Did you know that Samuel L. Jackson received his Ph. D. in Intimimancy through our program? His focus was on the fiery glare, and speaking very loudly.

One of the more interesting combat strategies in Pathfinder is to demoralize as many opponents as possible. Before we get into how this is accomplished through character build choices, let’s examine the text of demoralize to figure out exactly what we’re trying to do here.

You can use [Intimidate] to cause an opponent to become shaken for a number of rounds. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target's Hit Dice + the target's Wisdom modifier. If you are successful, the target is shaken for 1 round. This duration increases by 1 round for every 5 by which you beat the DC. You can only threaten an opponent in this way if they are within 30 feet and can clearly see and hear you. Using demoralize on the same creature only extends the duration; it does not create a stronger fear condition.

A shaken character takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Shaken is a less severe state of fear than frightened or panicked.

It becomes readily apparent that there are a few problems with this technique that will need to be addressed before demoralization is a truly effective combat tactic. These problems, as I see them, are as follows:

The shaken condition is a -2 to attacks, saves, and skills. In other words, it translates to about 10% of a given character’s turn, as you have increased the likelihood of their failing to accomplish what they set out to do by 10%. If you spend your turn giving a single creature the shaken condition, you were effectively 10% of a character that turn.

When these considerations are taken together, it becomes clear that Intimidate builds...weren’t really meant to work well. As the few feats that made this combat strategy viable get banned for Society play, I wonder if they read my guide and took the toys away out of pure spite.

All that said, it CAN be done. It just won’t be easy, and there are only so many ways to make it work well.

[Paizo staff, I’m just teasing you. You know I love you and appreciate your hard work, or I wouldn’t make all these big documents about your game.]

Alright, let’s look at our mechanical options. Races and Classes are, oddly enough, two of the less important considerations when building an Intimimancer. This build type relies primarily on feats, equipment, and to a lesser degree traits. Also keep in mind that getting bonuses to one’s Intimidate modifier should mostly be reserved for equipment, as your feat slots can be better used to solve the other problems I have listed above (primarily action economy).

This guide will focus on PFS play, as that is what I play. Therefore there will be no consideration of non PFS-legal options, nor any deviations from RAW. Well, I included a few things that were PFS legal when I wrote it, and have since been banned. Farewell, Violent Display and Hurtful; you were too good for this organized play campaign world.

Color coding is pretty standard. Blue is the best rating I give, green is still good, orange is mediocre, or only very specific builds really benefit, red is just terrible, and you should feel bad for even considering such an option.

Race choice is not really our most important consideration. Most races can do this adequately, but there are a few standout options.

Human – Getting the extra skill rank/level is nice considering we are always keeping Intimidate maxed. Intimimancy is also very feat intensive, so we’re strongly helped there.

Half-Elf – The ability to get a Skill Focus (Intimidate) feat at level 1 shouldn’t be discounted, but there really isn’t much to say for halfsies outside of that.

Half Orc – The Skilled AR trait gets us one of the benefits humans have, and Half Orcs get a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate as well. This is a very solid choice.

Halfling – They do have a bonus to CHA, but we suffer a -4 penalty on Intimidate checks to any creature larger than Small-sized. There is a way around that, the Taunt feat. If your CHA is 13+ you can use Bluff instead of Intimidate for demoralize checks. That’s why this is half red, half green. Going this route will make much of this guide (particularly most of the items described) irrelevant to you. Nightmare Scars is another feat that makes Small-sized demoralizers viable, as it negates size penalties to intimidate attempts. This may be a superior option, as it can occasionally be unclear how Intimidate feats interact with the Taunt feat. Unfortunately you must be a Lamashtu worshipper to take Nightmare Scars.

Dwarf – CHA penalty, no real benefits. That isn’t to say it can’t be done, it will just be a bit tougher.

Tiefling: Depending on your Sub-Race, this can be a great choice. Kyton Blooded, for example, get Intimidate as one of their Skilled options (+2 racial modifier) and also have a +2 CHA bonus. Tieflings also have exclusive access to some feats and traits for intimidation, but none of them are particularly amazing.

Ifrit - Ifrits are CHA boosted, which is nice. The Fiery Glare race trait, however, is why this is the^[a] best race. It is, so far as I know, the only method of being able to always ^[b]Take 10 on Intimidate. More on why that’s so great later.

The most important things when picking a class for this strategy are as follows (in descending order of importance):

1) Bonus feats - The more the merrier. This is a very feat intensive build. Due to the abundance of demoralize feats that are only available from LVL 6 onward, retraining earlier feats might be a good idea.

2) BAB - Virtually all feats that help reduce the action economy costs of demoralization attempts, as well as those that grant better debuffs upon successes require melee attacks to be made. Many of the best demoralization feats have BAB requirements (generally +6). Therefore ½ BAB classes or inherently ranged classes don’t fare well at all with this combat strategy, and ¾ BAB classes should have their feat slots thought out well in advance.

3) Hardiness (Armor proficiencies/alternate methods of AC scaling, HP, saves) - As said above, you are pretty much locked into front-lining, so don’t die.

4) Stat dependencies - CHA dependency allows you to forgo Bruising Intellect and potentially Intimidating Prowess, but outside of maybe Paladins and Swashbucklers we aren’t likely to get that. Due to the aforementioned trait and feat we can be STR and/or INT dependent instead with little skin off our backs.

5) Skills/level - 2+ hurts a bit if you aren’t INT dependent, as we will be maxing our Intimidate. Not a build-killer, but something to keep in mind. If you’re at 2+INT, you should strongly consider dumping CHA as far as it will go, pumping INT as much as you can fit in your stat spread, and taking the Bruising Intellect trait. Having 4-7 rank/level means you can pull your out-of-combat weight, Lower than that makes a lot of game-time dull.

6) Intimidate as a Class skill (or Bluff for those taking Taunt) - it is trivial to gain something as a class skill, either through dipping or a trait. The +3 isn’t exactly making or breaking this build either, so don’t sweat it too much if you can’t find a way to fit it in. Most classes we would consider have Intimidate as a class skill anyhow. Still, it is better to have it than not.

Barbarian has a few things going for it. They are full BAB characters who typically have no trouble getting up close and personal. They boost their strength with rage, so Intimidating Prowess is more effective for them than basically anyone. They also have a set of rage powers that is relevant, though I’m not entirely sold on them. Intimidating Glare starts us off, and allows the Barbarian to make a demoralization attempt against single adjacent enemies as a move action (rather than a standard), and the duration goes up to 1d4 rounds + 1 round /5 exceeded rather than just 1 + 1 round/5 exceeded. While not terrible, this is strictly worse than Cornugon Smash if you are already getting multiple rounds consistently, as it costs you the ability to full-attack. Battle Roar is downright terrible, but luckily isn’t required for the one decent rage power for our purposes. Terrifying Howl lets the Barbarian take a standard to put all shaken creatures within 30 feet to fully panicked for 1d4+1 rounds. The DC for this effect unfortunately does not use our Intimidate modifier, but rather ½ Barb level + your STR modifier. The fact that the enemies within 30 feet need to already be shaken before using this power is also troubling. Still, it is a good power, and Barbs have all the basics for this build down as well. {Thanks to reddit’s /u/Halitrad for informing me of these rage powers.}

Vigilante supposedly has some tricks for it. I should probably look into that and update this shit.

Bard is a real mixed bag. Like the Skald, we’re a ¾ BAB class without bonus feats. Unlike even the Skald, we don’t have anything improving our STR. There is a really REALLY nice Class feature, though it doesn’t come into play until level 8. Dirge of Doom. This is a no save 30’ radius “Haha, you’re shaken now” that, as a performance, can be done as a move action by the time we get it. With Improved and Greater Dirge of Doom feats, we can even get them frightened or panicked, so long as they were one step of fear down from that when we started performing. The Dirge bard gets a ½ level bonus on Intimidate to demoralize checks, and can use Perform (keyboard or percussion) to do it. I might go with the Arcane Duelist though, as it would help us become a better melee combatant, which we’ll want if we’re going to Disheartening Display into Greater Dirge of Doom. All in all, I think it could be pretty neat, but requires some real investment to get off the ground.

Fighter has the same thing it always has, feats. There are lots of tricks you can pull off with Intimidate, but fighters are one of the few classes that really have the feats for all of them and to pump their damage too. The Dragonheir Scion replaces bravery with a scaling, but the Viking actually reduces the action economy of demoralize checks to a move action at 2nd (pretty nice until 6th, when full attacks are more important to you) and at 10th it goes down to a swift! The Dazzling Intimidation advanced weapon training is pretty nice.

CRB Rogue/Ninja make surprisingly good use of the demoralize ability. Sneak attackers can use Shatter Defenses to get sneak attacks whenever they please. A sap specialist could take Enforcer early. Violent Display is also incredible for anyone with sneak attack die (though one needs to be a Skinwalker to take this incredible feat [EDIT: Now banned entirely for PFS play]), and may even be worth a level dip for many just to be able to Violent Display whenever flanking or against flat-footed rather than waiting on crits. The Rake archetype is outstanding, as one can lose a SA die to get a free action demoralize attempt at level 1. Other classes typically need to wait until they get Cornugon Smash at 6 for that kind of action savings. The Thug archetype grants the ability to sacrifice any 4+ round duration of shaken for a single round of frightened, and also automatically extends all demoralizations by 1 round. Thugs should consider the Memorable trait, as you will always get its benefit, and would then only need to beat the DC by 5 to frighten. Bandits get an ability to automatically frighten on critical hits at level 8. That isn’t even a demoralize attempt, meaning the fear condition stacks with shaken from demoralizations to panicked. Thug and Rake archetypes cannot be stacked, but Rake and Bandit can. {Thanks to reddit’s /u/Dallops for information regarding the Rake archetype.}

The Strong Impression rogue talent grants Intimidating Prowess as a bonus feat. The Weapon Training rogue talent grants Weapon Focus, a prerequisite for Dazzling Display. The Combat Trick gets you a combat feat of your choice. A total of three relevant bonus feats is nothing to scoff at.

