[RPG] Fear: Can it kill

dnd-5efearspells

My friend has a Turn Undead spell ability, being a paladin in 5e, and we entered a small room that had a skeleton in it. He was going to use Turn Undead to trap it in a corner, except the barbarian decided that smashing it was a better plan.

My question is, if Fear were to be cast on a creature and it can't get away, could it possibly die from it (assuming that its not undead)?

Example: A wizard casts Fear on a kobold. The kobold then runs from the wizard. The kobold gets caught in a small cave with only one entrance. The wizard continues to advance on the kobold even though its trapped in a corner. Can the kobold die from the sheer fear of the spell? Or does the kobold resort to fighting because it can no longer flee?

Example 2: A minotaur barbarian tries to intimidate the last bandit in a beaten raid party. Minotaur rolls natural 20 for intimidate, the bandit rolls natural 1 for resisting the intimidation. The bandit tries to run away but finds himself trapped in a copse of trees or vines. Can he die from the fear?

Main question: Can Fear kill someone in D&D 5e? I know it can kill someone in real life due to cardiac arrest or other life threatening issues, but can it kill in-game?

Best Answer

The spell? No. The condition? No. The emotion? Maybe.

As has been stated elsewhere, the spell Fear (PHB, p. 239) and the condition Frightened (PHB, p. 290) never directly do damage. If they did, the text describing them would say so.

There is some support for the idea that a creature could feel sufficient fear that it actually damages them. Consider the spell Phantasmal Killer (PHB, p. 265):

PHANTASMAL KILLER You tap into the nightmares of a creature you can see within range and create an illusory manifestation of its deepest fears, visible only to that creature. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target becomes frightened for the duration. At the start of each of the target’s turns before the spell ends, the target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 4d10 psychic damage. On a successful save, the spell ends.

In this case, the spell is what does the damage: but the illusion is not described as attacking the character, nor is it necessarily an illusion of a dangerous entity that can do harm (contrast this with the spell Phantasmal Force, which states that the illusion does damage if it can reach/attack the creature, and if it is specifically an illusion of a thing that could realistically damage the creature). This could be seen as implying that it is the magical fear itself which does psychic damage to the target.

Similarly, consider the 14th level Fiend patron Warlock ability, Hurl Through Hell (PHB, p. 109)

HURL THROUGH HELL: ...The creature disappears and hurtles through a nightmare landscape. At the end of your next turn, the target returns to the space it previously occupied, or the nearest unoccupied space. If the target is not a fiend, it takes 10d10 psychic damage as it reels from its horrific experience.

The implication is that the experience is sufficiently horrifying that such horror does damage to the target.

Note that this should not imply that creatures which can cause the Frightened condition (such as older Dragons or an Androsphynx) automatically damage Frightened enemies. If a feature did damage through emotional trauma, then its written description would say so.

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