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As the DM, I had a creature use (successfully anyway) the first* Fear effect I've ever run. Additionally, another player suffered confusion (though it was only for 1 round, so they didn't have a noticeable issue with it.)

*(There have been others but the saves always passed.)

The player whose guy ran away was fairly frustrated by it and I fully understand the frustration; but I am not sure if there's any good way to do fear. I've seen the revised 3.5 options but I'm not sure just having -X penalties is interesting enough.

On the one hand, I fully understand losing agency and I've really thought through if there's any way to narrate it such that the player would *choose* to run away. On the other hand, this *is* the point of will-save abilities a lot of the time -> Crowd control the players.

The same player has been put to sleep before (a few times) but that has a means to escape it (such as shaking the player awake.)

I foresee using more Fear/Paralyze effects on occasion and while he was a good sport and is quite interested in Iron Will and maybe another feat to get around it; I still feel like this is one of those things that *someone* in the community has solved (and yet I can't find any StackExchange, Paizo, or AngryGM threads on the topic.)
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TL,DR - Do your players get used to it? Do you simply allow them saves each turn so they at least *can* come back?

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/fey/kelpie/

So the Kelpie is somewhere between "nearly completely ineffective" and "nigh guaranteed to kill a player of the appropriate level."

If the player would hold their breath, the kelpie will usually have to drown them for 25 rounds or more. While they offer no resistance; it's fairly strange since a Harpy (who has a similar ability that affects all the players) will probably kill you in a couple full-attack actions.

This makes me think "maybe the person who offers no resistance and is under the charm is not holding their breath"; but I doubt it.

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I do understand it'd be more interesting if it wasn't used as a singleton creature; but my goodness; how many combats last 25+ rounds? Certainly none that I've ever run (they usually start to drag if they make it to 10-15 in and I'd say that if they last 25 it's either very well designed or very badly designed; depending on if it's still entertaining.)

I am assuming the player holds their breath; but it's obviously such a giant power difference that the ability may as well not be there at that point. If it's "they don't hold their breath" then I'll need to be more careful (as will the players) in employing it.

Thanks!

EDIT: I guess a third option would be to start without holding their breath; in which the rounds are non-deterministic because they have to fail a check before they begin drowning; upping the time from 3 rounds to 7 or something; which starts to sound like what it should be.

So in my campaign I treat currency as actually magical -> distilled magic in coin form. What this does is provide an explanation as to why a guy has to put money "into" a piece of paper to create a scroll, to put money into crafting even when doing it themselves, etc; and why these things have value.

Regardless of what you think of that, I was thinking a new Cantrip for my party (who is in a town with no one to sell to) that "turns an item into gold" essentially, for the sake of getting the "currency" or "magic" out of it.

This cantrip is going to be discovered along part of the adventure and granted to the casters. That said, while Wizards and things can learn spells, divine casters just kinda.. have them if I understand right.

Given that, how do I "give" new (completely non-existent) spells to Divines? Is there a better way to do this?

Maybe I have to give them a "Midas Hammer" instead of a spell?

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Note: The nice thing about a Cantrip that allows you to do this, requiring concentration, etc, is that you can't then go Midas Hammer someone else's weapon and you know it won't work on Creatures and stuff; meaning the players will instantly understand its use, rather than a Midas Hammer offering solutions to encounters that is potentially overly easy.

Thanks!

So I started up another campaign recently (GM) and I had a creature hiding in plain sight (such as a Mimic.) A player wasn't sure, so they used a ranged attack (for very low damage) to see if it would do anything or if it was mundane.

I decided to not have it do anything. My thinking is that ambush creatures with a low move speed who really can only defend themselves (or catch prey) by waiting until other creatures are in range would need to be willing to "play dead" to be successful at times. I was then questioned after the session why the ranged attack didn't work. (NOTE: I didn't actually check to see if they bypassed its defenses as I didn't want to give anything away.)

EDIT: I'd note that real life things that "play dead" are Int 2 or so in Pathfinder; meaning Int 2 is sufficient (but possibly higher than needed) to do this IMO.

I think some creatures with sufficient speed (a 40speed Cat that is ambushing you, for example) would make total sense to run off; it's unlikely you can catch it, match its skill checks, or even care that much as long as you didn't get mauled. A Mimic, Ooze, or a variety of other extremely slow ambush hunters that only survive based on looking as inconspicuous as possible however; really seem like they'd just have to be willing to stay put until they were sufficiently damaged (say, 70% HP missing) because they would've evolved, been created, or otherwise exist based on the idea that if they flinch; they're dead.

Do you see this as reasonable and fair?
How would you play such critters if the party did a mundane attack?

NOTE: The encounter was in such an area as to entice them with a nearby dead's treasure; but was easily avoidable. IMO; I didn't force the conflict and instead allowed them to decide to approach the thing.

I swear that the other day as I was designing an NPC I found a Cleric Domain that heals ability damage(or so my memory would tell me.) I would be happy with an Oracle as well (or other classes just for my sanity.)

Is there a Cleric Domain or Archtype that has a Heal Ability Damage style ability?