Unchained Rogue is nowadays in my top spot. The combination of the Bandit and Rake archetypes, along with the Intimidate skill unlock from Rogue’s Edge make this build far FAR less feat intensive. You can demoralize as a free action from level 3 onward (debatably even level 1) with 0 feats down, and your demoralize attempts can potentially cause ‘flee’ fear conditions after level 5. You can dynamically boost your Intimidate modifier by 5 more every 2 levels beyond 3 without buying a scrap of equipment or additional feats, and you have ample skill ranks. Best of all, it is highly suited for a Dex martial build, which I generally hold to be superior to Strength builds. This strategy combines well with crit fishing and Two Weapon Fighting to create an absolute death machine that manages to still be highly useful out of combat. I have constructed a sample build called the Wildfire Heartless at the bottom of this document that outlines a possible build option with a combat workflow. It is disgusting and your GM will never forgive you. I love it.

Paladin gets a lot of use out of CHA already, so a strong Pally with Intimidating Prowess has little need to worry about investing in their intimidate skill beyond ranks. They can also often afford to ditch the Cloak of Resistance, and there are a few other cloaks that are pretty cool (detailed later). Plus, having evil-doers cower before you is an effective tactic to end combat non-lethally if you’re into that sort of thing.

Gunslingers have some cool traits, but most of the feats that are lessening our action expenditure require melee attacks.

Inquisitor has the advantage of their stern gaze ability, which is + (LVL/2) to Intimidate. They also have access to the spell blistering invective, which allows for a Dazzling Display without the feat, and it deals fire damage. I have little love for the invective, as the damage doesn’t scale and it grants no bonus to the demoralize check. It does have a lot of cool factor though, and if you aren’t planning on taking Dazzling Display it may be worth a slot.

Half-Orcs and Tiefling Inquisitors should keep their favored class bonuses in mind. You can get an additional +½ LVL to Intimidate, so those cats can scale their Intimidate modifier faster than anyone. This allows for much less investment in the skill modifier (you should still put in max ranks), freeing up some gold, wondrous item slots, or even potentially feat slots. ¾ BAB hurts us, but not insurmountably. {Thanks to paizo board member Calth for the information regarding the favored class bonuses.}

Cavalier in and of itself might seem a lacklustre class for this, as they get few bonus feats and have no other class features that benefit the build. The Order of the Cockatrice, however, gets Dazzling Display for free at level 2, and members get +2 morale bonuses against demoralized opponents. The class itself is pretty nice in a general sense, though Large sized mounts can occasionally be troublesome in narrow corridors. Riding dogs FTW. {Thanks to paizo forums member Corbynsonn for this information.} The Order of the Flame can do an immediate action 15’ radius Dazzling Display at level 8 whenever they score a crit. It’s not worth building around, but it’s cool.

Magus can use flamboyant arcana and arcana deed to gain the Swashbuckler’s Menacing Swordplay. As an Int based class, Bruising Intellect may be advantageous. They get 2 bonus feats within a PFS career, which isn’t bad, and though they may have 2+INT skills/level, their INT dependency ameliorates that. They also have access to the Savage Maw spell, which in addition to the bite attack can be ended prematurely by making a Dazzling Display as a swift action even without the feat. They are only disadvantaged by their ¾ BAB. {Thanks to reddit’s /u/Majikster for information about flamboyant arcana and arcana deed.}

Slayers have their own feat chain for demoralize, and a pretty nice one at that. They also can benefit greatly from Shatter Defenses and [Violent Display: Now PFS-Illegal], as they have sneak attack and a full BAB. The Two-Handed Ranger combat style has some worthwhile ‘I’m big and scary’ feats. I put them at blue because there really aren’t any options that the Slayer misses out on, and they are in general one of the most versatile martial classes with a hefty number of skill ranks, bonus feats (via Slayer Talents), and two strong saves. My sample build will illustrate why Slayer is blue rated. NOTE: Leveraging Slayer talents to get all the feats this build needs isn’t always easy. You can get several goodies from the Two-Handed Ranger school, and rogue talents can garner you Weapon Focus (through the Weapon Training trick), Intimidating Prowess (through Strong Impression trick)^[c] and another combat feat (Combat Trick).

Brawler has a unique advantage, they can potentially be Intimidators when they want through Martial Flexibility, and then abandon it against immune opponents for other strategies. They also get as many feats as a fighter once MF is factored in.

Swashbuckler gets one of the best class features for this build type, and they get it level 3. The Menacing Swordplay deed allows the buckler of swashes to make a demoralize attempt as a swift action as long as they still have some panache in their pool. Plus, you’ll already be somewhat CHA dependent. If you go Inspired Blade and invest in INT instead, just take the Bruising Intellect trait. Swashbucklers get ample bonus feats, and have a decent number of skill ranks. All around great choice. There is also the Shackles Corsair, which isn’t very good, but allows you to steal from shaken creatures at 7. It’s kinda neat.{Thanks to reddit’s /u/Hobbes87 for reminding me about this.}

Skald has little going for it. ¾ BAB, no bonus feats, and not a whole heck of a lot of relevant class features for damage output or intimidation. There are some saving graces, however. Rage song increases STR for those with Intimidating Prowess, and is also helping make up our BAB deficit. They are also CHA dependent. The Belzken War Drummer gets +½ LVL to Intimidate, which bumps them up to green, barely.

Spiritualists seem good if the Despair or Fear spirits are chosen, but I haven’t looked at them enough to make a complete assessment. I’ll try to get to that soon.

Mesmerists have some nice tricks, though their dearth of bonus feats and full BAB makes it a little tough. Still, they can take the Intimidating Glance feat

½ BAB Casters - Are incapable of hitting with melee attacks well enough to demoralize efficiently, generally have few feat slots, can’t access most combat feats until very late in the game, are squishy, and often don’t even have Intimidate as a class skill. I don’t care that your sorcerer has a high CHA and the Pit-Born or Imperious bloodline, it isn’t going to work well. Wizards are downright laughable at Intimimancy, whatever certain bloggers would have you believe. Spend your rounds casting spells, it is what you are good at. This isn’t to say casters can’t use fear tactics, of course. Spell focus in enchantment and the Dead Man’s Headband can make the Fear spell and similar remarkably effective battlefield control spells. Just don’t rely on your Intimidate skill in combat.

Absolutely anything else can do this build at least half decently. Very few feats/traits/etc. are class exclusive. Feel free to post information regarding class features/build choices that are relevant to intimimancy on the reddit or paizo forum threads. A Cleric might not be the most ideal class for this overall with its absence of bonus feats and ⅗ BAB, but with the Torture subdomain's ability it can be viably built into an intimidator.

Antipaladin gets its own special color, because while non-PFS options were not meant to be discussed, it deserves some page space. You see, while antipaladin gets hosed in skill ranks, feats, or action economy improving measures, it is the best damn dip imaginable for an Intimimancer. With a mere three levels, the character gets CHA to all saves, and Aura of Cowardice. Everything takes a -4 to saves against your fear (irrelevant for most demoralize builds, but some will like that) and more importantly: IMMUNITY TO YOUR FEAR IS NOW FICTIONAL. Nothing gets immunity to your terror ever again. Nothing else I’ve seen in Pathfinder makes this possible, and it’s really difficult to overstate how big a boost that is to these builds.

The following prestige classes have demoralize or intimidate relevant mechanics associated with them. At some point I’ll get into detail with them.

Hellknight – at 6th level (11th minimum character level due to PrC pre-requisites), a Hellknight can choose a discipline from those listed as available to “any order”. One of these, Fearsomeness, allows the Hellknight to move any creature within 10 feet affected by its demoralization attempts to go directly to frightened rather than shaken. This is beautiful, as the -2 from shaken has by this point long faded in its relevance, but making things run away never stops being great. Disheartening Display can allow the Hellknight to take creatures from frightened to panicked, making them easy pickings.

Also relevant to PFS play, the Cheliax faction (and by extension Dark Archives) can purchase two boons that cost 2 PP each to become first a Hellknight Armiger (20 Fame required) and full Hellknight (40 Fame required). The second of these grants an untyped +3 bonus to Intimidate. Being a member of the Prestige Class is not required so far as I can tell.

[Note; I have reduced the Hellknight from Green to Orange because upon reading the class again, I noticed they can only use their Fearsome ability twice a day by level 11. The rest of the class is, frankly, pretty terrible. I’ve played this out with a character of my own, and I don’t recommend anyone follow in my footsteps. Path of the Hellknight probably has some things that improve them though, I haven’t read that yet.]

I can’t really think of any relevant skills. Hmmm...maybe Intimidate? How many times am I going to say that word in this guide? 127 times as of the last time I checked. That’s around 1% of the word count for this document.

Also, if you plan on going small-sized, take the Taunt feat and invest in Bluff rather than Intimidate. Note that the Mask of Stony Demeanor will not help you though, as it specifies the uses that its benefits apply to, and demoralization is obviously not among them.

