Frightened condition guide in D&D 5e - Dungeon Mister (2024)

Learn how the frightened condition works and how you can take advantage of it and protect yourself from it

Frightened rules

ThePlayer’s Handbookexplains the rules for the frightened condition, explaining that it causes the following effects:

• A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight.
• The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear.

Player’s Handbook, p290

How does the frightened condition work?

If you come up against something fear inducing, you will need to take a wisdom saving throw to determine if that thing frightens you.

In addition to the rules explained above that always accompany the frightened condition, many fear abilities and spells will add in additional effects, perhaps because the frightening thing is particularly terrifying. This is the case with the fear spell which causes frightened creatures to drop what they’re holding and run away from the source of their fear.

The frightened condition isn’t an automatic condition, you do have a chance to not become frightened by taking a wisdom saving throw. Wisdom saving throws are very common so it can be a good ability to at least improve a little (and depending on your class, maximising).

What can cause you to be frightened?

Primarily, there are 2 ways the frightened condition might be imposed. Through spells and abilities. Fear inducing abilities are more common among monsters, and normally only for particularly terrifying foes. Of course, the more powerful the creature imposing fear, the more difficult the wisdom saving throw is to pass. Of course, by this point, characters are normally tougher too, though low wisdom will become more of a challenge at higher levels.

Spells that cause frightened

Below are the spells that can cause the frightened condition:

Abilities that cause frightened

If you’re not a spellcaster (or don’t want to use precious spell options on a frightened spell), then there are also a number of abilities that you can use to cause frightened including:

• Berserker Barbarian – Intimidating presence
• College of Whispers Bard – Words of Terror
• Battle Master Fighter – Menacing Attack maneuver
• Oath of Vengeance Paladin – Channel Divinity: Abjure Enemy
• Oath of Vengeance Paladin – Avenging Angel
• Oath of Conquest Paladin – Various abilities that utilise fright
• Draconic Ancestry Sorceror – Draconic Presence
• The Archfey Warlock – Fey Presence and Dark Delirium
• Pact of the Chain Warlock – Quasit familiar has a fear ability

Monsters that cause frightened

If you’re a DM and really want to terrify your players, then you can also introduce creatures that cause the frightened condition. Some of these creatures include:

How do you prevent frightened?

Typically, the frightened condition will give you the opportunity to retake saving throws each turn to determine if you recover from being frightened. Beyond this, there are abilities and spells that can stop you being frightened or boost your ability to resist fright. These include:

Spells that prevent frightened

Abilities that prevent frightened

• Berserker Barbarian – Mindless Rage
• Bard – Countercharm
• Circle of the Land Druid – Immune to fright from elementals and fey creatures
• Monk – Stillness of Mind
• Paladin – Aura of Courage
• Hunter Ranger – Defensive Tactics (Steel Will)

The other way to reduce how much you might be affected by the frightened condition is to invest in your wisdom ability score as all frightened conditions come down to a wisdom saving throw.

All condition guides

Conditionsare powerful tools or problematic obstacles in D&D 5e. You can learn more about all the conditions of D&D 5e in our guides below:

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Published by Ben Lawrance

Ben is the creator of Dungeon Mister and is an experienced dungeon master who's been immersed in the D&D universe for over 20 years.View more posts