Alienist phobia: how to improve?

[Cheiromancer]

I want to have crunch to back up the role-playing of an alienist character. If an alienist has a phobia of centipedes, I want a giant centipede to be genuinely threatening. If he has a fear of birds, I want him to flee when his friend the druid turns into an eagle. In other words, I want his fear of that kind of creature to be a rational response to the situation.

I don't really think that the rules in Tome and Blood are harsh enough. So what would be some good alternatives?

 

[physics_ninja]

I use the various levels of fear:

Shaken: -2 moral penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks

Frightened: as shaken, but will flee until out of sight or hearing, or fight if unable to flee.

Panicked: as shaken, plus will flee, or cower if unable to, plus a 50% chance to drop held items.

A minor phobia is shaken, a major phobia is frightened, and a crippling phobia is panicked.

This is simple and provides unambiguous rules for what happens during phobia producing situations.

 

[Cecil]

I like some of this concept--but off the cuff, here's what I would do:

Frightened: if forced to fight, morale penalty increases to -4.

I would add one higher level of fear: Paralyzed--the mind simply seizes up--character can take no action whatsoever. No fleeing--character simply goes catatonic.

I would provide a save against some of these effects, with more severe phobias requiring a higher DC. When a phobia is developed, one also needs to identify the level of the phobia--how frightened can the character become?

Willpower can allow the character to face his fear--but not entirely push it aside. So, if a person is afraid of birds to the point where he will flee in panic (panicked level), I would allow the character to make a save (not sure of DC).

If extremely successful (saves by 7+), then I would treat him as shaken. If the save was merely successful, then he is frightened. If the save is failed, he panics. I might have a roll of one possible induce the worst type of fear (paralysis) but would have to consider this more than a simple off-the-cuff ruling.

Note: if the character is exposed to his phobia unexpectedly (ie, opens a door and a bird flies out in his face), I would probably add 5 to the DC.

Now....I'll have to go see what Tome and Blood said and see how far off I would be from canon.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I use the various levels of fear:

[snip]

This is simple and provides unambiguous rules for what happens during phobia producing situations.

Very good point. But it is so much more fun to actually inspire fear in the player, rather than in the character.

I find that players don't like uncertainty. So I'm wondering if a little table of random results might work. This is just brainstorming- balancing and simplifying is for later. Maybe work it on the basis of spell effects:

Roll 2d10: Character...

2...... freezes in in fear: treat as hold person
3......finds situation hysterically funny: treat as hideous laughter
4......gibbers incoherently: cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components.
5.......shakes uncontrollably: as grease on all held items.
6...... acquires hysterical blindness (as the spell) blindness.
7......can't concentrate on spells: +20% arcane spell failure.
8......can barely move: treat as slowed.
9......can't defend himself: -10 competencel penalty to AC.
10.....is shaken.
11.....becomes enraged (as barbarian rage), and attacks object of fear in hand to hand combat.
12.....is dazed for one round- roll again next round.
13.....roll twice
14.....becomes mentally unbalanced: 1 point of ability damage to wisdom, intelligence and charisma.
15.....goes weak- loses 8 points of strength as if from ray of enfeeblement
16.....DM's choice
17.....Spellcasting frenzy- cast one spell per round (if longer casting time, spell is lost) starting from highest level of spells.
18.....Faints (as sleep spell, no hit dice limit)
19..... is nauseated.
20.....loses his mind: treat as feeblemind

I would allow progressively more difficult saves to avoid having to roll on the table- this would allow frantic activity on the part of the player to either retreat from the object of the phobia, or to destroy it. Most of the common table results still allow some kind of action, so it still leaves the player with something to do.