CHA is the obvious important investment off the bat, but probably not the best one. For most classes CHA is not something we’ll be getting much (or any) benefit out of outside of our Intimidate checks. That’s okay, because we can get STR to Intimidate in addition to CHA with the Intimidating Prowess feat, and the CHA element can be substituted for INT entirely with the Bruising Intellect trait.

There are a lot of traits that benefit Intimidate, I’ll highlight some standouts.

Memorable - When you modify a character's attitude with the Diplomacy or Intimidate skill, the attitude change lasts 1-1/2 times longer than it otherwise would. Whenever you create a fear or mind-affecting effect that imposes a penalty or bonus with durations of at least 2 rounds, it lasts 1 additional round after it would normally end. For example, if you demoralize a foe with an Intimidate check and beat the DC by 5, the victim is shaken for 3 rounds instead of the usual 2 rounds. [This is pretty cool, but that its effect only helps us when we’ve already beaten the DC by 5 is a tad disappointing.]

Bruising Intellect - Intimidate is always a class skill for you, and you may use your Intelligence modifier when making Intimidate checks instead of your Charisma modifier. [This may be the single best Intimidate trait for many. It allows non CHA dependent characters to dump CHA and put 2 points in Intelligence for some benefit to Intimidate. If we get Intimidating Prowess (add STR to Intimidate in addition to CHA, or in this case INT) we can have a sizeable modifier with even 5 CHA.]

Clever Wordplay - Can be used to do the exact same thing as Bruising Intellect. The difference is that it doesn’t make it a class skill.

Shadow Whispers - You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (local) checks and a +2 trait bonus on Intimidate checks made to demoralize opponents. [Not bad. Not thrilling, but not bad.]

Fiery Glare (Ifrit) - You can always take 10 on Intimidate checks, even in combat.

While Ifrits don’t have a lot going for them as far as this build type goes (though they do get a CHA bonus) this trait is extraordinary. Not only are we speeding play by having a discrete value to use rather than rolling Intimidate, we have taken all variability out of our Intimidate actions. If we have properly invested resources into having a good Intimidate modifier, the only time our demoralizations should fail is against immune opponents. This may be worth taking Adopted for if Ifrit isn’t your bag [EDIT: Though not in PFS, as it is restricted to Ifrit only by the Additional Resources], or you don’t have a boon for it in PFS play. Keep in mind that Adopted is a social trait, so if you’re using that you won’t be able to get any of the three options above in this section
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Mock Gladiator: You take no penalty on attack rolls when dealing nonlethal damage with that weapon, and once per day if you score a critical hit with the weapon, you can immediately attempt an Intimidate check to demoralize your target. (Works well for Enforcer types, not so much for others.)

Unnatural Presence (Old Cults) - You can use your Intimidate skill to demoralize animals and vermin; Intimidate is a class skill for you. [Being able to demoralize things normally immune is nice. Unfortunately, truly dangerous animals and vermin are fairly uncommon.]

Omen: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you. Once per day, you may attempt to demoralize an opponent as a swift action. [This helps fix our action economy, albeit only once a day. There are feats we will likely take that improve action economy more, and more consistently. Still, it is pretty cool.]

Blade of Mercy - Negate the -4 penalty for doing non-lethal with a lethal slashing weapon, and get a +1 bonus on the non-lethal damage. While superficially this has nothing to do with demoralization, those utilizing the Enforcer feat could likely get a lot of mileage out of this. {Suggested by paizo board member Castiloniuim.}

Larger than Life - When you use the Intimidate skill on a creature while wielding a firearm, you are considered one size category larger than your actual size. [If you are a gunslinger, this will give you the most bang (pun, for once, actually unintended) for your buck as far as Intimidate traits. Size bonus is a +4 difference, so you could either be getting that +4 or negating a -4 penalty against Large-sized opponents. It is also not a trait bonus, so we can still stack a trait bonus on top. The obvious downside is that this really only helps gun-wielders, who can’t make use of most of the best feats for this strategy.]

Bloody Minded - You gain a +1 trait bonus on initiative and Intimidate checks. [If you can’t find room for Reactionary but still want some benefit to initiative, I suppose this is a decent option.]

There are many traits that give +1 and make Intimidate a class skill, I won’t list all of them. There are also several that give +2 trait bonuses, though I don’t believe any of them make it a class skill. Here’s a link to all traits in a filterable format. Just put the word ‘intimidate’ or ‘demoralize’ above the benefits column.

Ancestral Scorn – tiefling only, level 5 accessible. Demoralized foes are sickened or nauseated for a round in addition to shaken. Unfortunately, this operates only on evil outsiders. Pass it up, even if you are tiefling.

Antagonize – You can make a check with the same DC as a demoralization attempt to ‘force’ the creature to come after you on its next turn. This is pretty neat if you’re the tank, or if the creature might have to provoke AoOs to come after you, etc. Unfortunately, the ability ends when the creature makes an attack against you, and is then immune for the rest of the day. That hurts, but it is still a pretty neat trick.

Boar Style + Boar Ferocity: The only pre-reqs for this feat chain are Improved Unarmed Strike and some ranks of Intimidate (6 ranks for Ferocity, why are all the good demoralize feats accessible at level 6?), so Monks and Brawlers should have no problem getting into this style. In addition to getting all three damage types available and adding 2d6 damage if you hit twice in a round, Ferocity grants a +2 bonus to Intimidate and allows you to demoralize as a free action when you get the bonus 2d6. I don’t like this quite as well as Power Attack + Cornugon Smash (though it’s close), but that isn’t to say that some builds won’t get more benefit out of these instead. Boar Shred is the final feat in this style’s chain, and is less than stellar. You can make single target demoralizations as a move action (yippee) and anything you demoralize with ferocity takes 1d6 of bleed. I don’t love it, but if you’ve got nothing better to do with a feat slot I suppose.{Thanks to reddit /u/Dunking_Dragon for informing me of this feat chain.}

Bully Breed - This one is very weird, but pretty cool. If you have a mount or animal companion, at level 4+ (pre-reqs include 4 ranks of Handle Animal and Intimidate) you can give your beastie Intimidate as a class skill, it can demoralize as a move if it hits, and it qualifies for Dazzling Display and Shatter Defenses. This is actually kind of awesome, though it will probably work inconsistently. Still, if you’re just full-attacking adjacent to an opponent, your mount can spend its turn demoralizing opponents instead of just some hoof attacks. Probably not as great for more damage oriented companions like the Tiger. Shatter Defenses is a neat trick for a companion as well. I suspect it will be difficult to increase your companion’s Intimidate modifier compared to doing so on your primary character, but I still just love this feat.^[e]

Cornugon Smash – amazing feat for the Power Attacker. Unlike Dazzling Display, this only affects the target of your attack, but it is still a far better feat. Why? While Dazzling Display is a full-round action, this is a free action done whenever you hit with a Power Attack. You know, the thing you were going to do anyway. This very neatly addresses our ‘action expenditure’ problem. Unfortunately it is unavailable until level 6 due to the 6 ranks Intimidate pre-req. Still, better a rank requirement than BAB. ¾ builds can still take this at 6, if they feel comfortable with the attack penalty.

Dauntless Destiny – This feat is just weird. The pre-reqs are strange (must be human, 10 ranks Intimidate, Cha 13, and another weird feat) and the benefits are stranger. You get a +1 on emotion saves, can re-roll a Nat 1 1/day, and if you succeed on the re-roll (if it is an attack or save against an ability of a creature) you can make a free demoralize attempt. That is just an odd set of things to mash together. I’d leave it by the wayside.

Dazzling Display – this feat is one of the most important to the Intimimancer, even though on its own it frankly isn’t…dazzling. Instead of spending a standard to demoralize one foe, you can spend a full-round to hit all foes who can see you within 30 feet. This is an improvement to the baseline demoralize ability that everyone has, but just enough of one that I wouldn’t call it a feat tax. However, there are downstream feats from DD that are incredible. Well worth the investment for many.

Deadly Stroke - This feat doesn’t use the demoralize action, so it doesn’t fit as neatly as some of the others in this list. That said, it has pre-reqs such as Weapon Focus, Dazzling Display, and Shatter Defenses, so I’d say it fits. You basically get to double your damage and add 1 CON bleed damage on top whenever you can hit to flat-footed. If you went Cornugon Smash + Shatter Defenses, that is pretty often. Unfortunately it also requires Greater Weapon Focus, so only fighters and fighter-based ACG classes can benefit from this. Also, doing it is a standard action, so no full attacking or combining with other standard or full-round actions.

Disconcerting Knowledge - Okay, here’s another oddball. If you have the Knowledge Domain, bardic knowledge, and 3 ranks in a couple of Knowledge skills, you can use the relevant Knowledge skill for a monster instead of Intimidate. Now, normally it’s going to be easier just to raise your Intimidate modifier, but I can see a few database type characters having some fun with this.

Disheartening Display – At BAB=6, anyone you’ve already demoralized (or who is otherwise suffering fear effects) can have their fear increased by one step with a successful Dazzling Display. This combines well with feats like Enforcer, which are likely giving you decent durations on your shaken condition. Stack this with feats that give you free DD attempts and you can potentially start making entire enemy parties cower.

Dreadful Carnage – If you’re fond of Cornugon Smash, you may well be taking this at level 11 (BAB=11 requirement). Instead of getting a normal demoralize for free on a successful power attack, you can now essentially do a Dazzling Display whenever you reduce an opponent to below 0, and without actually needing the DD feat. Pretty cool if you are consistently the person in your party doing the actual downing of enemies, otherwise I’d leave it. Also, at level 11 minimum it is a bit of a latecomer. I believe Two-Handed focused Rangers (or Slayers) can get this a bit early.

