Toggle Theme

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules | GM Screen

 <- Return to All Rules (Group by Source)
<- Return to Fear

All Rules in Fear

+ An entry marked with this has additional sections within it.

Levels of Fear

Source Horror Adventures pg. 10
The existing rules for fear offer three levels of fear, each one represented by a condition: shaken, frightened, and panicked. The following system expands the various states of fear into seven levels, divided into two groups (lesser fear and greater fear). The three levels of lesser fear—spooked, shaken, and scared—cause you to take penalties, but you are still ultimately in control. The four levels of greater fear— frightened, panicked, terrified, and horrified—cause you to progressively lose control of your character.

When you are subject to a fear effect whose level exceeds your current fear level, your fear level increases to that level. If you are subject to a fear effect of a level equal to or lower than your current fear level, your fear level usually increases by one. However, multiple lesser fear effects can’t force you to progress from a lesser fear level to a greater one. If you are scared and are subject to an additional lesser fear effect, you are staggered for 1 round, rather than becoming frightened. You can, however, accept the frightened condition rather than be staggered while scared if you prefer (such as if you actually want to run away).

For example, Merisiel is exploring a haunted graveyard. Her GM declares she is spooked by her surroundings. She falls into a sinkhole filled with rotting corpses, which would also make her spooked. If she fails her Will save, her fear level increases to shaken. Later, after dealing with gruesome undead, she is scared and facing off against an evil cultist who casts doom, which causes the shaken condition, on her. If she fails her save against the spell, she is staggered for 1 round (rather than frightened), since shaken is a lesser fear effect.

Lesser Fear

Source Horror Adventures pg. 10
Fear begins as a shiver down your spine, but soon grows.

1. Spooked: The nature of your surroundings or events that you have witnessed makes you uneasy. You take a –2 penalty on saving throws against fear effects and on Perception checks, as your mind conjures potential horrors in every shadow. However, you are ready to face danger, and gain a +1 circumstance bonus on initiative checks.

2. Shaken: Fear has taken hold of you and you are no longer thinking or acting clearly. You take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.

3. Scared: You are noticeably afraid, jumping at shadows and easily panicked by odd sights and unexplained noises. You take all of the penalties of the shaken condition, except the penalty on saves against fear effects becomes –4. In addition, if being subject to a lesser fear effect would increase your fear level, you are staggered for 1 round instead.

Greater Fear

Source Horror Adventures pg. 10
At these levels, your fear begins to overwhelm you.

4. Frightened: You are so afraid that you must flee from the source of your fear. On your turn, you must move away from any source of fear you perceive. Once you can no longer perceive any source of fear, you can act as normal, but you still take all the penalties of the shaken condition. You can use special abilities, such as spells and equipment, to flee and must resort to such abilities if they seem like the only way to escape. If you flee from the source of your fear and it later reappears while you are still frightened, you must immediately begin fleeing again. If unable to flee, you can fight.

5. Panicked: This functions as the frightened condition, but you drop anything held whenever you are forced to flee and you flee in a random direction. In addition, you treat all sources of danger as fear sources and must flee from them as well. If unable to flee, you cower in fear.

6. Terrified: This functions as panicked, but you do not treat any other character as an ally and thus must attempt saving throws against spells that allow them, even if the spells are beneficial. If unable to flee, you cower in fear. In addition, once you have fled from fear, you do not act as normal. Instead, each round you roll on the following table to determine your course of action.

d%Result
01-25Continue to flee, moving away from any known source of danger.
26-50Find a place nearby to hide, using Stealth as normal. You do nothing until you are discovered (and forced to run again) or you are no longer terrified.
51-75Lash out at the nearest creature, even an ally, attacking it with whatever weapon is available.
76-100Do nothing. If you get this result in two consecutive rounds, you no longer need to roll on this chart starting on the third round and can act as normal unless you encounter a source of fear or danger, in which case you are still terrified and act accordingly.


7. Horrified: You are transfixed with fear and can take no actions. You take a –2 penalty to your AC, are flat-footed (even if you normally cannot be), and are considered helpless.