How do you Intimidate your group with an NPC without your group haplessly attack said NPC. Even after it was made very clear that he is not to be trifled with.
Mfw they kill him because story first.
Did they have any in-character reason not to kill him? Was that reason as important to them as the annoyance they felt when he tried to threaten them?
>>47319013
Easy. You threaten them when said NPC is in an unassailable position. Picture it. The party is at some... party, I guess, all fancy dress upper-crust shit, and Badguy McBadderson makes some oblique references to some PC or another's family. What does the party do? If they attack, they're going to be seen as criminals.
I shouldn't have to say this on a board for traditional games, but use your fucking imagination.
>>47319013
Have the NPC kill one of them first.
>>47319013
I actually did manage to do this by sicking a Not!Nazgul after the party in a town. They ran away, because they concluded themselves fighting it wouldn't work out.
It was the very first session, and I just wanted to establish there were enemies these guys would not be able to handle yet. It worked out pretty well, and the party is still intimidated at the thought of encountering these things again. At least without finding some way to kill them. Boom, so now not only do I have a check against player power levels, but the group now created a goal to meet on their own initiative.
>>47319050
>>47319088
They needed information from him, that is rare. He threatened them because they reneged on a deal, on his territory, and are now in the process of fleeing from demons, through woods and hostile weather conditions.
They had every reason to keep to this deal that they set up.
>>47319013
Kill them and hope they act more cautiously next time. If you don't do it, you're all bark with no bite and there's no reason to ever be afraid.
>>47319013
By making them obviously strong or competent, placing them in a situation where it isn't feasable for the PCs to attack them, etc.
Use your imagination.
A big troll smashing through a wall and shrugging off strong hits while taking no noticeable damage should be a good indicator, a specops team that uses surprise attacks, suppressing fire, traps, etc, to outwit the party is also an option. As is having the guy with huge social influence only communicate with them on his terms, in places where they cannot attack him.
If your competent intimidating NPC is in a position where the PCs could easily kill him, he is not intimidating nor is he competent.
>>47319013
DMPC.
Make a DMPC ally that is Gary Oaks as Batman.
Have him be Awesomesauce McInvulnerable.
Then have the intimidating villain kill him in one shot.
All the threat, with no loss to the players.
Have him win the fight and wipe the party
That'll teach the stupid fuckers to ignore clear indicators that they shouldn't fuck with someone yet
DM introduced a character like this. The first character who immediately rushed in to attack him got their face caved in by a mace in one swing. After that we listened to what he had to say.
Borrow stats from neutronium golem