Enforcer – YES YES YES YES YES. So you’re telling me I can get a free action demoralize whenever I hit? Oh, and the duration will be how much damage I dealt instead of 1 round? A crit makes them frightened! Wow, there must be some crazy pre-reqs, right? Prerequisites: Intimidate 1 rank. ARE YOU KIDDING? The only real drawback is that you must be dealing non-lethal with a melee weapon, and non-lethal immunity happens. Still, with the Bludgeoner feat you could be doing this at level 1 with any bludgeoning weapon, or with any weapon at all with Stage Combatant after level 5. Heck, a Sap Master build can just cream their pants over this feat without anything else at all. The Merciful Blade trait and Merciful weapon enhancements synergize well for those not wanting to expend a feat slot on Bludgeoner. The Thug archetype of rogue should definitely take this. With that archetype, you can essentially make something frightened for a round whenever you deal 3+ damage with this feat.

Fearsome Finish – If you drop an enemy, your demoralize attempts get a +4 for the remainder of the fight. That is pretty fantastic, especially considering that the only feat pre-req is Intimidating Prowess, which is practically obligatory for us anyway. This feat synergizes well with Killing Flourish for any Slayers out there. There is, however, one annoying pre-req. You have to worship Lamashtu. I don’t particularly care for Lamashtu as someone to worship; her description matches what I consider the Generic Evil alignment. I’m more of an Asmodean man. Oh well, I’m sure someone can get some good use out of this feat. Also, getting a high Intimidate modifier is relatively easy through traits, stats, and items. The build can be feat intensive enough without investing in feats that just benefit the modifier. It is better to actually do more with your demoralization than to get another round of it in most situations.

Frightening Ambush - Now this feat is just freaking fantastic. It allows you to free action demoralize any flat-footed opponent you attack. Interestingly, you don’t need to actually hit with the attack. Better yet, its pre-requisites are a single rank of Intimidate. I’m not sure you take it up front though; it will work best in conjunction with Shatter Defenses if you don’t intend to use Cornugon Smash. Once they’re shaken, you can make them flat-footed, and once you make them flat-footed you can restore the shaken condition with this feat. Even if you have Cornugon Smash, some utility remains in this feat, as you don’t actually need to hit to demoralize any more. I see this as primarily an option for Dex based intimimancers, who might not go in for Power Attack/Cornugon.

Gory Finish – This is a lot like Dreadful Carnage, but there are some key differences. The only pre-reqs are DD and Weapon Focus, so we don’t have to wait until level 11. However, we don’t just get to do a free DD whenever our attacks drop someone. Now one has to make a single attack at highest BAB, and IF that single attack drops the opponent we get a free DD. Well, not quite free, it’s a swift. This is one of those feats that might look great on paper, but I doubt is frequently effective in practice.

Hurtful - [NOTE: As of July 29, 2015 this feat has been banned for society play.] Whenever you demoralize something with an Intimidate check in your melee reach, you can spend a swift to get a free attack. The swift action expenditure hurts a little, and if you fail to damage with this feat’s attack (whether by missing, or DR, or whatever) the demoralize ends, but an additional attack at full BAB for a swift keeps this fully blue rated. Just keep in mind that some other valuable intimimancy feats also utilize swift actions. Best of all, this is one of the few intimidation feats we don’t have to wait until level 6 for, as the only pre-requisites are Power Attack and 13 Strength.

Killing Flourish – This is a Slayer only feat, but it is very nice. It is somewhere between Dreadful Carnage and Gorey Finish. You don’t have to make single attacks, you get a DD attempt whenever you drop anyone (doesn’t even need to be a Power Attack). However, it is still a swift action rather than a free. This can be picked up at level 4 though, so I’d say that is a more than fair trade. Only feat required is Intimidating Prowess.

Gruesome Slaughter – This is the level 11 upgrade of Killing Flourish. If you perform a Killing Flourish, all the enemies you affected with your swift DD need to make a Fort save or be sickened for a minute as well. Definitely has a lot of cool factor, but needing to be a level 11 Slayer means not many characters are taking this.

Intimidating Bane – It gives a +2, which is less than even Skill Focus, and only for Dazzling Displays, and only while bane is active. Ditch it.

Intimidating Confidence – Basically, its dauntless destiny except you get the free demoralize attempt when you confirm a critical hit rather than succeeding on a re-rolled Nat 1. Notably, if you have DD you get a free DD attempt rather than a normal demoralize attempt. Depending on your build, this is either worthless or very nice. A rapier or scimitar wielding Swashbuckler, for example, gets crits pretty frequently at level 5 (when this feat first becomes available) due to their swashbuckler weapon training. If you already have DD, you can start giving out -2s like a very scary Oprah. Otherwise, you are probably passing this feat over.

Intimidating Gaze – roll twice and take higher for Intimidate checks. Sounds amazing, but it is 1/day, so screw it.

Intimidating Glance - If you’re a mesmerist, you can single target demoralize as a swift action. It’s not thrilling when viewed from the perspective of a ‘focused intimimancer’, but if you just want to be able to lower enemy saves without wasting your turn, it’s a neat trick.

Intimidating Performance - It’s pretty much useless and terrible, and exclusive to high level bards.

Intimidating Prowess – Add STR to Intimidate rolls in addition to CHA. That last bit is a double-edged sword. It means we can now scale the skill with two attributes, but it also means CHA dumped characters can’t entirely negate their detriment. Unless, of course, they have the Bruising Intellect trait. This feat is great for anyone with a 16 STR or above, as at that point we’re matching Skill Focus and can still stack Skill Focus on top. If your Intimidate modifier is already getting you multiple rounds consistently, this isn’t really benefitting you as much as something else likely would. It is a prerequisite for a few feats.

Monstrous Mask – Must be tiefling, must be 1st level to take. Straight +5 on Intimidate checks against humanoids. That’s a tough call. The bonus is huge, but situational. Taking up our level 1 feat slot is a gut punch to a lot of builds, particularly when we can’t be human.

Motivating Display – Roll your demoralize against allies too, but instead of the shaken condition they get a +1 morale bonus to attacks and skills. This is tempting, but really pretty bad. Morale bonuses are one of the most common modifier types, so it may not be doing anything for your party frequently. Also, it doesn’t hit saves for some reason, and how much do you really care about a +1 to skills in combat? I personally don’t see it.

Nightmare Scars – This is a bit of an odd one. You must be a Lamashtu worshipper, which annoys me. You get a -2 on Diplomacy and Handle Animal (that’s right, this feat gives you a penalty) on anything other than magical beasts, monstrous humanoids, and Lamashtu worshippers, but a +2 with those types of creatures. You also get an unconditional +2 to Intimidate, which frankly is a relatively insignificant bonus and not worth the feat slot. There is one saving grace of this feat, however. You no longer take size penalties to Intimidate checks. If you want to be a freaky little halfling, this feat is for you. Otherwise, this is terrible.

Nightmare Fist + Nightmare Weaver - These feats are pretty difficult to leverage, as you need to fairly consistently be able to fight in magical darkness. That means you’re gonna need a darkness spell/SLA/item, darkvision, and hopefully a party that also has darkvision. If you can overcome those challenges, they’re actually pretty great feats. The first (Fist) gets you a +2 bonus on attacks while in magical darkness (which, if they can’t see and you can, will stack with the +2 you get from that) and a +4 if they’re also shaken. You also get a +2 on Intimidate. So, if you can get some darkness, you’ll suddenly get much better at hitting and a bit better at demoralizing. Nightmare Weaver helps with the action economy on this, as casting the darkness in the first place will allow you to demoralize any creatures within its radius.

Persuasive - +2 to Diplomacy and Intimidate. While the bonus to Intimidate is lower than we can get through Skill Focus or potentially Intimidating Prowess, if you also like to be the Diplomat this is a solid choice.

Shatter Defenses – Oh man, I love this feat. Combined with Enforcer, Cornugon Smash, etc. we can now use our demoralizations for more than just shaking opponents, we can attack against flat footed fairly consistently. The hit that actually allowed you the free demoralize attempt is also used to make them flat-footed until the end of your next round. Unfortunately, they are only flat-footed against you. Still, this is pretty amazing for thuggish rogues or even slayer intimidators particularly. Yay, sneak attack! Re-read this feat after you’ve read Violent Display.

Shocking Bellow – free action demoralize attempt against a single enemy within 30 feet if you can act during a surprise round. Intimidating Prowess is the only pre-req, and it isn’t a bad little ability. Characters with good initiative and Perception could get some mileage out of it, but there is probably always a better option.

Skill Focus (Intimidate) – Counter-intuitively, I don’t think skill focus merits a feat slot. Don’t get me wrong, it would be nice to have. But... this build is feat intensive as it is, and we’ll probably want something to make our damage better too…so…screw it. Besides, there are plenty of other ways to scale our skill. Low STR Intimidators (i.e. those that aren’t taking Prowess) might consider this though.

Taunt – Pretty much worthless (and unavailable) unless you’re small sized. Absolutely necessary if you are small sized (and don’t want to worship Lamashtu).

