Dread Witch Question

[Zaydos]

I was tinkering with a Dread Necromancer (Heroes of Horror) into Dread Witch (also Heroes of Horror, page 98) build and reading the Greater Mastery of Terror ability. It lets them get around fear immunity, uses a paladin as the example, and that got me wondering if it only worked against immunity to fear effects in specific or if it worked against immunity to mind-affecting effects since that includes fear effects. It was when I got to thinking about mindless creatures and whether it would work on them and I thought vermin, well of course, undead, I can see it, constructs :smallconfused:.

So, in short, I'm a DM and asking what is in your opinions is the RAI of the matter and what is the balanced use.

[Fouredged Sword]

Short answer, see your local DM

Long answer - It's a debated concept. The ability may get around "immunity to fear" or ignore all immunity that may apply to a fear effect. Ambiguous wording.

[eggs]

By a strict reading, I believe it punches through generalized mind immunity as well. I'm pretty sure the RAI are just for it to ignore fear-specific immunities.

I'm always torn on it balance-wise. Fear effects are suppressed by a level 1 spell and usually allow a save, so in most cases, it's not overpowered to play it by RAW. Making a class of spells breakable with a bit of resource is hardly unique. But I've had players abuse it often enough and aggressively enough that I limit it to the restrictive non-RAW reading.

[Acathala]

Personally I don't think it should work against mindless creatures.

[peacenlove]

IIRC it ignores fear immunities for creatures with up to 4 HD from you. So if you have problems, you can just increase the HD of the monsters by 4 for a CR increase of 1 or 2 depending on monster.
Inspire greatness bard ability also works for NPC's.

[Mari01]

The interpretation our group went with is that anything that's not mindless can be afraid of you if it fails its saves etc etc. Something without the capacity to think for itself cant very well fear something.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

IIRC it ignores fear immunities for creatures with up to 4 HD from you. So if you have problems, you can just increase the HD of the monsters by 4 for a CR increase of 1 or 2 depending on monster.
Inspire greatness bard ability also works for NPC's.

CL boosting is pathetically easy, particularly for a Dread Necromancer, who is the most likely candidate for Dread Witch.

Inspire Greatness is only a 1 HD boost. It also requires Bard 9, which means either delving into the murky waters of non-associated levels, or a wildly unbalanced CR. Plus, if a Bard can Inspire Greatness, he should probably be using Inspire Courage + DFI instead for MASSIVE damage boost for his allies.

[Saintheart]

On the other hand, there's still an argument that you can make the dead fear you if you're turning them. Mindless undead can still be turned. If they fear a god/positive energy, surely they can fear you, too.