i`ve read many times about an intimidate based melee character being a rogue`s best friend, but the only fear effect that seems to be SA friendly is cowering, all the others just reduce the dex of the enemy, they dont take it away. so..what am I missing?
You're missing the Shatter Defenses feat, which renders shaken enemies flat-footed against your attacks, providing a reliable way to gain sneak attack every round.
I've been contemplating a Thug build utilizing the Enforcer feat and the new Sap Master feats. It's a bit feat intensive, but the basic premise is to intimidate them while you're knocking them out. You could possibly even just do it with unarmed strikes. Knocking people right the hell out.
Also cornugon smash + shatter defenses.
thx for the answers, also, is it really worthy? getting this feats with a magus or a monk to help the rogue or wizard to sneak attack or land a spell with less chance of succeeding the save due to status?
I find it tends to work better for a fighter to pick it up. They usually have the spare feats to make it work. I've had nice success helping my crossbow-poisoning rogue/alchemist friend land his poisons because of the Shaken debuff.
The Thug rogue archetype also does well with it, as well as having the ability to render an opponent Sickened on top of Shaken, further debuffing them.