[RPG] Can you move a creature you’re grappling but frightened of

conditionsdnd-5efeargrapplemovement

A situation came up in our game where a PC cast cause fear (Xanathar's Guide to Everything, p. 151) on an enemy that was grappling the PC and trying to push them towards a torture device. This made the enemy frightened, which prevents it moving closer to the PC.

Does the frightened condition prevent the enemy from continuing to move the grappled PC (the source of its fear) towards the torture device? Or can it continue to move, since the enemy remains adjacent to the PC and therefore it is not moving closer?

Best Answer

The frightened creature can keep moving the caster.

The creature being frightened is already adjacent to the source of the fear so there is no way he can move closer. He can keep pulling the caster around. However the creature, because it can see the source of his fear, will have disadvantage on his strength(athletics) check when the caster tries to escape the grapple.

A DM may rule the creature doesn't want to keep touching (grappling) his source of fear and make the creature let go, but that is not how frightened condition normally works according to the rules-as-written. While it's not RAW for the condition, it is still within reason as DM decides how the world reacts to the players in general. You wouldn't want to 'hug' something you are truly afraid of.

Some spells like Fear may force this to happen even without additional DM ruling:

While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from you by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move. If the creature ends its turn in a location where it doesn't have line of sight to you, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the spell ends for that creature.

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