| 3 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
So all the racial types of trail rations do something if you have eaten nothing but them for at least a week. Here's the Orc one:
ORC TRAIL RATIONS
Price 1 gp; Weight 1 lb.
A typical orc trail ration consists of coarse black bread, thin sausages as hard as leather that must be chewed slowly to soften them, dried meat of uncertain origin, and pungent peppers. If you are an orc or half-orc who subsists on nothing but these rations for at least 1 week, you add +2 to the DC to resist any Intimidate checks you make. This bonus lasts until you eat a meal other than the rations or go for a full day without eating a day's worth.
(Emphasis mine).
The problem with this is that intimidate checks do not have a DC to resist them. The person rolling the Intimidate check gets a roll, but the victim does not get a save.
So increasing the DC to resist the check does absolutely nothing, since no roll is ever made to resist the check.
I'm guessing that RAI here would have been to give the user an increase to his racial bonus to intimidate of +2. But RAW this item provides no benefit whatsoever over regular trail rations.
I believe the 'save' to resist is an opossed roll, I think sense motive maybe? The opposed roll must equal or exceed the Intimidate check to avoid being intimidated. Therefore, the Orc Trail Rations make it so that they must roll 2 higher to avoid intimidation.
There is no opposed roll involved with Intimidate whatsoever.
"You can use this skill to cause an opponent to become shaken for a number of rounds. This shaken condition doesn’t stack with other shaken conditions to make an affected creature frightened. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier."
So nope, orc trail rations do nothing, RAW.
There is no opposed roll involved with Intimidate whatsoever.
"You can use this skill to cause an opponent to become shaken for a number of rounds. This shaken condition doesn’t stack with other shaken conditions to make an affected creature frightened. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier."
So nope, orc trail rations do nothing, RAW.
Emphasis mine; I think you just found the answer. The DC would increase. Orc Trail Rations actually make them LESS scary.
Ha! I'm going to use this as a case where RAW went wonky.
I would say that RAI would make the DC 2 easier. Actually very powerful if you have a cornugon smash style build.
Maybe all the bits in their teetn are too distracting to properly pay attention to the brute screaming in their face?
I would apply a bonus of +2 to Intimidate checks and move on with my life.
That seems to be the intent.