Fear mechanics

[Kristoffer O]

> In my tests, it was shown that not only does the Fear effect not just produce its own isolated rolls, but it rapidly deteriorates the Morale of adjacent units. This effect is cumulative over at least 3 rounds of exposure, and is measurably far greater than the Morale deterioration seen without Fear active. For this reason, many people consider Fear + Awe to be invaluable, and my testing confirms that it is incredibly powerful - perhaps too powerful. -- Just a recap, the manual does not state that the Fear does anything other than force a check, but it does reduce Morale as well.

As I said, an omission.

> My own tests had implied the same, that there is something awry with the Fear radius. It DOES describe it as "additional" squares, which says to me that it works the same as AOE spells do, but does that mean that Fear+0 radiates to only the 8 squares surrounding the monster, and that each point after that only adds 1 square? If so, then at Fear+12 you would finally get a full radius of 2 around your monster, however even with a Fear +20 PoD, I was hard pressed to find units that were not adjacent, that had measurably lowered Morale scores.

It is 12 random squares close to the fear inspiring one, not necessarily the squares surrounding him.

It might distribute lik this (X=targeted square, M=monster)

OXOOO
XXXXO
XXMXX
OOXOO
OOXOO

I think it targets a square, and if that one is already targeted it tries to target a random neigbopring square of the first attempted square

[Zeldor]

JimMorrison:

What do you mean by strength? Isn't it AoE of Fear increased every 5 levels of Fear and every point of fear making it harder to resist?

[Kristoffer O]

> Fear value is aoe, not power - With fear 14 my monster should have had a fear radius of 20 (6+14) but the only units with reduced morale were directly adjacent.

This might be due to the fact that units regain morale every turn. Thus units not adjacent might have their morale restored to their normal value before it is comes into effect. Units closer to the fear source get their morlae lowered enough that they never have time to regain it, making it appear as if they were the only ones affected.

[Edi]

It's the other way around. AOE is increased for every point and resistance penalized for every 5 points. Otherwise it would be insanely powerful.

[Zeldor]

Empowering or getting D booster increases fear?

[Kristoffer O]

Yep

[Kristoffer O]

> I haven't seen individual units rout, just groups

A group is a unit, as is an individual

[Edi]

Units with no innate fear gain Fear(+0) at D5 and every subsequent D level increases the fear by 1. Units with Fear(+0) or more natively get an immediate boost from Death magic.

[thejeff]

I've never noticed units regaining morale on their own. Admittedly, I've never run tests looking for it.

Standards are the counter to fear, since they'll continually boost morale up to base + their bonus. Working much like fear, but in the other direction.

[JimMorrison]

Zeldor said:
JimMorrison:

What do you mean by strength? Isn't it AoE of Fear increased every 5 levels of Fear and every point of fear making it harder to resist?

This notion of resisting is complicated.

As far as I can tell, Fear reduces morale, consistently, and constantly. The implication of what I've seen, is that the effect of having morale reduced, is irresistible.

If when people are talking about resisting, they are referring to making successful morale checks, then this is a bit misleading as well. Since next turn the morale continues to deteriorate, and morale checks are automatic every turn, it starts to seem more that the unit is just "withstanding" the Fear. The actual Fear effect still occurs, morale continues to deteriorate.


And KO, this seems like more than an omission. The problem is that all that we're observing only corroborates what we can observe, and not what is in the manual at all. Also, it might be worthwhile to take a look and see what is actually happening - if the Fear effect reduces morale AND raises the opposing roll, then it is effectually twice as strong as implied. That is, Fear +5 reduces morale by an additional point, and raises the opposing roll by 1 as well, giving an effective balance of a 2 point shift. Also, even Fear +0 will reduce morale by more than 1 point. You can watch it go down each round, though perhaps not as swiftly as with a stronger Fear, but stronger Fear drops morale by more than 2 points etc as well. It looked like the cap might be 5 or 6, but that is a huge amount, it basically means that some less disciplined units can practically be auto-routed by a D10 PoD, even before you start adding a Horror Helm or whatever.