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D&D 5e: Using the Frightened Condition Strategically
16K views
Sep 30, 2022
Follow along here: https://www.flutesloot.com/the-frightened-condition/?utm_source=youtube Since fright can be expressed and mechanized with greater potency in 95% (ish) of D&D games, I’ve decided to make a video about it. As you watch, consider how you can roleplay fright and strategically use it. This also applies to instilling dread that isn’t mechanical, not a condition. DM’s aren’t exempt from this message because they need to learn how to make their NPC’s scared sometimes instead of always expressing smugness towards the players even while at death’s door. --------- 🎈 Shop our loot on Redbubble: flutesloot.redbubble.com 🎈 Cast Friendship on Flutes Loot: 📱Twitter: https://twitter.com/Flutes_Loot 📘Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flutesloot 📸Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flutesloot 📌Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/flutesloot 👀Read more articles: https://www.flutesloot.com?utm_source=youtube Affiliate Links (a portion of sales provide gold to our coffers)! 💰 • 📔Players Handbook (D&D 5e): https://amzn.to/2PAeJW7 • 😈Monster Manual (D&D 5e): https://amzn.to/2PWuLJI
View Video Transcript
0:00
Something came up last minute, and I need to cancel our session for this month
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I'm going to be an hour late and forget my character sheet
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I'm going to watch YouTube during combat when it's not my turn without headphones
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Hey, looters, Flutes here again. Today I want to talk to you about the frightened condition in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition
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and how it's an underrated, underused condition that I can help you use more effectively in your games
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Stay tuned. So first of all, what does the frightened condition do
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One, creatures can't move closer to you while frightened of you. And two, creatures who have line of sight of you and are frightened of you
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cannot attack without disadvantage, and they can't perform skill checks without disadvantage
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It is notable that this cannot be prevented the line of sight from them just like averting their eyes
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It's line of sight is more of a, you have a line between you and them
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If they take total cover, then there's no line of sight. This is evidenced by like the Medusa monster and how it says specifically you can
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avert your eyes to try to avoid her petrifying gaze. Other effects of fear do not say that
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Many frightened conditions are also based on being a kind of charm
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and so they often say that if a creature can't be charmed or has resistance to charm effects
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that they may not be able to be frightened because of the nature of the different spells or whatever is causing the fear
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So make sure you read your spells and think twice if you're using it on an elf
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The fear spell, which is probably what comes to mind first when you think of the frightened condition
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also has an added effect. Many frightened spells and effects have an added bonus
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other than just the frightened condition. And the big one with the fear spell
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is that it causes them to drop whatever they are carrying. Their weapons, their arcane focuses, who knows
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But there may be many useful things that you can cause people to drop and then they have to run away from you
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And so use the fear condition to try to take what they have
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Here are the spells that elicit fear and cause the frightened condition
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condition. Eight-level enchantment, antipathy, sympathy. First-level necromancy cause fear. Sixth-level necromancy
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eye-bite, one of its options involves fear. Third-level illusion, fear, which I mentioned before
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Hallow, fifth-level evocation. Illusory dragon, the eighth-level illusion spell, can cause fear like a
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dragon does. Fantasmal killer, fourth-level illusion involves being frightened. Seventh-level abjuration symbol has a fear effect. Weird, ninth level illusion spell, which is not a good spell, but it
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does cause fear. And wrathful smite, which for the oath of conquest paladin, uh, they're definitely
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going to want to use that, which I just made a video about. There are also spells that counteract
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fright and work against it. Orra of purity, fourth level abjuration, calm emotions, second level
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enchantment, dispel evil and good, fifth level abjuration, hollow, fifth level evocation
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Heroes Feast, Six-Level Conjuration. Heroism, first-level enchantment. Magic Circle, third-level abjuration. Powerword heal, ninth-level evocation
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Purge you of frightened conditions. Protection from evil and good, first-level abjuration
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So those are the spells that involve fright whether it be using it or preventing it There are also a few racial traits that involve fright Halflings have advantage on saving throws against being frightened because of their brave feature
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Dragonboring characters can choose to take the dragon fear feat. It's a racial feat from Xanthor's Guide to Everything, turning their breath weapon into a fear effect
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And Fallen Asimar can use their necrotic shroud ability to elicit fear
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There are also class features that involve fright. Berserker barbarians have mindless rage
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Berserker barbarians also have intimidating presence. Bards have counter charm, which is not a great ability
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but it does counteract against fright if the fright uses charms. College of Whisper's Bards can use words of terror
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Druids Circle of the Land become immune to the frightened condition when it is caused by elementals and fake creatures, so something there
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Battlemaster fighters can use menacing attack. Monks have stillness of mind that can be used to purge frightened conditions
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conditions and paladin's aura of courage prevents nearby allies from becoming frightened
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Paladins with the oath of vengeance can use channel divinity abjure enemy to frighten them