Terrifying Assault - It’s a downstream feat from Frightening Ambush, but nowhere near as good. The ability to frighten a opponent while demoralizing without being an Unchained Rogue is decent, but instead of working on flat-footed opponents like its pre-requisite

Violent Display – [NOTE: This feat has been banned for PFS play. This makes me very sad, as I was building towards it with my own character.] This feat grants a free DD any time you crit or sneak attack. This combines nicely with Disheartening Display and Shatter Defenses, as if you can get consistently decent durations from your demoralizations a sneaker or crit monster can frequently start battles shaking everyone, and get everyone to frightened the round after.

Visceral Threat - Use Intimidate instead of Bluff to feint. The only pre-req is Intimidating Prowess, so that isn’t too bad. I can imagine that if you can lower your action expenditure on feint maneuvers enough, this would be very useful to Thug or Rake rogues, as well as anyone using Violent Display. By itself though, expending our standard to make someone flat-footed against one attack just doesn’t stack up against Shatter Defenses. [Thanks to paizo board member LilyHaze for this suggestion.]

Virtually all items that grant bonuses to skills do so through competence bonuses, which do not stack. If an item grants another type of bonus, I will specify with bolded text. Otherwise assume competence.

MW Skill Kit: 50 gp - (demoralize) – Even within PFS, a MW skill kit can be purchased for any skill, but specific uses must be chosen. This item will not help Intimidate checks made to change the attitude of a creature to friendly, but will grant a +2 circumstance bonus to demoralize attempts. For the price, you can’t beat it. A necklace of teeth or ears might be an appropriate flavor choice, and as a mundane item it does not ‘occupy’ any Wondrous Item slot you choose to put it in. Definitely worthwhile.

Potion of Enlarge Person: 50 gp - In addition to all the normal benefits of self-embiggening, there is a benefit explicitly suited for this build. If you’re bigger than something, you get a +4 bonus to Intimidate it, and if you’re smaller you suffer a -4 penalty. Negating a penalty or getting the bonus are pretty good uses of 50 gp, especially when you consider the other benefits of size. If you have Intimidating Prowess the bonus goes up to +5, as we get a bonus to STR.

Gravelly Tonic: 50 gp – Wow. This gives a +5 alchemical bonus to Intimidate checks for an hour. For five times the price, we could buy the Elixir of the Thundering Voice to get a +10 bonus, but it would be competence. By the time we’re spending 250 gp on a 1 hour consumable, we’d likely have the Maiden’s Helm, which means we’d only be getting an effective +5 above our status quo. This item is therefore always better than the elixir and cheaper, which was already blue rated. Yummy sore throats, have lots of them. Use them frequently, and talk like a bitter cowboy.

Imposing War Paint: 70 gp – A +4 alchemical bonus rather than +5 from the Gravelly Tonic for 20 gp more, but it multiplies the duration of all fear effect we create by 1.5. So, if we beat the demoralize DC by 5, we get 3 rounds instead of two. Nice, and there is no limit to the duration! Oh wait, well, there sort of is. Every minute you wear the paint beyond the first inflicts a point of CON damage. Okay, so, screw this stuff. I’m making it red/blue because arguably any character immune to poisons can just leave it on forever and not worry about it.

Iron Eye: 50 gp – Only usable by Clerics of Gorum. Gives a sacred or profane bonus equal to the number of channel die the cleric can roll to their next Intimidate check, but I think it is a single use item. Even if I were a Cleric of Gorum, I’m not sure I would bother with these.

??Orc Trail Rations??: 1 gp/day of your life, including down-time between missions – These grant a +2 to the DC to resist any Intimidate checks you make if you’re an orc or half-orc. Wait. What saves to resist Intimidate checks? That isn’t how that works! WHAT DO THESE DO? I’ve asked about them on the forums, no one seems to have any idea what’s going on. I’m guessing this is some holdover mechanic from 3.5 that hasn’t received an errata ruling. If they are ever ruled to give a +2 circumstance bonus (or increase the orc’s racial bonus from +2 to +4), they will go to blue. Until then…they aren’t even red, as they are very good... at benefiting a mechanic that doesn’t exist. For PFS purposes, to gain the benefits (if there are any) one would need to spend 7 gp at the beginning of every session to represent the week leading into the mission, plus 1 gp per day in-game (not counting scenario-beginning travel time, which could be factored out of the original 7). Basically, 231 gp for an entire PFS career, plus 1gp per day spent in-game. Call it 300 to not have to worry about tracking it any more.

UPDATE 10/31/2016: I THINK THESE DO SOMETHING NOW! As far as I can tell, if you are a Half-Orc Unchained Rogue with the Intimidate Rogue’s Edge, this will increase the DCs against the frightened/panicked conditions should you exceed the 10+HD+WIS by 10+. I honestly think this makes the item even weirder than it used to be. It has been a non-functional item for years, and now does something because of an unintended interaction with a book published many years after it.

Masterwork Altar: 400 gp – Grants a +2 circumstance bonus to a single skill check…after an hour of praying. Can be used up to 20 times. To get Intimidate, one would have to be a worshipper of Gorum, Lamashtu, or Rovagug. Spending an hour and 20 gp/use to get +2 is dumb. No.

Ring of Eloquence: 3500 gp – A +2 competence we can get for the same price as the +5 from the Maiden’s Helm, but it also goes to the other social skills. Also gain the ability to speak some new languages. More expensive than I think worthwhile.

Ominous: +1 Enhancement cost – Grants the weapon’s enhancement bonus to Intimidate checks, which will likely stack with other sources. Frankly, I’m not sure how worthwhile this is outside of high-level campaigns, as it puts our actual enhancement behind within a PFS career, for a relatively small bump to our Intimidate. On confirmed crits, nothing happens because nothing is going to fail the DC 13 save. Only makes it to orange because it could be nice in high level play.

Merciful: +1 Enhancement Cost - Get a d6 of non-lethal, and you take no penalties to do non-lethal damage with this weapon. Like the Merciful Blade trait, this has little to do with demoralization directly, but those with the Enforcer feat might consider this enchant. {Suggested by paizo board member Gilfalas.}

Cruel: +1 Enhancement Cost - Whenever you hit something with a fear condition with this weapon, it gets sickened. Sickened is basically another -2 that stacks with everything shaken does, and hits their damage rolls for -2 as well. The condition only lasts for a round, but so long as you’re hitting them consistently and your demoralization has a decent duration, you can keep them queasy as long as you like. Being able to get up to a -4 on all their attack rolls (with a -2 to damage on top) is defensively great, and the -4 to all saves is helping your casters do their thing with ease. Oh, and as cream on top you get 5 temporary HP for 10 minutes whenever you drop something, whether it is unconscious or dead. It’s kind of interesting that the best weapon enhancements for this build type are cruel and merciful. Having both would be kind of awesome. {Thanks to the paizo forum member Corbynsonn for this suggestion.}

Okeno Madu: 5590 gp – The +4 competence bonus is nice, but taking up one of our hands with a +1 leather madu is frankly more of a hassle than getting +5 from the Maiden’s Helm in our head slot. Plus, the helm is cheaper. Furthermore, the entire party’s Diplomacy checks suffer when dealing with anyone good aligned.

Skin of Klendar the Troll King: 16315 gp – Over 12000 gold more expensive than a normal +2 hide armor would be, this gives a few small bonuses to Intimidate against non-troll giants, and a nominal number of regenerating hit points that are easily shut down. Plus, as a unique item it cannot be further enhanced. Nope.

Circlet of Persuasion: 4500 gp - While this costs a bit more than the Maiden’s helm for a lesser (+3) bonus, it hits not just all three social skills, but all CHA based checks. For most this isn’t a big deal, but some characters will have CHA based abilities that this benefits greatly (such as Noble Scion of War). Or, maybe you just enjoy lying and playing the diplomat. {Thanks to paizo forum’s Lune for reminding me of this item.}

Cloak of the Troll King: 9000 gp – the bonus is +5 which is fantastic. You can also cast a 5d4 burning hands spell 3/day, which is pretty nice when dealing with swarms and so forth. The only unfortunate thing about this item, and for most it is a doozy, is that it occupies the all-important shoulder slot. If you feel confident enough in your saves to ditch the Cloak of Resistance (Paladins and Monks can usually get by without) then by all means. Otherwise we’re probably taking the more defensive option.

Cloak of the Yeti: 4000 gp – A +2 competence bonus isn’t particularly amazing, especially as this costs more than the Maiden’s Helm and occupies the all-important shoulder slot. It does grant endure elements constantly against cold weather, and a +1 Natural Armor bonus. That last bonus will stack with the enhancement bonus from an Amulet of Natural Armor, but not from straight natural armor sources. If you value AC more than saves, you might consider this.

Crown of Conquest: 24,600 – This item is pricey, but pretty cool. Definitely has more utility in a home game than PFS, as some of its benefit goes to those with the Leadership feat. The bonus is +4, but you also get a free prayer whenever you confirm a crit. Nifty, but not cool enough for the price tag, IMHO.

Dead Man’s Headband: 3600 gp – The bonus is only a +2, so for most it would be hard to justify taking this over a Maiden’s Helm and leaving your headband slot open for something else. However, if you induce fear effects from sources other than the Intimidate skill, this becomes very worthwhile. You get +1 to your DCs for any such effect. Also, your hat will stay on in a windstorm. It’s important to be fashionable, rain or shine.

Elixir of the Thundering Voice: 250 gp – Lordy, lordy. The +10 competence bonus from this little puppy is unbeatable, and the hour long duration is quite nice. Unfortunately, using one of these every session can quickly run you into real money. I’d say hold off on these until level 7, when the price tag looks more reasonable and your demoralize DCs are starting to hit the 30s. Or, as good as the elixir is, just stick with gravelly tonic and a Maiden’s Helm to get the same bonus. Actually, the gravelly tonic and elixir stack, so go nuts.

