Not entirely automatic, A war mage can't cast 4th level spells until 8th level. In order for the fear effect to go off it has to damage them. Spell resistence/evasion/ being imune to fear would counter it.
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Fell Frighten is +2.
When an effect is intended to be applied more than once, the rules usually indicate so. That Doesn't make any since. And this is why. Does it say anything in the widen or enlarge feat that indicates that Widen Spells have there size increased for a single round? Of course not, that's absurd. Can you think of any other metamagic feat that only works on the first round? I can't. The only exception that I found to that rule is the Fell weaken Feat. It specificaly says that the strength damage doesn't stack with its self. Obviously they didn't want the Fell weaken feat to work round after on a damage over time spell, and the only way for them to prevent that since meta magic feats do work round after round is to specifically state that the effect from this metamagic feat does not stack. Thats the only true way of ensureing that the effect doesn't stack round after round. Obviously they do intend for the fell drain feat to stack because they said so in plain words. If they didn't intend for fell drain to stack with its self or work on damage over time spells they would have put a cap on it like Fell Weaken and they wouldn't have said "If the subject has at least as many negative levels as it has hit dice, it dies" . I don't think that they are taking about the situation that the monster already has gained negative levels from other means. This feat is no different from any other feat. Further more this feat has already been through the errata process and it came out squeaky clean on the other side :) Another example I have is the Fell Frighten spell. It says that it causes anyone not immune to fear effects to become shaken for 1 minute. At first glance it doesn't seem like this effect stacks with its self until you look closer at the rules. From the SRD... Shaken: Characters who are shaken take a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Frightened: Characters who are frightened are shaken, and in addition they flee from the source of their fear as quickly as they can. They can choose the path of their flight. Other than that stipulation, once they are out of sight (or hearing) of the source of their fear, they can act as they want. However, if the duration of their fear continues, characters can be forced to flee once more if the source of their fear presents itself again. Characters unable to flee can fight (though they are still shaken). Panicked: Characters who are panicked are shaken, and they run away from the source of their fear as quickly as they can. Other than running away from the source, their path is random. They flee from all other dangers that confront them rather than facing those dangers. Panicked characters cower if they are prevented from fleeing. 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 that means is, a character under the effects of a Fell frighten Melphs Acid Arrow would turn tail and run on the second round and flat out panic on the third. |