Has anyone run into a balance issue with pc's use of terror? We have a rank 2 player who is now a Warlock who mows baddies down by essentially scaring them to death. I don't have any of the cards or his character here with me, but he has an spell that allows him to go all "large marge" and turn into a hideous monster causing fear. The warlock also has a career ability that allows him to convert fear into terror, so it is not at all unheard of for him to be dealing 8 wounds to all non-nemesis baddies in the room if they fail their saves- which they have to make every turn as he keeps it up. I do not want to suggest that we totally nerf it because he there are so many situations in some adventures where he cannot use this attack for fear a phalanx of witch hunters coming after him, and it also effects his allies too (one of these days I am going to fail a save an put an arrow in his back), so it's not like he has no blow-back.

I am just trying to think of some other options aside from stress and fatigue dealing wounds or taking away ACE dice that is still worth the effort he has gone into building up to this.

Perhaps instead of damage, ACE loss would be better. There are lots of ways to get creative with this..includint TEMPORARY damage

I cannot seem to find the spell, but dealing 8 wounds from terror (so he causes terror 4 I assume?) sounds really high. Amethyst wizards have a spell that causes fear (Death's messenger), but it does only cause fear 1 or 2, which can become terror if you roll a chaos star. So it normally it would only inflict 1-2 wounds, if the enemies fail at their discipline check.

It would be easier if you had the name of the spell.

Yea, just don't have it here. It causes fear 2 which warlock converts to Terror 2, so yea it is 4 wounds to every foe that fails their discipline check every turn he keeps it up. It does not sound like a lot, but considering it is an area affect that ignores all soak it gets nutty.

The last huge battle we had we should not have survived- 2 trolls, 2 ogres, and 2 orcs against our just 2 ranked party of a sword and board dwarf, an archer, a archer/thief, and the warlock. It was an encounter that the warlock forced us into by being way too impulsive. If we had used our typical ingenuity we should have been able to split that up into two encounters. In the end the thief was at -2 wounds with one crit, and the warlock was at -5 wounds with 2 crits, but we should have been utterly dead if not for the terror affect sapping so many wounds.

I would make it a morale check for the baddies, to see if they flee or have misfortune dice for being Demoralized (there's a condition for that, right?)

Only the occassional snotling should actually die of outright fright or terror.

Yea, just don't have it here. It causes fear 2 which warlock converts to Terror 2, so yea it is 4 wounds to every foe that fails their discipline check every turn he keeps it up. It does not sound like a lot, but considering it is an area affect that ignores all soak it gets nutty.

I have a few thoughts on that.

Firstly, the Fear and Terror rules both have the text "when a character first confronts a creature or situation with a Fear/Terror rating, he must attempt a Discipline check" (emphasis mine).

The rule can be found on page 90 in the Player's Guide.

So, when the Warlock uses the spell, all enemies roll for fear/terror, and those who fail suffer the 4 wounds. But regardless of if they fail or succeed, they do not roll on consecutive turns and do not suffer any additional stress/fatigue after the first check. If any new creatures enter the fight however, they should make a fear/terror check, as they confront the fear/terror causing warlock for the first time.

Secondly, I do believe that creatures that themselves cause Fear/Terror mitigate the effects of Fear/Terror. I might be wrong as I did a quick flip through my books now, but did not find this rule so I might be wrong.

For example, a troll that causes fear would downgrade the warlocks terror to fear. A dragon that causes terror would not roll at all.

According to the above the trolls in the encounter you described should probably only have suffered two wounds in total from the spell, as they roll only once and mitigate terror to fear. The orcs in the same encounter, who do not cause fear themselves, should only have suffered a maximum 4 wounds in total, provided that they failed their initial 2 difficulty terror checks (and as orcs have willpower 3, a fortune point in willpower and use two reckless dice on the check, they actually have a quite decent chance of success).

Yea, just don't have it here. It causes fear 2 which warlock converts to Terror 2, so yea it is 4 wounds to every foe that fails their discipline check every turn he keeps it up. It does not sound like a lot, but considering it is an area affect that ignores all soak it gets nutty.

I have a few thoughts on that.

Firstly, the Fear and Terror rules both have the text "when a character first confronts a creature or situation with a Fear/Terror rating, he must attempt a Discipline check" (emphasis mine).

The rule can be found on page 90 in the Player's Guide.

So, when the Warlock uses the spell, all enemies roll for fear/terror, and those who fail suffer the 4 wounds. But regardless of if they fail or succeed, they do not roll on consecutive turns and do not suffer any additional stress/fatigue after the first check. If any new creatures enter the fight however, they should make a fear/terror check, as they confront the fear/terror causing warlock for the first time.

We thought about that at the time (because the baddies only force a check when it is first seen), but the reason we did it as we did was because it was a spell that he was maintaining each round, and if it did not force a check each round then what is the point of being able to maintain it. It might have been the wrong call, but I think what I really need is all the relevent things that were used in the encounter before I go into it more.

Okay, I got a few of the deets wrong:

Spell: Death's Messenger

He casts it reckless, so on a single boon it becomes Fear 2, and with a Chaos Star he causes Terror 2 unselectively (anyone in line of sight).

The warlock ability allows him to add a chaos star to any result, which also grants him an expertise die in the Spellcraft Pool.

The spell says that while it is recharging the caster can cause fear, and what would be the point of keeping it up if it did not force new checks?

EDIT:

The more I read the description of fear and terror and how it is worded for creature descriptions, I think the mistake we were making was making it repeat. I guess the added time is for anyone that comes into the combat in that time.

I could only see a reason for it being maintained for social situations for intimidation reasons, which is why Terror would be a chaos star result. I gotta take my hat off to your player for creative use of the power though

That should balance things. It's still a creative and fun use of the spell, but it's not as powerful when you cannot repeat it.

EDIT:

The more I read the description of fear and terror and how it is worded for creature descriptions, I think the mistake we were making was making it repeat. I guess the added time is for anyone that comes into the combat in that time.

Yeah, that seems like the problem. After all, when you are fighting something frightening, you do not roll if you are frightened every turn. Either you are frightened by it, or you are not.

Cool, thanks all. Gonna go with this.

Had the same "problem" with Death's Messenger with a PC wizard in my group.

Since it is a spell and should behave different to the first-sight creature rule. we decided that, once a NPC saves against the fear/terror it gets stops being affected by stress/fatigue damage.

So while the check fails, stress/fatigue is applied.

It is still overpowered, but at least there is a chance to limited ongoing AOE damage.