[Spiritualist] Can Horrifying Strike (at level 1) Frighten in situations where it isn't stacking with itself?


Rules Questions

Second Seekers (Roheas)

I had a corner case come up tonight wherein an orc who had already been affected by a Dazzling Display with hit with a Fear Phantom's Horrifying Strike.

For reference:

Dazzling Display wrote:
Benefit: While wielding the weapon in which you have Weapon Focus, you can perform a bewildering show of prowess as a full-round action. Make an Intimidate check to demoralize all foes within 30 feet who can see your display.
Demoralize with Intimidate wrote:


If you are successful, the target is shaken for one round. This duration increases by 1 round for every 5 by which you beat the DC. You can only threaten an opponent this way if it is within 30 feet and can clearly see and hear you. Using demoralize on the same creature only extends the duration; it does not create a stronger fear condition.
Horrifying Strike wrote:
If the phantom hits a creature with a slam attack, that creature must succeed at a Will Saving Throw (DC = 10 + 1/2 the phantom's Hit Dice + the phantom's Charisma modifier) or be shaken for 1d4 rounds. Multiple attacks against the same creature do not cause the creature to become frightened.

It seems to me that Horrifying Strike is not meant to stack with itself and neither is demoralize. The question is whether they can stack with each other. My inclination is the RAW, they do stack and cause frightened since the rules simply say that this effect does not stack with itself.

But RAI, I feel like they shouldn't because those are both written in such a way to prevent such a strong effect at such an early level and this shouldn't be allowed.

My question for all of you is how should I have adjudicated this (RAW vs RAI) and is my RAW even correct in the first place. I ended up allowing it since it was PFS and thus RAW is king, but I have my doubts about my ruling.

The players weren't even going for this combo, it was just something that ended up happening thanks to the abilities at my weekly PFS table but I thought it raised an interesting corner case.

Second Seekers (Roheas)

up


Fear effects from different sources as I understand them should exacerbate the victim's fearfulness. Shaken --> Frightened --> Panicked, etc. 1st level between Dazzling Display and horrifying strike takes two protagonist's actions to attain the same result as a failed saving throw against cause fear, a 1st level spell for just about every caster in the game.

Seems kosher to me.


No, both of these just make you shakened. As it says in the text. Some fear effects just raise your fear up a stage in general, but both of these are just meant to put them into a shaken state.

This is reinforced by the fact that you need disheartening display (upwards compatible feat with dazzling display, needs BAB+6 ) to make shakened opponents frightened/panicked/cowering. And even then, it only works on any single opponent 1/day. And that is with intimidate.

This is further reinforced by the fact that you get an ability as a spiritualist that explicitly amps up feat in a similar way at level 7, with Increase Fear.


You're overlooking the universal rules regarding fear effects:

Rules wrote:


Becoming Even More Fearful: Fear effects are cumulative. A shaken character who is made shaken again becomes frightened, and a shaken character who is made frightened becomes panicked instead. A frightened character who is made shaken or frightened becomes panicked instead.

What you're quoting is for the same ability (Intimidation to demoralize) escalating up the fear ladder.

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