(Animated Spellbook) The Frightened Condition!
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- Опубликовано: 26 окт 2022
- The frightened condition. A frightened creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks while the source of it's fear is within sight. That's neat. But what's really interesting is that the creature can't willingly move closer to the source of it's fear.
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My favourite mental justification around the Frightened condition is the whole "Barbarian's can't be Frightened whilst Raging" thing which I never took as a hard and fast 'not scared' thing, but the idea that a Barbarian's fight or flight response is fight. They are still scared, the just want to run towards the scary thing and beat it up to stop it being scary.
"Scared" kinda suggest that the scared person got some mental faculty working, the barbarian just see red and identify the scary thing as the juiciest target and smash it first.
You usually don't invite a barbarian to the party for their big brains.
@@loke6664 nah, I dislike that, also not all Barbs are idiots and even the ones that are I find it way funnier imagining a screaming Himbo covered in fear tears running towards a scary thing with an axe whilst crapping themselves still.
@@GracieLizzy Far from all barbs are idiots indeed but when they rage, their sense and brain power takes a vacation.
But yeah, the screaming crying himbo is funny and would make a good NPC the players are stuck with.
Maybe he is the son of the chieftain who hires the players to be his bodyguards/guides when he visits the big city?
Baby sitting someone 7 feet tall with the name "Himbo" who gets into tavern brawls, try to pick up high level female adventurers at the adventurer's guildhouse and getting into all kinds of messes and misunderstandings while the players must bail him out or his daddy will send a hoard of angry barbarians after them.
Barbarians aren't stupid. The Ancients of the Naphalem or Wulfgar from the Drizzt stories are not stupid at all. The way they fight makes them a barbarian not their mental faculties.
The 'fight' response in fight-or-flight manifests as extreme rage and bloodlust anyway, not fear.
Oh, damn. Never really thought about how a source of Fear moving away actually makes the effect more restrictive in almost every direction.
Kinda of funny that thing becomes more scary as it gets further away.
If the source of your fear makes it to the other side of the world; you can only move by leaving the planet. 😄
@@Daktangle Well, the further away something is, the smaller it looks, and as something appears to get smaller, the apparent validity of your greatest fear, that it might scurry up your pant leg, increases. Makes perfect sense to me.
It's even more potent in small rooms. Can force your PC into a corner &... since you cant move closer & there's no space left to move away from it... you're essentually stuck.
... Oh no... just got a terrifying idea. Imagine being under the fear effect in a hall of mirrors...
@@euansmith3699 nah, you can’t see it that way!
Fear is also a great tool for a DM to use to reward roleplaying. If your players intimidate someone but it doesn't have the desired effect (i.e. it leads to combat instead of getting the NPC to give them something) it could cause fear in the combat. If your players establish a reputation in an area, enemies who have heard of them may have fear for the first round, etc.
Need to homebrew this into a morale save...
I have a lot of badass enemies having advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition, either to show fearlessness, or even soldiers trained so well that they know instinctively that their formations are safer than running from the source of their fear, etc.
BUT! I also say once the players hit a certain notoriety threshold, everyone's heard about them and how effective they are, to the point where even usually fearless npcs are doubtful, and their "resistance to the frightened condition" (that's my shorthand anyway) is nullified, and everything that *wasn't* resistant or immune to it now makes saving throws against it with disadvantage.
Hurray, my favourite wizardly gnome bestows upon us another informative and visually appealing video once again!
I think he’s a Dwarf, because he is based
Gnomes have pointy ears
Spells can cause fear can also be very useful in rp, especially for wizards who often dump charisma and as such don’t have much, if any, bonuses to intimidation.
For example, I distinctly remember one time, our party got held up delivering a wagon full of supplies by bunch of bandits who were about to commit a highway robbery. As my party were talking with their leader, I was looking through my spellbook for options as to how to get us out of this situation or give them a surprise attack. Then I’m suddenly reminded of how Halo grunts usually flee and panic if their elite is killed. So I thought, “If I were to cast cause fear on one of the lackeys then the leader will probably just call them a coward, but if I were to do it on the leader, well then his lackeys would know we aren’t to be messed with and they should probably follow suit”. So I cast the spell and one failed save later and the leader ran back to his men screaming “WITCH! WITCH! WITCH!” Some hidden rolls from the DM later and soon enough his entire crew was running for the hills and we managed to get to Neverwinter smoothly without any more hiccups.
The NOPE spell
As a side note to this, intimidation.
