Designing my own system; how to work the imposition of "fear" effects?

[Stormonu]

Perhaps you should go with:

Fear is the status, it has several levels
- Spooked
- Frightened
- Terrified

Creatures and effects can induce the fear status, and they can do so at various levels:

- Most creature/effects cause Fear, which takes the target to Spooked. Tag the ability as "Frightening", "Fearsome" or "Spooky". If you're already Spooked, causing more fear takes you to Frightened.
- "Frightening" creatures take targets straight to Frightened. If they're already Frightened, it moves them up to Terrified. A creature that causes Fear/Spooky has to cause to fail a check twice to move you up to Terrified.
- "Terrifying" creatures take you straight to Terrified.