Hag’s Shabble: 3400 gp – Only grants a +2 for nearly the same cost as the Maiden’s Helm. Occupies the body slot, so that isn’t so bad. Most folks wouldn’t mind having their head open. It also grants detect thoughts once a day, and the bonus goes to both Diplomacy and Intimidate. I’m sure some folks will like it.

Mask of the Living God: 2100 gp – Another +2 competence bonus. It also goes to heal, and you get 1/day cure light wounds and cause fear. I’d much rather just have a wand of CLW and the Maiden’s Helm.

Howling Helm: 22600 gp – Okay, the price is steep. It is however, incredibly cool. 3/day you can make essentially a Dazzling Display, with a few differences. (1) You get 1d3 wolves at the start of your next turn as per nature’s ally III (2) As far as I can tell, this is done as a free action rather than a full-round. Wow. (3) You require no feat investment to do it. Also, you can talk to canines now. Unfortunately, you actually don’t get any bonuses to intimidate from this item. Also, wow is it expensive. To be honest, this should be orange rated for our purposes, but it is so cool that I wanted people to read about it, and orange text would have made a lot of people skip past it.

Iron Guard Pauldrons: 5750 gp – Another +2 competence bonus, but with some interesting caveats. You permanently have +4 on saves vs. fire effects, and if you successfully make a save against fire the bonus to Intimidate goes up to +5 for five rounds. Unfortunately, it occupies the shoulder slot. So…no.

Judge’s Wig: 59,200 - +4 to Intimidate and Diplomacy, plus an at will discern lies. Awesome, but entirely too much money. Plus, you’d look pretty silly doing battle with that thing on your head.

Cloak of the Lion: 12,000 gp – Okay, seriously what is the deal with cloaks that grant +2 bonuses to intimidate and another weird set of abilities based on creatures? This one gets you beast shape II to turn into a lion 1/day, and you can use smite to do it more. You also get a +2 bonus on saves against fear and mind affecting abilities. The one interesting thing about this item is that the +2 to Intimidate is a circumstance bonus (which do stack with one another) rather than a competence bonus. Of all the cloaks we’ve examined, this I think is the most worthwhile. A Paladin intimidator should really consider it, as your saves are probably great anyhow, and turning into a lion is awesome.

Maiden’s Helm: 3,500 gp – FINALLY. This baby is your bread and butter. The bonus is a +5, it occupies the head slot (used fairly rarely, especially after the Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier’s nerf), it has a reasonable price tag, and the 3/day command ability at CL 6 is just gravy. While some builds will get more utility from other Intimidate gear, this is kind of the gold standard. If you’re male, you can still use it. I describe it as basically looking like Thor’s helmet from the Marvel universe, as its design is clearly inspired by the archetypal Valkyrie helms.

Mask of Fear: 2500 gp - This is the only Wondrous Item that is unquestionably better than the Maiden’s Helm at benefiting one’s Intimidate modifier. For 1,000 less gp you get the same +5, but instead of competence it is untyped. You can’t beat that. The only issue is actually getting the mask. It is exclusively available from the Masks of the Living God Adventure Module, so one must beat that (LVLs 2-4) and bring the chronicle sheet with you. Oddly, the rules for the item are ‘detailed’ only on the chronicle sheet, not in the module, and they never specified that it has a slot. Most wondrous items flavored as masks occupy the head slot, but it actually is never even said to be magical so far as I can tell. Personally, I feel it cheesy to have another wondrous item in the head slot, but RAW I think it actually works.

Maw of the Wyrm: 18,000 gp – Much like the Maiden’s Helm above, this occupies the Head slot and grants a sizeable bonus to Intimidate. It is +4, 1 lower than the cheaper Maiden’s Helm, but the other effects are nicer. You get +4 insight bonus on saves against a dragon’s frightful presence, and can breathe a 7d6 dragon’s breath weapon. Frankly, the price tag difference of 14,500 seems a poor investment for the difference between 3/day command and a relatively easily saved-for-half against breath weapon. Plus, the Maiden’s Helm bonus is higher.

Praenomen: 64,200 gp – If you can afford this, it is pretty incredible. The +4 bonus it grants to Diplomacy and Intimidate is untyped. So…wow. It also gives a +2 deflection bonus to AC. 1/day you can give out a geas, and 3/day you can give a +2 morale bonus to all allies for attack rolls, skill checks, and saves. Each of these uses lasts 110 minutes, meaning 5.5 hours out of the adventuring day your party will benefit from this effect. The flavor is restricted to ‘servants of the Pharoah whose image is engraved upon the cartouche’ but a work-around is presented within the item’s description. A DC 21 Craft (Jewelry) can switch the image to anyone (such as yourself) to give the pharaoh the middle finger. In a high-level campaign, an intimidator will be well served by this item.

Saga of the Linnorm Kings: 26000 gp – Reading this takes about a week, but once you have you will have a +5 competence on Intimidate and Diplomacy, and a +4 save against fear bonus permanently. If you want to open up a Wondrous Item slot (such as Head) this is how you do it. Be aware that the caster level on this item is only 3rd, and the effect can be dispelled. If that happens, you’d need another book because once read the one you bought is used up.

War Mask of Terror: 9000 gp – Another expensive +2 competence bonus to Intimidate. You also get a +1 deflection bonus to AC and can cast scare 1/day. Strictly inferior and more costly than the Maiden’s Helm. If you want the +1 bonus to AC, get a damn ring.

Witching Gown: 35,000 gp – Pretty cool for a witch, horribly overpriced for anyone else. It occupies the body slot, and for a witch grants a +4 resistance bonus to all saves (thereby opening up your shoulder slot) as well as +4 competence bonus to all three social skills (likely opening your head slot). It can also glamer itself (+10 to disguise checks) and a 4th level or below touch spell can be stored in it for up to 24 hours that will auto-hit anyone making a melee attack against the witch. For non-witches, the resistance and competence bonuses are halved, and there are no other abilities.

Attribute Headbands or Belts: 4000, 16000, and 36000 gp – By default the Headband of Alluring Charisma is the only one that will help you, but we can change that easily. A Belt of Giant’s Strength is helping anyone who took Intimidating Prowess, and the Headband of Overwhelming Intellect is great for those with the Bruising Intellect trait. Obviously, none of these are cost effective methods of raising your intimidate modifier, but in all likelihood you are going to get them for other reasons anyway. Plus, they aren’t a direct bonus to the skill, so benefits will stack with anything. Hence, blue.

Traits: Fiery Glare (race, always take 10 on Intimidate checks), Indomitable Faith (faith, +1 to Will saves)

Skills: 7/level, I'm just going to factor my Intimidate and Stealth modifiers, as other skills are not central to the build.

11 ranks, +3 CHA, +3 class skill, +2 circumstance from MW Tool for demoralize, +2 competence from Magenta Cracked Prism Ioun Stone, potentially temporary +4 size bonus with Efreeti Magic or other size effects, +5 alchemical bonus from gravelly tonic, a further +8 competence from Elixir of the Thundering Voice. +21 modifier, +38 maxed. Since I'm always taking 10, this should always be more than adequate. Oh, and as a rake I can potentially sacrifice 4d6 more sneak attack die than necessary to use Bravado's Blade to gain an additional +20 on demoralize checks made as a free action with sneak attacks.

[8] Rogue Talent - Combat Trick - Shatter Defenses, Fearsome Strike from Bandit archetype

[10] Rogue Talent - Surprise Attack, Rogue's Edge (Disable Device or Escape Artist)

Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier, Dusky Rose Ioun Stone, Ring of Deflection +1 = 12k

If at all possible, scout ahead and get as close as possible to an enemy. Use your surprise round (which you get a full round on from Bandit's Ambush ability, and Surprise Attack gets you +5 damage on all attacks in a surprise round) to full attack for 4 attacks. Your attack bonus without any buffs/situational modifiers should be +15/+15/+10/+10, as weapon focus and your +1 enhancement bonuses are basically cancelling out the -2 penalties from TWF. Against flat-footed that usually isn’t half bad, and once you’ve hit if the opponent has a strong flat-footed AC you just use Debilitating Strike to knock that down an additional 6. These attacks deal; 1d4+7 or 3 Dex (depending on which hand) +1 enhancement +5 Surprise Attack +6d6 Sneak Attack, for an average damage of 33.5 or 36.5.

That isn't the nasty part. The first attack you will sacrifice 5 SA die to get a free action demoralize with a +20 circumstance modifier (that you'll take 10 on for a 52 minimum roll) to grant the shaken condition. You're also using Debilitating Injury to hurt their AC against you by -6, and with Shatter Defenses you will now be hitting to their flat-footed even after the surprise round wears off. Yay, guaranteed sneak attack! Your second main handed attack can also grant the sickened condition if it hits, which will be important to consider due to our skill unlock. That still isn’t the nasty part. The nasty part is that I have a crit range of 15-20 with 4 attacks, therefore there is a 76% chance of having at least one attack roll in my crit range. If/when I crit, two important things happen simultaneously:

1) The Intimidate skill unlock makes it such that if I beat their demoralize DC by 10 or more (Basically, if their HD+WIS mod <=31, which is higher than a CR 20 Balor or Pit Fiend) they need to make a Will save (DC 22, thanks to our Dead Man’s Headband) or become panicked. They already have the shaken and potentially sickened conditions, so they should pretty consistently have -4 penalties on these saves.

