Do fear effects de-escalate as they expire?

[Larson di Slancio]

Suppose I have 3 spells that each cause shaken and I hit the same target with all 3. Based on the rules, they would stack as follows:

Spell A -> Target Shaken
Spell B -> Target Frightened
Spell C -> Target Panicked

I'm wondering, if one of those spells expires, does the target remain Panicked, or does he step down to frightened?

Fear Ability 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.

[LucasB]

No Target will stay panicked for as long as the duration. Once the panicked attribute is over you will have to restart the casting of spells a-b and c. So if you have someone shaken for 6 rounds you can get them up to frightened in the next 6 rounds. So frightenend would reset the durration ect as it is a new condition.

Larson di Slancio wrote:

Suppose I have 3 spells that each cause shaken and I hit the same target with all 3. Based on the rules, they would stack as follows:

Spell A -> Target Shaken
Spell B -> Target Frightened
Spell C -> Target Panicked

I'm wondering, if one of those spells expires, does the target remain Panicked, or does he step down to frightened?

Fear Ability 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.

[Samasboy1]

I would say yes. The simplest way to handle it is count the number and "level" of fear effects currently affecting the target each round.

So if A, B, and C all cause shaken; the target is panicked. When A, as the first spell cast, expires the target will be frightened as the are now only two stacking effects on him.