D&D 5E Fear spell HELP!!!

[Ancalagon]

Woa there, are some of you suggesting that the "fear cone" persists for the entire duration of concentration? So a goblin who wasn't in the area during the spell could, say, on round 3 walk into it and be affected too?

That is a *really big change* to how such spells have been run in the past. It wouldn't just affect fear. This really doesn't sound right at all! :O

 

[DEFCON 1]

Woa there, are some of you suggesting that the "fear cone" persists for the entire duration of concentration? So a goblin who wasn't in the area during the spell could, say, on round 3 walk into it and be affected too?

That is a *really big change* to how such spells have been run in the past. It wouldn't just affect fear. This really doesn't sound right at all! :O

Yeah, I think I have to agree with this. Fear is only a 3rd level spell after all. On top of that, if a caster would be able to keep this fear cone up perpetually throughout the 1 minute duration and keep trying to get enemies in it, it would have rules within the spell on how/why/what action you'd need to move the cone.

The fact that Fear does not have rules for moving the cone or talks about people entering the cone in a later round... seems to indicate that the blast of fear happens only once, and only affects in total those people within the 30' cone at the time of casting. The 1 minute duration to me tells us how long a Frightened individual can remain frightened so long as they are unable to break line of sight (10 rounds provided the caster maintains concentration.) Then at the end of 1 minute the Frightened individual stops being frightened, even if the caster maintained concentration the entire time.

 

[Lidgar]

The fact that Fear does not have rules for moving the cone or talks about people entering the cone in a later round... seems to indicate that the blast of fear happens only once, and only affects in total those people within the 30' cone at the time of casting. The 1 minute duration to me tells us how long a Frightened individual can remain frightened so long as they are unable to break line of sight (10 rounds provided the caster maintains concentration.) Then at the end of 1 minute the Frightened individual stops being frightened, even if the caster maintained concentration the entire time.

That does seem more in line with the power of a 3rd level spell. Going with this interpretation, the initial cone is instantaneous duration, and the fear affect is 1 minute (concentration). Probably the right way to run it, given there is no text about moving the cone or affecting new targets.