Jesse Coombs because of the fiction/situation and contest: if I ask you troops and you say nay I can escalate the conflict convince you. The TN could be set when I’m asking as it seemed to me in the OP example, or when I’m already escalating. In first situation I can back off because there is no conflict already. In the second I can’t because the conflict already started. Same with the orc: if I ask the GM that I want to evaluate the orc fighting skills (given that it makes sense in the situation context) I can still back off before attack, but if I say that I’m attacking I’m already committed with the conflict. This is how I usually run a game😃