Curse of Horror

DESCRIPTION

The victim must hear the caster’s voice as she pronounces the curse and defines the object of the victim’s fear. If the saving throw fails, the victim develops a powerful phobia of the named object. Whenever the victim encounters the subject of his phobia, he must succeed on a Will save or be panicked for as long as the subject is within 30 feet of him. For instance, a person cursed to fear wide-open spaces would have to succeed on a Will save to go outside for more than a few seconds. The phobia lasts until the victim rolls a natural 20 on the saving throw or until other magic removes the curse.

Multiple castings of curse of horror do stack, although any casting that would set up a contradictory phobia automatically fails. For example, a victim already afraid of wide-open spaces cannot also be made claustrophobic.

Curse of horror automatically fails if the victim could not possibly avoid the subject of his fear. Thus, a victim cannot be cursed to fear himself or breathing or anything else whose avoidance would be suicidal. On the other hand, a dark elf could be cursed to fear darkness; near-blindness from living in constant bright light would greatly inconvenience a dark elf, but not physically threaten her life.