Depending on the circumstances I view Intimidation as a VERY flexible skill. Rules as written it's based on Charisma, which both does and doesn't make sense. A character like Grog, a barbarian Goliath, so 8 feet of muscle, has very low Charisma, so you're telling me he can't INTIMIDATE someone effectively?
If a character is trying to intimidate someone with just words and using their "air of danger", I agree with Charisma. If they're just giving a command and letting their bulging muscles do the talking, I'd trade Charisma for strength. They may also be a rogue who's showing off their skill with a dagger, boom dexterity based intimidation. Ect ect. If you think hard enough, intimidation can fall under almost ANY stat.
Proficiency is separate, however I'd tell my players of this ruling ahead of time so they know proficiency in intimidation with a 10 charisma won't be wasted, assuming they work to their own strengths. That way my very proper elf sorcerer who is a merchant can intimidate with words, but my big tough soldier guys can intimidate with their big fucking swords and muscles.
@@haku8135 Now I can picture a wizard using an INT based intimidation by describing to them exactly what his fireball would do to them, and better yet, casting it while he's got them distracted.
@@SaberusTerras "Good evening sir, do you know what happens when the direction of someone's blood flow reverses?"
"Uhhh.... No."
"Excellent, we'll both get to learn something then. First though, where did you stash the chest again?"
@@haku8135 Isn't there something in the DMG that covers this? Substituting different stats depending on how the character wants to go about using a skill?
It is frightening how informative this video is. Never thought of it as a circle/sphere.
I think it would actually be a wall
Time to take a step back and fully appreciate the situation. =D
I find it contrary to the aesthetic. The whole idea of being *more* frightened of a monster which is backing away from you seems.... dumb.
@@michaelwinter742 definitely a circle. Say you're 25 feet away from a creature, then a circle drawn like in the video encompasses every single point on the grid that is 25 feet or less away, so even through some of the diagonal moves to go around the circle seem like you're moving "towards" them you aren't, because the distance remains the same.
@@michaelwinter742 A circular wall (would that be a cylinder, technically? ^_~).
Frightened is one of those conditions i really wish more frontline characters had access to. It's a great condition to inflict for making space for your team that really benefits from being out in the open... If you're a squishy wizard casting a big blast of fear on a handful of enemies you can bet that you've suddenly become a prime target for those who aren't terrified, and backing off to seek cover is going to break the effect.
It's also one of the few conditions that doesn't really need much magic to justify, making it perfect for your everyman fighter or hulking, bulking barbarian to dole out without breaking the flavor of the class.
yeh, battlemaster Menacing Attack is great for flavour.
@@samuelbroad11 Making a Monster hunter Fighter for a strahd game, Im going to take the fighting style feat to get access to that and make them Fear the Hellmont name.
If your frontline character causes fear then the enemies will back away and they're no longer the front line.
@@TheGregamonster Nah, it just means the enemy's frontline moves back and leaves the space open to take. A smart melee character carries a backup ranged weapon, and even if you don't the fear you're causing is burning up your enemy's turns... Assuming you can't just walk up after them and get attacks of opportunity.
Remember, if they disengage they can't dash, and if they dash then you can reaction action grapple them or trip them to deny their ability to get away from you... and because you're always in pursuit it's much harder for them to break line of sight.
@@TheGregamonster Correction, they are still the front line, they are just pushing the line back and able to advance.
Sounds super-useful!
Sure would be a *shame* if a lot of monsters were *immune* to Fear.
How many PCs are immune to fear, though?
@@DamnDaimen One
@@DamnDaimen Any lvl 6 Raging Beserker Barbarian
@@DamnDaimen Lvl 7 Monk on top of the other two, as well, if you count stillness of mind
@@DamnDaimen level 10 paladin and any nearby friends
Something you left out, Zee: A creature can be affected by fear from multiple sources, which can control a victim's movement even further. This can ultimately end in them being unable to move, or forced to move into a dangerous position.
Damn, that’s interesting.
What would happen to someone completely surrounded by fear-sources?
Pass out, cry… what else?
I was questioning my Warlocks choice of Fear for one of her very limited spell slots, but THRICE now has it came in super clutch and pushed a few enemies out of the combat/wasted some turns before the spell fades and they try to come back for what they needed in the first place.
It's definitely a far more respected spell to me now. Very handy AOE
I hadn't thought about it like an expanding AOE but that's a great way to visualize the effect. I have an idea for an exhaustion monster which uses aoe puddles to force movement in tight spaces and this might complement its toolkit well!
I was expecting mention of the Oath of Conquest Paladin! Fear can be strong, but it's even *stronger* when you simply immobilise the target!
