Question about Horrific Doubles


Rules Questions


Are my allies subjected to the effects of Horrific Doubles, in particular, having to make a will save on sight to avoid being shaken? RAW, it seems very clear that, yes, they are subjected to the effects because they are "creatures," not "enemies", but it seems weird to me that a largely defensive personal spell would have negative effects on allies. Just looking for second opinions before I start Inspiring Courage and Removing Fear to clean up my mess...

Horrific Doubles:
You create several illusory doubles of yourself, where you and each image all seem slightly off or wrong in appearance. Treat this spell as mirror image, except as noted.

Each creature that can see the doubles must succeed at a Will save or become shaken for as long as it can see any of the doubles. A successful saving throw negates the shaken condition and renders the creature immune to the further effects of this spell (beyond the usual effects of mirror image). In addition, the first time a creature that failed its initial saving throw destroys one of the images, it must succeed at a Will save or its perception of the double shifts at the last second. The double takes on the face of the attacker, the face of a loved one, or some other equally disturbing image, causing the attacker to become frightened for 1 round and take 1d3 points of Wisdom damage from the traumatic shock. Both additional effects are mind-affecting fear effects, and spell resistance applies against them.

If your campaign uses the sanity system, a creature takes 1d8 points of sanity damage instead of Wisdom damage.


Yes, I would say they are affected. Disturbing images of someone they are close to could prove quite unsettling.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 32

I agree that allies are affected, which is a bummer.

This spell seems better suited to be used by the gm to buff their bad guys (or solo bad guys).


Grumpus wrote:

I agree that allies are affected, which is a bummer.

This spell seems better suited to be used by the gm to buff their bad guys (or solo bad guys).

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, it probably is best for a boss type. I think I'm going to suck it up and use it though, because I'd really like to combine it with Improved/Greater Dirge of Doom. If I can get it off before initiative, then I'll have time to either prevent the effect on my allies with Inspire Courage, suppress it with Remove Fear, or, next level, I can get rid of it with a Soothing Performance.

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