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Vengeance paladins also have their level 20 capstone ability avenging angel that causes enemies to
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become afraid. The paladin oath of conquest that I mentioned earlier is all about the frightened
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condition and has several oath spells that can induce fright. Hunter Rangers have a defensive
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tactic choice called steel will that can give them advantage against. saving throws that would frighten them
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Draconic ancestry sorcerers have the draconic presence ability that can cause awe and fear in enemies
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Warlocks who make pacts with fay creatures have the Faye presence ability that can cause fright
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followed by the dark delirium, which also causes fear. If a warlock chooses pact of the chain, the warlock can use a quasset as a familiar
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and the quasset possesses a fear ability. Lastly, I want to talk about two things
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One is using fear in combat, and two is role-playing fear. So let's start with the combat tactics
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It is notable that many frightened effects or fear effects do not allow repeated saving throws after the initial failed saving throw
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Like many spells, it's like at the end of their turn they can repeat the saving throw while the spell is persisting
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A lot of frightened spells don't say that. They don't get repeated saving throws
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It's just about them trying to move away from you. And so it's often if they can move very far away from you that the spell or the frightened effect may end
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end. Either the spell would end on them or they just cease to be hindered by it, the frightened
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condition. And so you want to keep them in close while they're frightened. And feats like the
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sentinel feet can cause them to take opportunity attacks and have their movement speed reduced
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so they are stuck nearby you. For example. Additionally, the frightened condition does not
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count as like compelled movement. And so a creature moving away from you and your
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allies while they are frightened as they try to run away, they will still provoke opportunity attacks
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So you could potentially just like keep dashing to stay up next to some frightened creature and just keep
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hitting them with opportunity attacks as they keep trying to get away from you, but you're like keeping it in pace with them. You and your allies could all just chase down someone in this way
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and it could be a comical victory. Keep in mind if there are a lot of opportunities for foes to get
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behind total cover, that they may be able to get behind there and reduce
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or even remove the frightened condition and the detriments that they are suffering because of it
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It may still limit their ability to interact in combat with your allies
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but they are getting that total cover and so you need to just consider that If you trying to frighten a bunch of foes and there a lot of opportunities for cover just make sure that you not doing an effect that will allow them to like end the spell by like getting out a line of sight of you
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You can also just cause a swarm of foes to be split and make them into more bite-sized groups
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Because let's say half of them fail a saving throw against a fear effect
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they're going to be compelled to run away while the others want to stay and fight. And then the others that run away, once they get far enough away, they might end the spell
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but then they got to dash back. And so even if they deal with the spell
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they still lose like two turns minimum, like dashing back and forth potentially
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Keep in mind that many fear effects based on spells do require concentration
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So if you're going to focus on those sorts of battlefield control spells of using the frightened condition with those concentration spells
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don't plan for too many other concentration spells or don't prepare too many others
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Mix up the spells that you are planning as you're, concentration spells will be focusing on fright, and then your other spells might be focused on
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damage. And don't forget the skill checks that people will have disadvantage on while they are
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frightened. That includes skill checks for things like counterspell or dispel magic. So think about what
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are some skill checks that you might want them to have disadvantage on? Grapling. If you can grapple
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them, they have disadvantage to resist it, and then they can't move away from you. So then you're just
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free to wail on them while they're frightened and peeing their pants and screaming. So the frightened
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condition can be very impactful to fights, both for the disadvantage it imposes on attack
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roles and skill checks, as well as the limitation to movement. Watch out for monsters that are immune
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to charm effects or resist them, or immune to the frightened condition, because that may disappoint
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you for obvious reasons. So how do you role play that your character feels dread? You want to be
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descriptive. You want to talk about how they are physically reacting to their fear
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Mention, like, the hairs standing up on the back of their neck, the cold sweat they go into
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the shaking of their hands as they just can't quite compose themselves. Those are the sort
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of descriptions you want to give. Their mouth goes dry, tears well up in their eyes. They find
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their feet moving as if with a mind of their own to get away from the source of the fear
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This will help you as a player when you as a player are not really afraid, but you're trying to