Another fun interaction, since the Conquest Paladin makes their movement zero, a creature can't spend half it's movement to stand up, meaning a prone creature is trapped. And if you used Wrathful Smite, it requires a Wisdom check, not a Save to break after the first time. Meaning they're rolling with disadvantage for the privilege of standing.
This is why dissonant whispers and command are some of the most powerful spells because forced opportunity attacks (depending on the party) can stay very threatening no matter what level you are
Oh god, imagine a non-hostile that uses it as a way to escape like an octopus with it's ink. The players need to track down some little gremlin NPC to get information or help it, but it keeps magically getting way more scary than a tiny thing should be then runs off while they're freaked out. Forget combat potential, the NON-combat potential is also larger than I thought originally.
One thing to note is that the Wrathful Smite spell in particular, if the creature fails its initial saving throw, needs a wisdom CHECK to end its frightened condition instead of a saving throw. As the creature is frightened, it makes that check with disadvantage, and it takes its whole action to do it. The conquest Paladin that shuts down movement of frightened creatures and deals psychic damage to them every round with its aura can really take advantage of this. The frightened creature also has disadvantage on attack rolls; so it can’t move, it can’t attack you back, you have aura of protection to help keep your concentration, it’s not likely to end the condition and even if it does it wastes an action to do so, and it takes psychic damage from your aura every round.
Ohoho, this is going to be useful for Halloween oneshots. Huge thanks. Cuing my maniacal laugh. (and yes, everyone check out last year's Halloween episode. Possibly my favorite of his videos)
I love Zee's sotto 'this is what your DM can do if they want to be nice but boring' voice.
Might be a scam
I’ve always thought frighten was kinda meh, but now I can see some uses for it that I haven’t thought of before.
IT IS DA SPOOKY MONTH *does the funny skeleton/pumpkin dance*
You made this so fast!! That's super impressive. I love how open you are about your process, it makes me more hopeful about completing my own projects
God fear can be annoying as a player though. Especially the spell. I sometimes wish there was a choice of some other penalty you could take other than just fleeing / being unable to approach.
I've had a lot of cases where my rogue player kept failing wisdom saves to fear, and just kinda was stuck sitting there while everyone else with higher wisdom crowded around the target.
The skeleton bard makes a loud startling noise with his trumpet you are now frightened
Don't forget with the fear spell, the targets also drop what they're holding.
Not entirely useful as most will just pick the item back up _but_ if it's forgotten in the moment...
Fear(The Spell) is probably the best tho
Because they are forced to move away from their weapon while you and your party can go there and steal the items
@@RenoKyrie that's right, I forgot about the forced movement.
An excellent breakdown, clean simple and the examples were perfect.
I've always used this condition to move enemies into advantageous positions so my party could finish the job. Great advice!
Thank you so much Zee, your work is incredibly appreciated, these past videos have been FANFUCKINGTASTIC. please keep up the good work!
Hahaha, thanks for the shoutout. This was actually a point my good friend air brought up to me. I'm glad you found it as interesting as I did. Frightened is good, actually.
I never even considered the growing AOE no go zone. I always just saw it as keeping away from one spot but that perspective makes it much scarier.
Always love the topic you bring up! And the animations are GODLIKE!!
Went back to listen to last year's halloween episode. Gotta say, the cork pull at the 1 minute mark, still satisfying
one word, booming blade; well thats two...
“Every Thursday” so that was a lie; we better be getting the 6th episode of the cold road for this wait because that series needs a grammy.
Seems like an appropriate episode for October.
Joined a D&D party since I last watched this, and our party's Warlock has had a limited way to inflict fear since Level 2. Which has saved our bacon more than once, since for a while we had no frontline fighters or actual tanks, and that fear was the only thing that kept monsters from charging our squishy classes until we got a melee specialist.
Suffice to say, even when it only lasted for a single turn, it was a lifesaver.
one of the reasons why i love dissonant whispers much
Happy Halloween man, these videos make my Thursday 🧡
I love this and am for sure going to use this in my next session. Love the content and your channel!
It's also great when escaping. After all, if they can't get closer to you, they can't chase after you. ;-)
When all was lost, and the internet was drying up faster then the fads they followed, Zee blessed us this day with sheer, unadulterated content
Happy Halloween! 🎃 Thanks for another entertaining video!
ive missed zee's lil wizard boi, gives me feels of nostalgia for the early episodes.
no shade to the newer episodes though, just as fantastic!
I can't go back and watch last years videos because I'm STILL trying to unhaunt my freaking dice. Thanks for that, by the way.
