So I received my copy of Horror Adventures today and read through the new rules no where in the book does it address any changes to frightful presence with the new fear system or anything that was previously based on fear other than to say GM's decision. Made me go what? so will there be an Errata on this?
I feel like this is either an error on Paizo's part or just laziness I mean why introduce a new fear system and not adjust old fear based things to reflect it.
I am going to push forward with this house rule on frightful presence and the new fear system unless someone has a better idea or has seen something in the book that I haven't concerning it.
Frightful Presence:
This special quality makes a creature’s very presence unsettling to foes. Activating this ability is a free action that is usually part of an attack or charge. Opponents within range who witness the action may become affected by greater or lesser fear effects depending on their total hit dice. The range is usually 30 feet, and the duration is usually 5d6 rounds. This ability affects only opponents with fewer Hit Dice than the creature possessing this ability. An opponent can resist the effects with a successful Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the frightful creature’s racial HD + the frightful creature’s CHA modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature’s descriptive text). An opponent that succeeds on the saving throw is spooked by the creature’s frightful presence and is immune to further fear effects caused by that same creature’s frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failed save the opponents fear level is Horrified if the creature had 15 or more hit dice than the opponent, terrified if 10-14 more hit dice than the opponent, Frightened if 7-10 more hit dice than the opponent, scared if 5 or more hit dice than the opponent. In addition on a failed save an opponent must make a new will save each turn if they fail again they are staggered for one round each time they fail as long as the creatures frightful presence is in effect. If the opponent succeeds on their will save after initially failing their fear level is set to Shaken for the remainder of combat and are not subject to further fear effects from the creatures frightful presence for 24 hours.
Format: frightful presence (60 ft., DC 21); Location: Aura.
I don't really understand why Frightful presence would be modified at all?
The reason why it needs to be changed in my opinion
1. we now have seven stages of fear instead of 3 or really 2 since shaken may be a fear effect but things besides fear cause it in the core rules.
2. It has never made any sense that a character that is above level 9 would not be afraid of something like Cuthulu since it cannot affect anything above 9 hit dice at all as a base rule.
3. the new fear system does away with fear immunity telling you to downgrade the penalties by 2 levels not due away with it entirely which makes sense someone might be able to act even though they are terrified of something else but only a fool is competently immune to fear.
4. almost no creature in the bestiary's that has frightful presence is something you would throw at a party below level 9 anyway making the frightful presence aura at base pointless as written from the core rules.
5. Several fear effects in the game should take advantage of the new 7 stage fear system for the same reasons as frightful presence needs to be changed. If you cast a level 1 spell like Cause Fear which causes fear a character should not be immune to it with a 7 stage system just because they have 6 HD or more they should downgrade the effect with a 7 stage fear system it just makes more sense if nothing is immune to fear anymore and instead just downgrades it. The spell might still cause them to be spooked above a certain number of hit dice but it should still have some level of effect no matter how many hit dice the player character has if they fail their save.
Its like Paizo did not think through the rules changes or how it would be different with a 7 stage fear system that is what I am saying. Just because your character is a level 14 bad ass when a CR 25 ancient wyrm lands in front of you its frightful presence should still work to some degree maybe not enough to make you poo your pants and cower in fear but still affect you somehow. Otherwise what is the point of the aura; Also no matter what if a 150 ft. long dragon lands in front of you as a human being you are going to have some reaction just based on how big it is after all the entire party could fit in its mouth.