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<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7478141" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!I say...&quot;What kind of 'fear' do you want/use in your game?&quot;. There are three types of fear in my book:1. &quot;TV Show Fear&quot; - This is fear that is more &quot;startling&quot; or &quot;briefly terrifying&quot;. After the initial BOO!, the characters quickly accept it as an obstacle and will 'happily' fight it toe-to-toe. All manner of reasoning can be used for this. Heroics, desperation, &quot;it's just not that scary after the first couple seconds&quot;, etc.2. &quot;Scooby-Doo Fear&quot; - This is fear of the unknown coupled with &quot;startling&quot;. It lasts longer and is more pronounced up until the point when the characters realize what they are actually 'fighting'. At that point, they don't fear it as an 'unknown' thing...&quot;Oh, it's not a phantom clown...it's old man Withers from the abandoned amusement park!&quot;.3. &quot;Cthulhu Fear&quot; - This is the fear of the unknown coupled with a stark realization that what the character is facing is not meant to be known and is not likely to ever be known. There is no point of reference for the character to &quot;rationalize&quot; fighting it (&quot;oh, it's a ghost...we need iron weapons...get 'em!&quot; /// &quot;oh, NOW we see...it was old man Withers with lights, fog and wires...that explains everything&quot;).IMHO, I use 2 with occasions of 3, depending on the adventure, PC's, campaign and game system. As we are talking about 5e here, I'll go with that; which pretty much puts it to #2. Using this gauge, I'd put turning Ethereal as &quot;blocks LOS&quot;. I would say that because turning Ethereal is a &quot;known&quot; thing, and if/when a PC sees this...frightened or not...they have more info about what they are fighting. And as everyone knows, the more you know about something, the less frightening it becomes. It's not so much &quot;RAW&quot; so much as it is &quot;RAI&quot; when looked at through the lens of D&amp;D - &quot;Monsters? Ghosts? Demons? Yeah...been there, done that. What's next?&quot;. The psychology of D&amp;D PC's (and NPC's) isn't...hmmm... lets just say it isn't &quot;realistic&quot;. If a real person was put in situations where they are a second away from being killed in a slow and horrible way...and then it happens...multiple times...but 'magic' brings them back from death (or even the brink of it...) adventurers would be seriously MESSED UP (re: &quot;Thanks man! Last I remember was being enveloped completely by the ooze, unable to breath, being crushed, trying desperately to hold the breath that I had, and feeling my skin start to dissolve away while I was unable to move. Thanks for the Healing Word, cleric!&quot;).So...yeah. I think 5e is Scooby-Doo fear. A bit more scary than TV fear, but definitely not Cthulhu level fear. Ergo...&quot;Ethereal = loss of LOS&quot;, so to say. Is it RAW? Probably not. But then again, the Rules of the Game are not meant, expected or even desirable of being followed to the letter in every situation. Use them as a guideline for running a game you want to run. For me, 5e &quot;fear and psychology&quot; is on the Scooby-Doo level.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pming, post: 7478141, member: 45197"] Hiya! I say..."What kind of 'fear' do you want/use in your game?". There are three types of fear in my book: [B]1. "TV Show Fear"[/B] - This is fear that is more "startling" or "briefly terrifying". After the initial BOO!, the characters quickly accept it as an obstacle and will 'happily' fight it toe-to-toe. All manner of reasoning can be used for this. Heroics, desperation, "it's just not that scary after the first couple seconds", etc. [B]2. "Scooby-Doo Fear"[/B] - This is fear of the unknown coupled with "startling". It lasts longer and is more pronounced up until the point when the characters realize what they are actually 'fighting'. At that point, they don't fear it as an 'unknown' thing..."Oh, it's not a phantom clown...it's old man Withers from the abandoned amusement park!". [B]3. "Cthulhu Fear"[/B] - This is the fear of the unknown coupled with a stark realization that what the character is facing is not meant to be known and is not likely to ever be known. There is no point of reference for the character to "rationalize" fighting it ("oh, it's a ghost...we need iron weapons...get 'em!" /// "oh, NOW we see...it was old man Withers with lights, fog and wires...that explains everything"). IMHO, I use 2 with occasions of 3, depending on the adventure, PC's, campaign and game system. As we are talking about 5e here, I'll go with that; which pretty much puts it to #2. Using this gauge, I'd put turning Ethereal as "blocks LOS". I would say that because turning Ethereal is a "known" thing, and if/when a PC sees this...frightened or not...they have more info about what they are fighting. And as everyone knows, the more you know about something, the less frightening it becomes. It's not so much "RAW" so much as it is "RAI" when looked at through the lens of D&D - "Monsters? Ghosts? Demons? Yeah...been there, done that. What's next?". The psychology of D&D PC's (and NPC's) isn't...hmmm... lets just say it isn't "realistic". If a real person was put in situations where they are a second away from being killed in a slow and horrible way...and then it happens...multiple times...but 'magic' brings them back from death (or even the brink of it...) adventurers would be [I]seriously MESSED UP[/I] (re: "Thanks man! Last I remember was being enveloped completely by the ooze, unable to breath, being crushed, trying desperately to hold the breath that I had, and feeling my skin start to dissolve away while I was unable to move. Thanks for the Healing Word, cleric!"). So...yeah. I think 5e is Scooby-Doo fear. A bit more scary than TV fear, but definitely not Cthulhu level fear. Ergo..."Ethereal = loss of LOS", so to say. Is it RAW? Probably not. But then again, the Rules of the Game are not meant, expected or even desirable of being followed to the letter in every situation. Use them as a guideline for running a game you want to run. For me, 5e "fear and psychology" is on the Scooby-Doo level. ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]

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