Fear and Stress

An overwhelming foe or horrid monster doesn’t need magic or some supernatural ability to strike fear into the most stalwart adventurers. During any frightful encounter, you can call on a character to make a saving throw to resist being scared. The character must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the end of their next turn.

Any of the following circumstances might be reasons to have one or more characters make saving throws to resist being frightened:

• The character experiences one of their Seeds of Fear.
• An enemy is immune to the character’s attacks or spells.
• An enemy demonstrates it can deal enough damage to reduce a character to 0 hit points in one blow.
• A creature is alien or monstrous in ways the character never could have imagined.
• An object undermines a character’s understanding of reality.

Charging headlong into terrifying situations is the stock in trade for adventurers. Among the Domains of Dread, though, periods of respite between harrowing experiences can be rare. Even the hardiest adventurers find themselves worn down over time, their performance suffering as they struggle to cope with the dread and despair.

Various circumstances might cause a character stress. Stress can be tracked numerically as a Stress Score, increasing in trying situations and decreasing with care. At your discretion, a character’s Stress Score might increase by 1 when one of the following situations occurs:

• A tense, dramatic moment, especially one involving one of a character’s Seeds of Fear
• Every 24 hours the character goes without finishing a long rest
• Witnessing the death of a loved one
• A nightmare or darkest fear made real
• Shattering the character’s fundamental understanding of reality
• Witnessing a person transform into a horrid or unnatural creature

When a character makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, they must apply their current Stress Score as a penalty to the roll.

A character who spends an entire day relaxing or in otherwise calm circumstances reduces their Stress Score by 1 when they finish their next long rest.

The Calm Emotions spell effect used to suppress the Charmed and Frightened conditions also suppresses the effects of one’s Stress Score for the spell’s duration.

A lesser restoration spell reduces the target’s Stress Score by 1, and a greater restoration spell reduces a character’s Stress Score to 0.