22 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

I haven't found fear checks to be all that debilitating in this system. Fear 3 vs Willpower 2/Discipline 1 only resulted in a short-term Setback, and Fear 3 isn't really all that common,

I'm not after "debilitating". But a persistent setback through an encounter can work to the advantage of the story, as it gives the narrative some mechanical impact. Flipping it around, the Fearsome talent is pretty effective. It doesn't always work, but my player at least is very glad when it does, especially now that he has 3 ranks.