i mean being "charismatic" is certainly not something i would use to describe my Half Orc Barbarian ... and yet he is intimidating
Intimidation is a matter of perspective. Maybe the gnome facing the half-orc is nimble enough to dodge any attack. Maybe he's a mage who can cast Hold Person or Misty Step. Your orc showing off their muscles would just make the gnome laugh. An intimidating barbarian can project confidence, i.e : I'm not telling you how, but trust me when I say I can
hurt you. It's a distinct skill from strength. If you're using strength to intimidate me, you've just attacked me.
If you need help building an intimidating barbarian, might I suggest the Thaumaturgy cantrip? One of the Tiefling subclasses has it, and it proved invaluable in my fighter run, even with a 10 in charisma.
Just imagine if we get to situation, where Druid would be using Nature check to identify animal (wolf for example) that is standing right before him ... and he fail, since his Intelligence sucks ... while being able to change his form to that animal.
Isnt that just absurd?
Yes, it's quite absurd. No DM would ever make the druid roll to identify the wolf. Firstly, I think 5e requires a druid to have seen a creature in order to change into it. Secondly, not every last action needs a roll. You don't roll Dex every time you try to drink a glass of water.
If you need help with nature lore for your Druid, you could take Nature proficiency. Also, Enhance Ability can give advantage in intelligence checks.
Also notice that i also suggested that person who is using the variant ability should have slightly different outcome ...
Again if we stick to the Nettie example:
[Int - Naure] > This plant is *xy* blah blah blah
you know the usual stuff.
[Wis - Nature] > You dont recognize the plant, but it seems simmilar to some poisonous flowers you encountered in the past ... maybe you should be carefull with that.
Whoops, looks I failed my perception check
The outcomes proposed here are not different at all. The danger of the situation is that Nettie is trying to poison Tav. If both outcomes amount to telling Tav they will be poisoned, the only difference between the options is that one is more difficult than the other.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. There are plenty of places in the game where one outcome can be achieved with different ability checks. I'm glad it's not everywhere, though, for reasons I hope I've made clear.
