Cause Fear on a Shaken Creature

[Vincent The Dark]

OK, so, besides the -2 to saves, a shaken creature, say by demoralize, can be set into fear and panic. If cause fear is used on it, and it succeeds, in this very situation, does the creature become panicked? What about if it fails, on a successful will save, is it frightened for one round (if there is a sufficient amount of time on the shaken condition)? Or is the -2 to saves the only real difference?

[Rynjin]

The creature should just become Frightened from Cause Fear. As far as I can tell, Fear conditions don't stack, you just take the strongest.

[Pinky's Brain]

Fear effects do normally stack ... and it's broken as hell. Which is why Paizo started making a lot of fear effects from classes and feats explicitly not stack. Unfortunately they didn't have this epiphany yet when adapting the core game, so magic gets a free pass :/

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/special-abilities#TOC-Fear

Quote:

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.

So yeah, cause fear can make a shaken creature frightened for 1 round (or 2 with a cheap metamagic rod of extend).

[Gauss]

CRB p563 Fear 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.

So, in your example, a Demoralized (shaken) target who is subject to Cause Fear (Frightened) and fails the save is Panicked until such a time when either the Demoralize or the Cause Fear no longer applies.

Summary:
Demoralize + Cause Fear (failed save) = Panicked
Demoralize + Cause Fear (successful save) = Frightened

- Gauss

[Rynjin]

Oh derp. Nevermind me then.

[Vincent The Dark]

Thanks