Need Help With Fear Effects

[koolerkid2008]

I'm trying to create a character who has the ability to cause an enemy to imagine every possible way something can go wrong, terrorizing them with their own worst fears. I'm pretty sure the best way to display this is with Affliction, but I can't figure out which conditions best represent scaring the pants off someone, since 3E did away with the fear-related conditions that make people panic and run away. Can somebody help me out here?

[Murkglow]

Alot of them could work depending on how exactly you envision it working:

Dazed - The target is so frightened that they can barely move/attack and spend most of the time cowering/swatting at phantom images.
Entranced - The images are so horrific that they can do nothing but stare in terror though combat breaks the spell.
Fatigued - The fear is so stressful on their body that they become exhausted.
Hindered - They are so scared of their surroundings that they can't move forward quickly (every shadow or corner or inch of ground might have whatever they fear lurking).
Impaired - They are so scared of what they are seeing that they can't concentrate on what they are doing.
Vulnerable - They are so scared of the phantom images that they can't even defend themselves properly (maybe they are too busy closing their eyes/covering their ears/curled up in a ball).

And that's just the first degree conditions. Really most conditions could be made to work (the only one I can't think of a way to have happen is physical transformation, outside that I could make up an excuse for any of the others) it all depends on what you want to have happen.

[JDRook]

+1
Decide what you want fear to do and build toward that. The possibilities are pretty wide as Murkglow has meticulously pointed out.

Just as an example, if you wanted to recreate Fearsome Presence from 2e as closely as possible, it would probably be a Burst Area Affliction, possibly Sense-Dependent (to allow for that necessary interaction), with 1st Degree Impaired (Shaken), 2nd Degree Compelled (Run Away - Standard Action becomes one move action to run away every turn until resisted), and 3rd Degree Controlled (Panic, drop everything and run away in double moves until resisted). Using both Burst Area and Sense-Dependent it's 1 point per rank, just like the original Feat.

[King Snarf]

+1
Decide what you want fear to do and build toward that. The possibilities are pretty wide as Murkglow has meticulously pointed out.

Just as an example, if you wanted to recreate Fearsome Presence from 2e as closely as possible, it would probably be a Burst Area Affliction, possibly Sense-Dependent (to allow for that necessary interaction), with 1st Degree Impaired (Shaken), 2nd Degree Compelled (Run Away - Standard Action becomes one move action to run away every turn until resisted), and 3rd Degree Controlled (Panic, drop everything and run away in double moves until resisted). Using both Burst Area and Sense-Dependent it's 1 point per rank, just like the original Feat.

OR you could pick up the Talent Powers Profile.

[cenderme84]

Hi there,

so i want to create a similar character who "I'm trying to create a character who has the ability to cause an enemy to imagine every possible way something can go wrong, terrorizing them with their own worst fears" as above said. affliction will be the best but i want my character can do that power if he/she only can learn the opponent's fear so;
1) can i put mind reading power for a "sense fear"
2) how can it be linked. i mean if he sense enemy's fear than he can use affliction power.

Thanks...

[Murkglow]

1) Sure, you can have Mind Reading limited to fears.
2) I suppose Mind Reading and Affliction could be linked (you'd need to buy Perception Range on the Affliction or drop Mind Reading's range to match the Affliction's though). The bigger question is why would you want to? Is there a reason you want to be able to read their fear and attack at the same time? I mean you can say you're reading their fear to find out what to scare them with but that's really more of a descriptor rather then something you need to actually mechanically do. Still it is possible.

[cenderme84]

i mean there are 3 different powers player can use about enemy's fear but first player needs to learn what is/are enemy's fear. than he can activate other powers but not at the same time.

Now to think about it maybe i can use limited like "limited only know opponents fear"

[JDRook]

Does the PC really need to know what the subject fears?

In the Illusion Power Profile, they introduced a new Extra called Psychic that makes the effect appear the way the subject expects to perceive it. They specifically mention an example that is essentially the "psychic paper" from Doctor Who, with the subject perceiving the proper credentials without the PC (in this case, The Doctor) ever having to know what they are,* let alone what they look like.

You could apply that same logic to people's personal fears. So the PC could appear to the subject as a giant spider or a being made of fire or their 4th grade gym teacher without actually knowing exactly what the subject is imagining. That's basically all descriptor, while the Fear Effect itself (Affliction or whatever you are using) should work as it was bought.

If it was imperative that the PC know exactly what the fear looked like to the subject, a Limited and Linked Mind Reading would make perfect sense. The fact that both effects happen simultaneously is good, because then the order doesn't matter: does he read their mind to make the fear effect, or does the fear effect just happen and then he reads their mind to see it? This kind of thing is used in horror movies all the time and either one could be true, but ultimately it doesn't matter because the final effect is the same.


*of course, he usually improvises something based on how people respond to the paper, which could also work for the fear-based PC instead of automatically knowing the fear.

[cenderme84]

so when will it be like this;

mind readin X limited only fears (to know what is opponent's fears)
affliction Y ..... limited working only on known fears of target... linked to mind reading X

[JDRook]

so when will it be like this;

mind readin X limited only fears (to know what is opponent's fears)
affliction Y ..... limited working only on known fears of target... linked to mind reading X

This looks like a good build, but the Limits and Linked act a little funny the way you've put them together. Presumably both effects are resisted by Will. Linked Effects with the same resistance get a single attack check and resistance check, in this way behaving like one big power. So when a target makes one Will check to resist, successful resistance means neither effect works on him, and failure means they both do.

Now what happens if you have the exact same build with no limit on the Affliction? The exact same thing. The Link makes it so that both effects will always either work together or fail together. This means the Affliction Limit isn't really limiting; it's just a Descriptor for the Affliction (Target's Fears), and therefore not worth a discount.

Now if you did buy them as separate powers, both limits would work, but then you'd need a Standard Action to Mind Read, and then, once you knew the target's fears, a second Standard Action to use the Affliction, and you could never use the Affliction until you'd successfully read their mind.

So you can either choose between the linked power with no limit on the Affliction or two power that require two actions, but both with limits to make them cheaper.

[cenderme84]

Yeah you are absolutely right. I decided to go with different two powers not linked ones so if mind reading isn't succesfull the other won't work because of the limit. Thanks for your concern...