Lizardfolk and Fear

[JacardObshe]

Hello! Long story short, my character in our campaign was recently killed, and then resurrected. During the Resurrection our dm rolled on a table to determine what race I came back as, (made sure everyone was fine with it, and we were, I like when weird chaotic stuff out of my control happens. lol). It ended up with my character coming back as a lizardfolk, which I was fine with, and excited for the roleplaying challenge of playing a lizardfolk bard, since lizardfolk don't really see a purpose in art.


My question comes from the part of Volos guide where it talks about Lizardfolk not feeling fear in a traditional sense, but rather see the emotion as a source linked to the cause. My first thought was that fear spells wouldn't work on them, but that was immediately shut down by the dm. So assuming that's right, my question is, how would you go about roleplaying being under the effects of a fear based spell, when your character doesn't feel emotions? Would it just be that the character makes it their goal to get as far away, seeing the caster as a foe that cannot be beaten in any way? Or if a spell like suggestion is cast, and the wording is something like "your allies are all spies, fight until one of you is dead", how would you play that out? Since the book basically states that lizardfolk just completely avoid foes they don't see as beatable.

[Ryunosuke]

Well yes, for fear based effects, it becomes more of a rational association of 'that's more than i can handle, i need to get away for self preservation' sort of thing, but it's an induced thought and would logically fade when the effect ends.

As for being hit with suggestion, I think you'd need to legitimately believe you can't beat another member of your own party, but assuming you are all of the same level, 'unbeatable' isn't something you should reasonably consider any other party member unless it was say the Wizard being told to fight the Mage Slayer Barbarian standing right next to them already.

[Spore]

You have to come up with reasons why the fluff fits the RAW, honestly.

Frightened condition:
A frightened creature has disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight:
You are just really focussed on the source of "fear". It is not fear but you still incur the penalties.

The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of its fear:
Honestly I would just go for a power/size thing here. "This halfling is much more powerful than I imagined. I better get the heck out of dodge."


Or if a spell like suggestion is cast, and the wording is something like "your allies are all spies, fight until one of you is dead", how would you play that out? Since the book basically states that lizardfolk just completely avoid foes they don't see as beatable.

D&D combat usually takes place within melee range of each other. There you simply cannot avoid combat anymore. Plus the typical environment is 3+ players, so a suggestion of "kill all other players" is a situation of minimum 2v1 which is a terrible suggestion to begin with and would make the spell fail.


The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the course of action sound reasonable.

"Fight these 2+ heavily armed and dangerous murder hobos." is nothing you would follow, even if you where a dangerous murder hobo yourself.


Since the book basically states that lizardfolk just completely avoid foes they don't see as beatable.

Books like that usually states that dwarves usually hang out with their clans. But there are still adventuring dwarves. Also imagine this. Lizardmen are not bipedal lizards. They are humanoids who look like lizards. They have to have a more advanced decision making process than "fight or flight".

Usually altruism differentiates us from lower life forms. In the case of lizardmen I could see the following suggestions:
1) Protect the female from the backstabbers. Poison the rogue in his sleep.
2) Give the villain the black pulsating orb (of evil). It is bad for your friends.
3) See those priced pigeons the countess loves so much? Kill and eat one to assert your dominance over her. Kill another and try to share it to get on her good side.

[Unoriginal]

Lizardfolk don't have the "fear" emotion, but they still have the logical calculation which would trigger the fear reaction in other humanoids.

A Lizardfolk won't charge the Tarrasque due to lacking fear. They will see it is dangerous, and pragmaticaly decide to avoid it if they can.

If inflicted with the frightened condition, they will simply view what put that condition on them as too threatening to approach.

[bc56]

Your character isn't naturally a lizardfolk, so they might retain their old emotional states.

That said, lizardfolk are supposed to be completely rational. If given a reason to fear, they fear, but not for the sake of fear itself. Rather they are concerned for their own or their friends' safety and seek to avert it.

[Envyus]

Plus if Lizardfolk were immune to fear their entries would say so. They just feel it in a different way.

[Temperjoke]

Also, it's a magically-imposed condition, not a natural reaction, that overrides your character's mental state and normal reactions. For example, a wizard casts a Fear spell on an enemy that would normally have no reason to fear a scrawny little human, but the magic forces that fear in.

Maybe your character doesn't experience the visceral terror that the other characters do, but it would still react in a manner that would be recognizable as fear, by running away.

[Uzgul]

I am not 100% sure, but iirc Lizardfolk do still have instincts. Thus a fear spell could trigger your flight instinct. You might even play to be a little confused afterwards, because you don't understand your own irrational behaviour in retrospective.