| Colette Brunel |
It is unclear and it really should be clarified, but PCs are immune to the Diplomacy skill, since the conditions glossary in pages 320 to 324 stipulates that PCs are never considered hostile, unfriendly, friendly, or helpful. However, as per the Haughty Obstinancy human ancestry feat on page 37, PCs can be Coerced via the Intimidation skill. I can buy that player characters can be Demoralized using the Intimidation skill, but it is really rather unappealing for PCs to be vulnerable to basic bullying attempts over the course of a minute. It is especially bad when PCs get forced into a dying state, captured, and then subsequently bullied via Coerce.
This is poor for player agency, and it feels strange for PCs to be immune to diplomatic efforts, yet susceptible to good old-fashioned bullying. I will be running Doomsday Dawn: Part #2: In Pale Mountain's Shadow soon, and coincidentally, the two encounters that are most likely to TPK the party just so happen to contain enemies with high Intimidation. I expect that in the event of a party defeat, the enemies will use Intimidation to bully the characters with Coerce, because it is only sensible for the enemies to do so, and the PCs will subsequently lose a good chunk of player agency.
| Isiah.AT |
Most games don't allow pc's to be coerced as it is more often than not easy to do and it take too much agency away.
Intimidatiin works because there is a combat aspect.
Spells work cause magic.
Deception works because thats a difficult one to play off, particilarly since the other player more than likely knows if it is a lie.