Ahh, I remember when my tiefling wizard cast Fear on a bunch of Tree Blights outside the winery in Curse of Strand. Caused about half of them to run away for several rounds! (It's a proud moment but it's a shame I was pretty new to D&D at the time and hadn't yet heard of the majesty of Fireball. 😆)
Honestly unless they'd go down to one Fireball instantly, taking half the enemies out of combat for several rounds is probably better anyway.
@@ZeroKitsune Things that can go down to one fireball isn't a small category though. And sometimes it includes fellow party members. :P DODGE!
Honestly I mostly play pathfinder and gave up on non-damage spells. Not because they aren't effective tools but our games they usually weren't helpful due to terrain, and when they WERE effective it also fucked up my friends. (Web was only ever used 3 times. And in all three cases a player was out of combat for the rest of the fight because he was either IN the spell when it went off or had to run in to continue the fight and got stuck immediately. Grease? Same thing, one time it actually caught a enemy a ally ran in to take advantage of it and failed to stand for 7 rounds.) Best one we used was....evard's greater black tentacles? Basically hit the entire dungeon we were in and half cleared it for us. In exchange halfway through its duration the one evil person in the party got caught and got beat on, then to help her escape we cast grease on her. She still managed to fail and deciding that things were getting too hentai like(She was a high charisma lawful evil aasimar gunslinger whose picture was fairly skimpy....and now was greased up and held by tentacles.....) we dispelled the spell and healed her up deciding to just do the rest without it.
Me and my party members just like to push each other into the fear zones for fun.
Our characters are fellow criminals, not friends.
Fear (the spell) ALSO makes them drop their weapons or whatever they're holding when they flee, so you can disarm the entire party and have them leave their weapons behind and can't get closer to pick them back up.
Have a encounter with multiple opponents and while one target Fears the party, have another rougish target quickly gather the party’s dropped gear and make a dash for it in the opposite direction if you REALLY want an assholeish encounter.
Good strat if you want the current problem to be a really dickish bandit clan.
One of my favorite everyday Battle Master combos, for blocking out troublesome melee enemies: Menacing Attack, followed by a (Shield Master) shove as a bonus action.
Menacing Attack hits Wis, which is usually a weak save for the kind of brutes you'd be using this on. And unlike the Pushing Attack maneuver, a regular shove is resisted by an ability check, not a saving throw; so the Frightened disadvantage applies. Breaks up the enemy formation and ties up a heavy hitter for a round, at a very low cost.
(Menacing Attack also works with ranged weapons, for when you want to make the enemy line's charge as awkward and disjointed as possible.)
Love your content. I only wished you put it out weekly. Great stuff.
You were on hiatus for such a long time, I finally remember you exist only to find you got tons of stuff out. Weekly! Wow. Looks like I got something to binge
Thanks for this. It's a been a nice little birthday present and much needed moment of levity for me.
I remember a time I hit an elemental so hard that my character caused Fear in the other elementals I was fighting at the time. 3e Pathfinder, if anyone’s wondering. It was a fantastic fight.
i love your dice training videos
Great spoopy addition for October!
Fun fact, Wrathful Smite, the level 1 smite spell, is unique in that rather than making a save to end the condition at the end of the turn, it's a Wisdom *check*, and it takes an action to even attempt it. And because it is a check, not a save, they have disadvantage! In most cases, a Wisdom check is rarely above a 3 or 4 for even the strongest monsters, so this is extremely reliable if they fail the first save.
Paladins, man.
Watching this video a second time, I just realized the spooky pumpkin is flipping the fearful guy off. XD
Man, I've missed that little gnome wizard
I love this channel so much
This reminded me. One of may favorite tactics while playing one of the pathfinder crpgs was having my high charisma tank use Dazzling Display. Dazzling Display uses a charisma check to demoralize opponents (gives them the shaken condition for some minuses on certain roles), but a dip into the Thug subclass of rogue (allows shaken here to become frightened) and the intimidating prowess feat (adds strength mod to charisma checks) meant the tank would usually frightmen most if not all enemies which was great for CC, getting them off of my squishies, getting a bunch of AoO's with properly positioned melee attackers while picking them off with my ranger attackers. Plus, they'd usually agro back onto her once the round of frightened was up, but since she was the tank, that was never not a good thing. Had fun with that.
You can also trap creatures in place by surrounding them by at least 3 sources of fright
Like when a bunch of kids t-pose around another in the corner.
@@wadespencer3623 EXACTLY
Those Jack o lantern guys are way too cute!
To balance it out, most things that cause Frightened also come with the caveat of being immune for it for that creature for an entire day when they pass the save.
