Terror (active) any modifiers to Quick contest?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Maz

Does Terror (Active) use the normal modifiers to fright checks?

The power simply states:
Roll a Quick Contest of Will with your
subject. He’s at -1 for each -1 to Fright
Checks you bought.


There is no other mention of modifiers.

Circumstantial modifiers always potentially apply and almost always for the worst when it comes to fright checks.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Maz

Yes of course, but all of those would apply if it was a random madman who jumped out at me with a knife.

The thing is, Fright Checks, by default, aren't automatic. They depend on the person being frightened, as well as the circumstances. A professional adventurer is actually quite likely not going to need to make a Fright Check when set upon by a knife-wielding maniac. That's not particularly scary for them - that's Tuesday! What Terror does is give you the ability to always provoke a Fright Check, even with hardened, seen-it-all types.

Originally Posted by Maz

Yes I could see some modifiers apply, but the "+5 from in combat" would simply make it pointless as a power to use in combat.

I would suggest that the best time to use Terror is before combat begins. Scare people into stunning, then hit them while their defenses are down, their allies are possibly fleeing in terror, and other effects of failed Fright Checks are incapacitating them.

However, it's actually not that hard to arrange circumstances where a lot of penalties to people's Fright Checks apply in combat, to counter that +5. If you wait to unleash your Terror effect until you've killed someone in a somewhat "grisly" way (I'd count anyone wounded enough to take crippling as counting here), that's -1 to -3, another -1 if you're touching someone when you do it (I'd allow any melee attack in the past couple rounds to count for this, incidentally), -1 if the fight is in a physically isolated area, and -1 at night. It gets even easier if you add the modifiers from Horror (p. 139) as well. That gives an extra -2 for actually seeing someone dying, not just a corpse, -1 for multiple bodies, and -4 if the victim was a loved one, -2 for a friend, and -1 for an acquaintance.

So, if you attack and kill (-1 for seeing the death) a group's acquaintance (-1), and do it in a way that mutilates the body, cutting off a hand, for instance (call that -2), and then touch one of the others (-1) before unleashing Terror, everybody except the one you touched would have to roll at Will+1 (-4 +5 for combat), the one you touched would roll unmodified Will, and everyone would have to roll, even hardened fighters who had seen plenty of comrades fall on the battlefield.

[sir_pudding]

I also suggest applying the +5 as it is in in Tactical Shooting, people who are mentally stunned don't get it.