2) Fearsome Strike means you can make them frightened without any save whatsoever. The important part about Fearsome strike is that it requires no Intimidate check, and is not a demoralize attempt. As such, it follows the general rule of fear conditions, which state that such things stack to go to progressively worse fear conditions (unlike demoralize attempts, which specifically state that they can’t raise a creature’s fear condition above shaken). Basically, even if they made the save they are panicked off the bat, and if they didn't make the save they are fully cowering^[f].

What was that last feat we took? Oh yeah, Dastardly Finish. This feat allows you to coup de grace any cowering enemy as if they were helpless. So, now that we're in round 1, hopefully our +12 Initiative modifier beats out any enemy that could get close enough to me that my coup de grace will provoke, and I execute the enemy on round 1.

Even if I can't get a surprise round, the combination of conditions this character can swiftly inflict, combined with Shatter Defenses allowing Sneak Attack to work consistently makes the Wildfire highly effective as a damage dealer to anything that can be intimidated and is not immune to precision damage. On those things that I can't sneak attack, I use Piranha strike for a bit of damage.

Out of combat I still have 7 skills/level, and am a highly effective scout/recon agent. Unfortunately, I can't Disable magic traps, unless the GM allows the Trap Finder trait from Mummy's Mask, which I would replace Indomitable Faith with. One could also take Disable Device as their second Rogue's Edge (skill unlock) to be able to disarm magical traps with a -10 penalty, though I personally like the Escape Artist Skill Unlock for this build. It would allow me to tie up a cowering character as a full round action for when I want to go non-lethal. With 16 CHA, the Heartless could even be a decent party face, especially with a bit of gold investment and decent roleplay.

My saves aren't stellar, but not godawful either. (Fort=9, Ref=18, Will=10) AC will be pretty okay as well (29 Normal, 22 FF, 20 Touch). The Flashfire relies more on using their melee debuffs (shaken, sickened, and Debilitating Injury) or even fighting defensively (if the thing I'm trying to hit is FF and Debilitating Injury hurt its AC) to avoid hits. Mostly it just tries to kill things before they have a chance to do anything nasty.

If I were playing this in a home game to high level, I would consider going Antipaladin from level 10 onwards. By level 12 anything I’m near takes an additional -4 penalty to saves vs. fear (like my Skill Unlock), and more importantly things lose immunity to fear. Oh, and my +4 charisma starts going to all of my saves. The only reason I wait for level 10 is that Dastardly Finish requires 5d6 sneak attack, and is just too silly to pass up. Then again, there’s Accomplished Sneak Attacker to increase your sneak attack by 1d6, so you could rework your feats a bit (maybe retrain Iron Will or something) and start Antipaladin at level 8 but still have your Dastardly Finish. Now from level 10 onward nothing is immune to your fear, and the save against your Skill Unlock has an additional -4 penalty. Make the world tremble.

Half-orc Vigilante (stalker) 11

Traits: Fate's Favored, Blade of Mercy

Str 13 Dex 18 (22) Con 14 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 14 (18)

Feats
1- Weapon Focus (gladius)
3- Enforcer
5- Two-Weapon Fighting
7- Dazzling Display
9- Shatter Defenses
11- Disheartening Display

Relevant social talent
1 - Social Grace

Vigilante talents
2 - Twisting Fear
4 - Up Close and Personal
6 - Lethal Grace
8 - Throat Jab
10 - Evasive

Skills
Acrobatics 11
Bluff 11
Disguise 11
Disable device 11
Escape artist 11
UMD 11
Intimidate 11 (total modifier +29, up to +39 with consumables)

Relevant items
Mw tool for intimidate to demoralize (50)
Maiden's Helm (3,500)
Dex belt +4 (16,000)
Charisma headband +4( 16,000)

+1 cruel adamantine gladius (11,315)

Approx. 35,000 remaining gold

Combat workflow. This build hinges on a few strange interactions. Ideally you move through an opponent with Up Close and Personal as a move then attack as a swift as part of that talent. You swing for nonlethal dealing Hidden Stroke damage (+6d8) and making a free Intimidate attempt with Enforcer. If that is effective you activate Twisting Fear and deal Hidden Stroke damage again (6d4). You then use your standard to attack, which will trigger cruel on your weapon and lock in Shatter Defenses, leaving them flat-footed for the next round.

I will have a total of 66 skill ranks, 11 of which will of course be invested in Intimidate. Perception, Sense Motive, Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (local), Survival, Disable Device, and Acrobatics will also likely be high and I’ll have a smattering of ranks in some other physical skills.

Smattering of other items, such as some gravelly tonics, potions, MW skill kits, etc.

[1st Slayer Talent] – Rogue Talent: Weapon Training (Weapon Focus: Earth Breaker)

Now at level 6 I’m going to go re-train Bludgeoner and Enforcer (nice as they are) into some of the feats I finally qualify for. Namely, I want Shatter Defenses and Cornugon Smash. I’m also going into the Hellknight prestige class (Order of the Godclaw), and I’ll enchant my weapon with the Cruel ability. At 7 I will retrain Killing Flourish to Racial Heritage (Weretiger-kin) so I can do the following progression.

[11] - Pretty much whatever at this point. Iron Will isn’t a bad thought, or Improved Initiative. I will take Fearsome as my Hellknight Order ability, meaning I can demoralize straight to frightened on anything within 10 feet of me.

Lead with a Power Attack. If this hits, I can do a Cornugon Smash free demoralize attempt. If that succeeds (it will unless they’re immune, as I can take 10 via Fiery Glare with a +27 Intimidate modifier even without studied target, or any of my potent potables) they will then become flat-footed against my attacks until the end of my next turn, sickened until my next turn, and frightened (from Hellknight’s Fearsome) for a while as well. That means the remainder of my attacks until the end of the following turn are getting my sneak attack die. Now I take my iteratives against flat-footed with SA, and due to Violent Display I can affect all enemies within 30 feet of me with my demoralize ‘attempts’ (read: successes). This uses my swift. I have Disheartening Display, and if I hit with both my initial power attack and an iterative against flat-footed (not unreasonable) the enemy I’ve been smushing will now be panicked, all enemies within 10 feet of me will be frightened, and any baddies between 10 and 30 feet will be shaken. I will then move on to the next combatant in the following round (as even if the first is alive, he will be running away from me after dropping anything in his hands) and whallop him. Rinse. Repeat. Once there are few enough enemy combatants who aren’t dead or running, I’ll start using my swifts to either take a Studied Target (Lenses of the Predator's Gaze gets it down to a swift for me from the effective level increase) or Smite Chaos instead of Violent Displays.

While I'll be taking damage from my own Vicious weapon, any enemy I take down feeds me some temporary health from the Cruel aspect, so I'm hoping those roughly balance out.

If they are immune to fear or mind-affecting, I just go straight for Studied target and hit as hard I can. Usually I’ll drop the shield at that point and go for raw DPR.

NOTE: This build has basically been entirely gutted in PFS. Having neither Hurtful nor Violent Display as PFS legal options takes all the fun out of it. It still works...sort of, but its dull. Also, the Hellknight’s Fearsome ability can only be used twice a day when you get it at 11 (which I didn’t know before), making it practically worthless. Certainly not worth a 6 level investment in an otherwise bad prestige class. So, don’t try this at home kids.

Race: Human. It does everything we need it to at once, and that bonus feat is delicious. Dwarf is also acceptable, and I suppose Half-Orc is as well.

Abilities: WIS is the priority here. Aim for a 12 Charisma for the Channel Energy boost, and also a positive STR for damage purposes. Try to get a 14 or higher in Dexterity, just because Dexterity is great.

Touch of Glory (Cleric 3): +Cleric level -2 to your next CHA skill (usually intimidate) 3+WIS/day

Aura of Heroism (Cleric 10): Your entire party gets the best buff in the game. Go get 'em.

General Monk shenanigans: WIS to AC, Stunning Fist, Two Weapon Fighting, Unarmed Strike, Double Slice, and a bonus feat of our choosing all in one level... also +2 to all saves. Level 2 Monk gives a further +1 to all saves and Evasion, as well as another bonus feat, but sets your all-important Cleric progression back enough that this may not be worthwhile until later in your build. Level 3 Monk is comparatively worthless.

5-9: Mantis Style, Mantis Wisdom, or Power Attack in any order (all of them are solid boosts to your offense)

CL11 Scroll of Permanency + CL20 Scroll of Greater Magic Fang (10,375gp total, or 9775gp for a more reasonable CL 12 Scroll instead of a CL 20. All you need to do is get a Wizard/Sorcerer/Arcanist in the same place at the same time as a Druid/Ranger/Summoner or a Bard/Summoner with legendary UMD and they'll be able to cast the scrolls for you.)

Pearl of Power I (loan it to a friendly wizard for Mage Armor, or use it yourself for Divine Favor)

Potions of Barkskin (they may seem expensive, but with a 10mpl duration you don't need very many. A Pearl of Power II can be substituted if you have a reliable Druid/Ranger buddy)

Level 1, you're a suboptimal, armor-wearing, shield-bearing Cleric. Keep your party healthy and try not to die. Channel Smite is a useless feat, but if you can persevere it'll be worth it.

Level 2: You're still pretty bad here, but now its starting to come together. Draw aggro and fight defensively while supporting your team as necessary. Alchemist's Fire is a solid option.

Level 3: NOW we're in business. From here on out, your offense should be in a comfortable place and you can start building up your wealth to get the gear required. Divine Favor and Bless are worth your while.