1:18 There is still the logic of "I can get away from that horrifying thing faster if I don't let this thing get attacks of opportunity". I've had players elect to use their strongest attacks on other enemies and obstacles instead of running, as to better clear the path for when they do run. Also, foregoing concentration when it came to Expeditious Retreat because the focus of both the fear and concentration is to GTFO. In fact, if it happens again, I might have them roll a will save against involuntarily using Expeditious Retreat.
oh man, fear as just a "stay away from me" is strong, but that attack of opportunity thing your party can take advantage of is rad.
Yes! This is the animation that I love from u!
I think it makes sense that some creatures would be able to disengage while frightened. Hardened mercenaries or trained guards would know how to make a tactical retreat
Oh. Oh man, how did I not think about using this for that kind of area denial!?!
Damnit, you just reminded me how broken Frightened is in Baldurs Gate 3, since it stops you from doing pretty much anything (its essentially a stun, but without advantage on attacks).
I never thought about it as an expanding radius but as I read it again 100%. So this will be implemented in my core rules set
I've kept my party from a TPK on several occasions with a well-positioned use of the fear effect part of Form of Dread.
I can't wait for next year's Halloween animated spell book.
This is why every high tier party needs a Heroes' Feast.
Perfect timing. I'm playing a Warlock to Dendar and flavor the character with Fear centered spells. This is really useful. Thanks!
Animated spell book is back!
Fuck yeah!
I LOVE animated spell book!
fear in a hallway + spike growth is so deadly
Ha, now I'm picturing a player stuck with a never ending Fear condition and an enemy which is moving constantly away, quickly rendering the planet at large inaccessible to them.
Thank you Zee
Also deceptively strong in some confined situations.
Imagine dungeon crawling and your front line gets spooked from the fear spell, suddenly half your party is either cowering in the corner of the room or flatout abandoned the fight for a couple rounds by leaving the room, letting whatever monsters there are mob the remaining members easily. It's surprising how many martials don't pick up ranged options like javelins or a crossbow or even the magic initiate feat for a damaging cantrip.
LOVE THEM PUMPKINS
Isn't it weird how attacks get disadvantaged but some spells like fireball that don't directly target the creature don't have any disadvantage?
What's weird about trying to blast the general area with fire vs looking at your scary target and shooting a fire bolt with shakey hands?
It's like throwing a grenade. All it has to be is "close enough".
"kill it with fire" seems like a reasonable reaction to something scary
One thing I think is missed in going over the "can't move toward the source of their fear" - your conquest paladin is effectively shielding your squishy squishy mages from melee combat, and if aimed well, giving enemy archers disadvantage to attack. So that's fun.
YEA!!! Bashew the wizard is back!! missed him
I have so much more desire to have this spell.
I didn't realize it was so useful.
Best Halloween gift ever!
How spooky!
Thank you for the video.
Forced movement is basically a push or pull or slide; so when the creature is moved without using an action, move, or reaction. Where there isn't a term for it, it would be more accurate to call it "compelled movement" when you mind control someone and they have to run away.
Another great video, Zee.
I'd probably have a frightened creature take a disengage action before moving away
My favorite instance of utilizing the frightened condition was teleporting a dragon turtle onto land using scatter and then preventing it from going back into the water with phantasmal killer.
The steam breath hurt but it was hilarious to imagine this gargantuan beast crawling back and forth along the shoreline, terrified of a 5’4 tomboyish british lady wearing a melon hat.
POV: The party comes across Florida Man.
Halloween episode already perfected. You've got a cosmic horror as the main antagonist.
Conquest paladins are FUN with this.
Use reach and you're now a lock down tank.
That seems really frustrating in combat but I can see this working as a neat puzzle.
Great vid, will definitely make some use of this.
Forgot to mention that you're immune to fear if you're all boozed up.
Zee, the pun of this video being released during this time is beneath you. I love it!
Jeez, Dice Ghosts is already a year old? That was some great work. This is great work too!
Undead Warlock and Oath of Vengeance Paladin multiclass is so much fun.
My cleric turned undead beside a sharp incline, and since the mob had to use its movement to get as far way as it could I took that literally and had him jump over a fence and down the hill. I love the roleplaying that comes from fear and forced turn movement. It made for a creative solution to a combat encounter that was turning south fast :)
The biggest source of fear for a party is the date they are having their next game.
Also, ending the frightened condition in of itself is an ability check, not a saving throw. That makes it even more difficult to remove the frightened condition
I hadn't ever considered several of these uses of the spell. Thanks!