[RPG] How does a ghost’s Horrifying Visage aging interact with immunity to the frightened condition

dnd-5efearimmunitiesmonsters

Assume Bob the Brave is immune to the frightened condition.

He is faced with a ghost, that attempts to use Horrifying Visage against him.

Does his immunity prevent him from rolling the save, failing by 5 or more, and gaining white hair?

Best Answer

It's ambiguous, but I would rule that...

Bob ages.

Immunity to some damage type does not usually prevent other effects of the spell, as per this, and I think it is logical to do the same for conditions. This is what Horrifying Visage says about its frighten effect:

A frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to this ghost's Horrifying Visage for the next 24 hours.

The aging effect is separate from the fear effect.

If the save fails by 5 or more, the target also ages 1d4 × 10 years. [...] The aging effect can be reversed with a greater restoration spell, but only within 24 hours of it occurring.

Now, here's the ambiguity. You can see that the aging effect depends on failing the save by 5 or more, not on being frightened. But the text uses the word also when referring to the age effect. My interpretation is that the rules simply don't account for edge cases where you could be immune to one of the effects. They would assume that you would fail the save by 5 or more, become frightened, and in addition to that (but not instead of that), age a few years.

Contrast this with effects like the Mummy's Dreadful Glare:

If the target fails the saving throw by 5 or more, it is also paralyzed for the same duration.

The wording is different, and the paralysis lasts for the duration of the frightened condition. If you can't be frightened, then you can't be paralyzed by that feature.


Bob rolls the save. Regardless if he fails or not, he is not frightened (he is immune, after all). Other creatures that had failed the save, would lose the fear effect by eventually rolling a successful save in the following turns and becoming immune to the feature. However, they would still have aged.

If Bob failed the save by 5 or more, it would be the same as a creature that failed the save by 5 or more, and then succeeded on the save in the following turn. That creature would be immune to Horrifying Visage, and no longer frightened, but would still have aged. Bob has 24h to use a Greater Restoration on himself. Regardless of his bravery.