Minor Boon: Intimidating Display

How it works

• In the first round of combat, as an action make a Strength or Dexterity (Intimidation) check to attempt to awe and dazzle opponents with a display of physical prowess. 

• DC for this check is the passive Wisdom save of opponents who can see what you're doing.

• Effect - for the duration of the encounter, any affected creatures are convinced you're a total badass and will be super cautious and pretty reluctant to attack. As such they will have disadvantage to hit you in melee - until they see you miss an attack, at which point your credibility is completely shot.

• Exceptions - Does not affect any opponent who cannot see or understand your display (e.g. blind or unintelligent creatures). That gray pudding doesn't give a toss about your fire poi routine.

How to apply it 

It's not a super powerful ability, but it's fun. Could be:

• awarded as a minor boon to a PC;
• a capability associated with an exotic weapon (NUMB-CHUCKS!!!!1);
• simply used as a mechanism to resolve if a player happens to want to try something like this in the course of play.

Notes

• Could reasonably be a Perform check rather than an Intimidation check. Performance is generally under-utilised - I'm always looking for an excuse to make something a Perform check.