Requium feat for bards...
Diplomacy is used when you are being friendly and trying to improve their reaction. Intimidate is for when you are threatening and showing them its not worth their time to cross you. They both have the same in game effect in the sort term, but intimidate wears off once you leave and makes them not like you afterwards.
With a sentient undead I would allow this, they are immune to fear and morale effects, but intimidate is not explicately either. There is no statement 'this is a fear effect' in the intimidate rules. So by raw i think a sentient undead can be intimidated, if only like others have said, by rational rather then actual fear.
RAW they are not immune to fear. This is common misconception. They are immune to magical mind affecting abilities. I am sure if some powerful dragon or outsider decided to exert his influence they would be afraid since, living or not, destruction is not something they want. By the same token if a sufficiently powerful mortal tried an intimidate check they could be intimidated.