Level 4+: Punch (nonlethal) to trigger Enforcer. Make your Intimidate check with the help of the Touch of Glory you've already set up. Free Action trigger Wooden Fists (which forces lethal damage) and continue the full attack. Second Punch triggers Cruel, and depending on how your GM rules matters, this may also be the place to use the Dust Knuckles, Stunning Fist attempt, and later your Spell Storing Bestow Curse. Once you have access to the Cruel property, sticking the double debuff is your single most important job. Even if you can't stick a debuff on your target, your Wizard buddy almost certainly will.

Some GMs will rule that Enforcer, Cruel, and all your Save-or-sucks can happen in one attack. Others rule that since Cruel is an automatic, no-save effect, it triggers before any save- or check-based effects occur. Still others will arbitrarily say that the target isn't sickened until the completion of your 2nd attack and thus force you to use your save-or-sucks on your third punch. Be sure to ask your GM before the session starts to avoid undue annoyance - I think the second case mentioned above is the "most fair" reading of the rules, but that's just my opinion.

Non-PFS / high level variations: At higher levels, LOTS of extra options start cropping up. Mythic Guided Hand yields ~+7 damage per hit, Snake Fang+Combat Reflexes means you double-debuff multiple targets per round, Maneuver Master monk forces you to take TWF as normal, but doing so then allows you to take ITWF and GTWF for high-level play. Maneuver Master also opens the door to some flavor of trip-looping and extra attacks per round to trigger the combo faster and harder, and potentially against more opponents, but Master of Many Styles lets you have Mantis Style early and simultaneously maintain Mantis and Snake style later on.

Skill Points: Keep Intimidate maxed. At level 2 when you get rogue levels get acrobatics, disable device, know: local, perception, and UMD. Spend the spare point to max out these skills. At level 7 when they are all maxed put the spare point in a skill of your choice. I put one into swim and climb then put the remaining into sense motive.

Build-specific gear: +n Cruel Bardiche, +n Mithral Breastplate, Maiden's Helm, Eyes of the Eagle, Trapspringer's Gloves, Amulet of Mighty Fists +1 (optional), Wand of Aram Zey's Focus (optional)

At level 1 through 6 move into melee, standard action intimidate then use hurtful for an attack as a swift action. If the creature can't teleport away and you get 4+ rounds of shaken, make them frightened then 5' step toward them so they provoke even with a withdraw. Use a full attack with a 5' step to use both bite and weapon if they target is immune to intimidation. At level 7 to 11 simply full attack and use your swift to get an extra attack if you intimidate with Cornugon Smash.

Pros: Functions as a trap monkey without sacrificing combat potential; Always apply shaken for 3+ rounds on successful intimidate; Apply frightened with intimidate; Sneak attack without needing a flank-buddy at high levels; Uses a reach weapon but still threatens within 5'; Decent damage without intimidate.

Cons: 3/4 BaB and nearly always power attacking at level 7+, Hurtful makes up for getting iteratives later (and can still work on move+attack with cornugon smash) but a lower hit chance makes hurtful more risky; Low saves, especially will; little out of combat utility besides trap monkeying and intimidating; Intimidate isn't as high as other builds as the classes give no bonuses to intimidate itself; Gets Cornugon Smash and Shatter Defenses a level later then the pre-reqs are met.

Optional: Get Skill mastery as your level 11 talent to take 10 on intimidate and one other skill (like acrobatics) in combat.

AC 21, t 13, ff 19 (+7 armour, +1 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 natural) [this is increased by casting magic vestment every morning]

Melee +1 cruel silversheen light mace +10/+5 (1d6+5) [+17/+12 2d6+11 + 4d6 bane, +2d6+4 SA] or

+1 cruel silversheen light mace +10/+5 (1d6+5) and masterwork cold iron light mace +10 (1d6+2) [+15/+10, (2d6+11 + 4d6 bane, +2d6+4 SA), +13 (2d6+7, +2d6+4 SA)]

[numbers in brackets are assuming studied target, merciful, bane, slave taker, and GMW are in effect]

Special Attacks greater bane (14 rounds/day), sneak attack +2d6, studied target +2 (2nd, swift action)

[the longer a fight goes on, the more dangerous this character becomes, as he activates studied target and bane as soon as practical]

3rd (4/day)—dispel magic, magic vestment, greater magic weapon, terrible remorse (DC 16)

2nd (5/day)—blistering invective (DC 15), confess (DC 15), hold person (DC 15), silence (DC 15) [confess isn't great for getting reliable information, but it's handy as a punishment spell - just ask questions that the target either doesn't know the answer to, or is currently incapable of answering (because they're gagged or silenced)]

1st (6/day)—command (DC 14), cure light wounds, divine favour, shield of faith, wrath

0 (at will)—brand (DC 13), create water, daze (DC 13), detect magic, detect poison, read magic

Feats: Dazzling Display, Enforcer, Outflank, Paired Opportunists, Precise Strike, Sap Adept, Shatter Defences, Two-weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (light mace)

Skills: Bluff +2, Climb +7, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +4, Heal +7, Intimidate +29, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (planes) +12, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +17, Ride +5, Sense Motive +21, Spellcraft +14, Stealth +13, Survival +7, Swim +7

Monster Lore (Ex): +7 to Knowledge checks when identifying the weaknesses of creatures.

SQ combat style (two-weapon combat), monster lore +7, patient sensibility, prehensile tail, redeemer’s mercy, second chance, slayer talent (ranger combat style), solo tactics, stern gaze +4, track +4

Combat Gear: maiden's helm; Other Gear: +1 fortification (light) unholy reliquary mithral breastplate, +1 cruelsilversheen light mace, mwk cold iron light mace, amulet of natural armour +1, bane baldric, belt of giant strength +2, cloak of resistance +1, ring of protection +1, shackles of compliance, sinner's wage, 215 pp, 55 gp [I left the last of the money unspent; I figure most people can figure out their own mundane gear / cheap consumables.]

Dazzling Display (Light mace) Intimidate check to demoralize can affect those within 30' who see you.

Enforcer: If you deal nonlethal damage with a melee weapon, make a free Intimidate check to demoralize. The target is shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt.

Greater Bane (+2 / 4d6, 14 rounds/day) (Su) Make the weapon you are holding a greater bane weapon - Increases the enchantment bonus of the weapon by 2 and adds 4d6 damage against one creature type.

Redemption Inquisition - Your deity inspires you with hope that wayward members of your faith can be brought back into the fold.

Outflank: Increase flank bonus by +2 if flanking ally has same feat. If you crit, ally gets an AoO.

Paired Opportunists: +4 to hit for AoOs if you and adjacent ally with this feat both threaten the target.

Patient Sensibility (Su): You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy, Perception, and Sense Motive checks.

Precise Strike: +1d6 precision damage for melee attacks if you and an ally with this feat flank the same target.

Prehensile Tail: Your tail can retrieve small objects on your person as a swift action.

Redeemer’s Mercy (Su): Any weapon you wield gains the merciful magic weapon power for as long as you wield it. (+1d6 damage, all damage is non-lethal.) Can be deactivated with a command word.

Sap Adept: Do extra nonlethal damage equal to twice the number of sneak attack dice rolled.

Second Chance (1/day) (Sp): Cast atonement w/ added effect of cure serious wounds. Can forego material cost by taking 1 permanent neg level.

Slave Taker: You specialize in disabling foes without wounding them, preserving their value as slaves. Whenever you deal nonlethal damage in combat, that damage increases by +1.

Studied Target: +2 (swift action, 2 at a time) (Ex) Study foe as a Swift action, gain +2 to att/dam & some skills vs. them.

For now, the offhand attacks don't really measure up to the main hand weapon, but Dual Bane is an option going forward, and the main draw is maximizing the number of sneak attacks being landed each round. At level 10, he'll get his third die of sneak attack, which will qualify him for Sap Master at level 11, which basically doubles his sneak attack dice to 6d6 per hit.

The first hit against an enemy will almost certainly do enough damage that Enforcer will leave it shaken for longer than the duration of the fight, and after that, so long as the Inquisitor lands at least one hit per round, Shatter Defences means that all his attacks will get Sneak Attack damage automatically. Of course, the teamwork feats mean that flanking is still a better way to land sneak attack damage, but unlike most sneak attackers, this guy isn't stuck with that as essentially his only option for doing noticeable damage.

Greater Magic Weapon resolves one of the major problems with dual-wielding - the cost of having two magic weapons instead of just one. A simple masterwork cold iron mace for the offhand will work just fine for pretty much his entire career, and at the same time, there's no need to put more than just +1 on the main weapon, leaving the option for specials instead.

[a]Hobgoblins can take an alternate racial trait that gives them a +4 bonus to Intimidate so they can be a good option for a race with Intimidate.

[b]Vigilante social talent can also get you this, skill familiarity, but it's 9th level gated.

[c]uhhh i don't think slayers can actually take this one

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/slayer/slayer-talents/paizo-slayer-talents/rogue-talent

[d]Add Unchained variation, which, when paired with decent feats, is worth looking into.

[e]If you can give your companion a +8 racial bonus to Intimidate, or any other skill, with the 1pt evolution Skilled. You can give your companion an evolution point with the Evolved Companion Feat (requires 13 Cha), or temporary evolutions (swift action to activate for 1 minute) by playing a Hunter with the Primal Companion Archetype.

[f]How are they fully cowering, you can't go from panicked to cowering with additional fear affect. Only panicked creatures that can't flee are cowering.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/special-abilities#TOC-Fear