Penalty Stacking Question: Aura of Despair (Spiritualist) and Intimidate

[Axiem]

Intimidate to Demoralize causes the Shaken effect, which is a fear type effect.

Does this stack with the penalty from Aura of Despair, which is also a fear type effect?

"Fear" isn't a specifically listed bonus type, and these are different sources, but it kind of feels like they shouldn't stack. The despair aura seems to be a lesser version of shaken.

Thoughts?

[Ascalaphus]

It stacks:

Core Rulebook > Getting Started wrote:

Penalty: Penalties are numerical values that are subtracted from a check or statistical score. Penalties do not have a type and most penalties stack with one another.

(...)

Stacking: Stacking refers to the act of adding together bonuses or penalties that apply to one particular check or statistic. Generally speaking, most bonuses of the same type do not stack. Instead, only the highest bonus applies. Most penalties do stack, meaning that their values are added together. Penalties and bonuses generally stack with one another, meaning that the penalties might negate or exceed part or all of the bonuses, and vice versa.

So while they're both effects with the [fear] descriptor, that doesn't mean they're a typed penalty. They're not the same effect, so they can stack normally.

[Axiem]

Thanks for that. I both love and hate that basic rules can still be easily overlooked after playing this game for pushing 15 years, lol.