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role play that your character is afraid. And a lot of people don't like to roleplay that because it makes their character that they see
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as like the coolest and best, bravest person. It makes them seem less brave
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But this is just a fear effect that's usually imposed magically. So just ham it up, you know, really play up the fear that you're feeling, you know
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Do your like this kind of stuff like, eh, yeah, try to keep away, you know, like a little kid trying
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to like smack attack things, you know. You lose your composure and your skill when you are frightened and that's where the disadvantage comes from
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Fear is based on the perceptions of the mind. Psychologist Carl Jung said it all depends on how we look at things and not how they are in themselves
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And that's really what fear is. Like, it doesn't mean that something is necessarily truly frightful, but you have perceived it to be completely frightening
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Roleplay things almost as if it's not a magically imposed frightened condition or like some monster ability
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You know, treat it like your character really is frightened. Like, you can do that, especially in a horror campaign like Curse of Straw
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which I'm running right now, I really love to try to get the feeling of dread in the players
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but I like when they roleplay that dread in their characters, and they like really say like
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ooh, like that, you know, like they describe it for their character, but then their character
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actually like says something about how they feeling Like that a great way to roleplay the frightened condition or just being afraid You don have to have the frightened condition imposed on you to be afraid or mention when something is disturbing Fear is actually a healthy part of life
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There was an episode of The Office that was their Halloween episode where Robert California actually lays down some wisdom and he says
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Fear plays an interesting role in our lives. And I'll pause real quick
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The quote, the whole episode was about people like being too afraid of certain things happening in their lives like
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their relationships being ruined, that it causes them to cling to those relationships and see
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their value. And so fear teaches you what you value. So back to the quote, fear plays an interesting
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role in our lives. How dare we let it motivate us? How dare we let it into our decision making
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into our livelihoods, into our relationships? It's funny, isn't it? We take a day a year to dress up
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in costumes and celebrate fear. And so close quote, he's talking about Halloween. Fear is just part of
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life and it is something to embrace. And so with your role-playing and your characters
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embrace it there as well. It's okay for your characters to become frightened. And it is
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if you don't want it to be like a disadvantage to you in combat of like your character
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dropping to their knees and hyperventilating, maybe after you've dealt with a monster and like
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the bravery and adrenaline wears off, your characters drop to their knees and just freak out from
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what just happened and what they encountered. And maybe they're a little like prone to like wanting to be
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alone for a little bit. And so it doesn't have to be like you suffering in combat or in some other
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encounter. You could do it afterwards or leading up to it. While you are afraid, describe your
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characters' successes and failures in that context. When there's a success, describe how they kind of
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get like, you know, like breathe in with a little bit of a smirk like, oh, maybe things are going to be
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okay. Or if they fail, their eyes go wide and maybe they swear or they, they, you know, they
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otherwise tell people like, we got to get out of here. This is a losing battle
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You know, like, it's in my head. You know, those sorts of comments can really describe those failures as well
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If you want a movie example of true fright being imposed on someone for you to picture
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look at Batman begins and how the scarecrow like drugs people with that little dust mist
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whatever he throws in people's faces. And they just start like tweaking out and they start seeing things that aren't there
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That's also part of it. Like going back to Carl Jung's quote about, it's about the perception of what we are
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fearing. And so if you are under the frightened condition, don't just say, oh, I'm suddenly afraid of this, like
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child sorcerer that cast fear on me. Suddenly that, in your eyes, the child becomes 20 feet tall and has
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laser beam eyes. You know, there's so many ways to describe how your character is, their perception is
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altered. Play it up and have fun, role-playing fear. And that's all I have for you today about the
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frightened condition. There's a lot to it tactically as well as flavor-wise for role-playing. Embrace
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fear this Halloween and even when it's not Halloween time and get out there and play some D&D
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Let me know of times in the comments below, cast message down there, of times when you were
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as a player, feeling the dread of a campaign that your DM just did a really good job making
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you feel the horror ambiance. I'll probably make a video about that pretty soon as well
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And let me know other times when your character was genuinely afraid or used the frightened
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and condition to great effect. We all love to share our D&D stories, so please share them
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Again, happy Halloween. That's all I have for you today. See, looters. Have a great one
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