[SSM] So if they're mind-affecting fear effects.... [SPOILERS]


Rise of the Runelords

Liberty's Edge

...how do haunts interact with protection from evil? (I'm taking it as given that the house and the haunts it creates are evil.)

My gut reaction is that someone under protection from evil would get the save bonus against the haunts pretty much across the board, but the only effects that would actually be prevented entirely would be the suggestion style effects such as the compulsion to drag another PC out of the house in the Worried Wife haunt or the Suicide Compulsion in area B12. But there's at least one that is less clear cut - the Dance of Ruin (area B7). Is that a compulsion? An illusion? Something else? And is my general reading of the haunts correct?

Also, on a similar but distinct note, what happens if someone uses detect evil inside the house (or outside it, for that matter...)?


Protection from Evil

Thread One

Thread Two

Aura of Courage

From the above links, I think it's safe to say that a Paladin would be a-okay. Anyone else would be immune to compulsion/possession effects, but would otherwise gain just a +4 bonus for other fear-type effects.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

While all haunts are mind-affecting fear effects... they're not technically evil. They don't have an agenda, as do actual undead creatures. Haunts are more like traps than monsters, and traps aren't normally aligned. Therefore, protection from evil doesn't help much against them as regards saving throws, nor do they detect with detect evil. Haunts don't have mental ability scores, after all, and that's what you really need in order to have an actual alignment.

A haunt that duplicates an evil spell (one that animates dead, for example, or one that does a blasphemy effect) would radiate evil, but I don't think any of the Foxglove Haunts fall into this category.

THAT SAID: You could certainly make the argument that haunts ARE evil, especially since Vorel Foxglove (the force that enables the haunts in the manor) was certainly evil. In which case I'd say that the entire house radiates evil in a strong aura, and that the haunts themselves blend in with this effect. They're supposed to work like traps, and there's not really any spell that automatically lets you detect traps, after all.

Since protection from evil blocks mental commands, it would certainly block the suggestion style effects of the haunts, though.

Fear effects themselves aren't evil. But paladins are immune to them (and to haunts). Likewise, remove fear's a good spell to have in effect at all times in Foxglove Manor.

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