Fear
MindDark- Cost
- 3 FP
- Activation
- Action
- Range
- 30 ft
- Recommended Lv
- Lv 5+
Effect
As an Action, you project a wave of terror into the mind of a creature within 30 ft. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failed save, the creature becomes Frightened of you for 3 rounds. While Frightened in this way, it cannot willingly move closer to you and has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. The target may repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
At the Table
A Sith acolyte, backed into a reactor bay by a charging Trandoshan mercenary, spends 3 FP and hurls a wave of terror across the 12 feet between them. The merc rolls his Wisdom save against your DC (8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Wisdom modifier) and blows it — now he's Frightened of you for 3 rounds, unable to step any closer and rolling his blaster shots at disadvantage. He claws back his nerve only if he beats the save at the end of one of his turns, so press the advantage while the corridor is yours.
In the Lore
Instilling raw fear is a hallmark of the dark side, and the Sith wove it into their very philosophy — the Sith Code holds that passion forges strength ("Through passion, I gain strength"), and dread was prized as a weapon that breaks an enemy before a blade is ever drawn. Darth Vader's mere presence was a tool of terror across the galaxy, and figures like Palpatine and Darth Maul cultivated fear to shatter an opponent's resolve — Maul himself called fear his ally. In Jedi teaching, by contrast, fear is the first step toward the dark side, as Yoda warns the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace: "Fear is the path to the dark side." Projecting terror to dominate a foe's mind sits firmly outside the Jedi Code and squarely within Sith and dark-side practice.