Scare Spell — D&D 5.5e, Pathfinder 1e & D&D 3.5e
The Scare spell turns supernatural dread against selected creatures rather than flooding an entire battlefield with terror. A guard holding a gate, a sentry beside an alarm, or several lesser soldiers covering a retreat can suddenly find courage giving way beneath them.
That selectivity defines Scare. In Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e it is a multi-target development of Cause Fear, capable of frightening several low-Hit-Dice creatures at range. The D&D 5.5e version below is a clearly labelled SpiralWorlds adaptation because Scare does not appear as a spell in SRD 5.2.1.
Scare Spell Mechanics
Scare — D&D 5.5e / 2024 Adaptation
Scare does not appear in SRD 5.2.1. This version translates the legacy spell as selective multi-target fear while using the current Frightened condition rather than importing the older Shaken, Hit Dice, or compulsory-flight rules.
Each target makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature has the Frightened condition for the duration.
At the end of each affected creature’s turns, that creature repeats the saving throw. A successful save ends the spell on that creature.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot
You can target one additional creature for each spell slot level above 2nd.
Scare — Pathfinder 1e
Each targeted living creature with fewer than 6 Hit Dice that fails its Will save becomes Frightened for 1 round per caster level.
A target that succeeds on its Will save is instead Shaken for 1 round.
Creatures with 6 or more Hit Dice are immune to Scare.
Scare — D&D 3.5e
Scare follows the basic fear resolution of Cause Fear but can affect multiple targets. Each targeted living creature with fewer than 6 Hit Dice that fails its Will save becomes Frightened for 1 round per caster level.
A creature that succeeds on its Will save is instead Shaken for 1 round.
Creatures with 6 or more Hit Dice are immune to the spell.
Using Scare in Play
Scare is strongest when several specific enemies matter more than the rest of the battlefield. Guards controlling a portcullis, soldiers blocking a stairway, sentries beside an alarm bell, crossbowmen overlooking a courtyard, or defenders clustered around a commander are all natural targets.
Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e make target selection especially important. The spell can reach several creatures, but the 6-Hit-Dice immunity means experienced champions and powerful monsters are poor choices. Scare is instead built to break lesser defenders before they can act as a coordinated group.
The D&D 5.5e adaptation shifts that limitation away from Hit Dice. Its affected creatures receive repeated Wisdom saves and the caster must maintain Concentration, making the spell useful for selective control without reproducing the stronger forced-retreat mechanics of Fear.
Scare Spell Rulings
Does Scare make a creature Panicked?
Not by itself. In Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e, a failed save against Scare makes an eligible target Frightened. A successful save leaves that target Shaken for 1 round.
Legacy fear-stacking rules may increase the severity of fear when several fear effects overlap, but Panicked is not Scare’s normal failed-save result.
What does “fewer than 6 Hit Dice” mean?
It means 5 Hit Dice or fewer. In Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e, a creature with 6 or more Hit Dice is immune to Scare regardless of its saving throw bonus.
Does a successful legacy saving throw completely resist Scare?
No. The saving throw is Will partial. A successful save reduces the effect to Shaken for 1 round rather than negating it completely.
How far apart can the legacy targets be?
Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e allow one living target per three caster levels, but no two selected creatures can be more than 30 feet apart.
Does 5.5e Frightened automatically force a creature to flee?
No. Under the current rules, the Frightened condition gives a creature Disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of fear is within line of sight, and the creature cannot willingly move closer to that source.
Compulsory retreat is an additional effect of spells such as Fear; it is not automatically part of the Frightened condition itself.
Does the 5.5e adaptation keep the old Hit Dice immunity?
No. Hit Dice ceilings are not imported into this adaptation. Each selected creature instead resolves the spell through its Wisdom saving throw and any immunity it already possesses to the Frightened condition.
Scare in the World of 1454
Scare is well suited to the close fighting of a gatehouse, bridge, breached wall, ship’s deck, alley, fortified stair or narrow courtyard. A spellcaster does not need to terrify an entire company if two frightened defenders are enough to open the way.
The spell’s bone component gives the magic a darker reputation than its battlefield effect alone might suggest. Among learned practitioners, a fragment taken from an undead creature may be understood as a sympathetic instrument: matter already marked by death provides a focus through which mortal fear can be sharpened and projected.
Outside scholarly circles, the distinction may matter little. Grave-bone discovered in a travelling magician’s pouch can attract suspicion from guards, guild officials, burial custodians or frightened neighbours long before anyone establishes which spell the fragment was intended to serve.
Military use creates different consequences. A captain may tolerate fear magic when it saves lives during a siege, while the same city may punish the theft of human remains or the disturbance of charnel houses. The spell therefore sits naturally at the boundary between accepted battlefield sorcery and practices associated with necromancy, burial and the ownership of the dead.
Related Spells
Scare, Death and the Danse Macabre
Fear magic in 1454 exists in a culture already accustomed to making death visible. Images of skeletons, corpses and the dead confronting the living turn mortality into something that can enter a street, court, cemetery or household rather than remaining an abstract idea.
The famous Danse Macabre associated with Paris’s Cemetery of the Innocents belongs directly to this world. The Musée Carnavalet records the Danse Macabre at the cemetery in September 1424, only thirty years before the SpiralWorlds present of 1454.
Its relevance to Scare is not that the spell literally summons dancing corpses. Both work through the same unsettling proposition: death is made immediate enough to overwhelm ordinary confidence. A small fragment of undead bone in the caster’s hand turns that idea into an instrument of magic.
Sources & Licensing
- System Reference Document 5.2.1 — current rules framework and Frightened condition used for the SpiralWorlds 5.5e adaptation.
- Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document — Scare — core Pathfinder 1e Scare mechanics.
- d20PFSRD — Scare — expanded Pathfinder 1e class-access reference.
- Revised D&D 3.5 System Reference Document — Scare — D&D 3.5e mechanics.
- Revised D&D 3.5 System Reference Document — Cause Fear — inherited successful-save and Hit Dice rules used by legacy Scare.
- Paris Musées / Musée Carnavalet — Danse Macabre at the Cemetery of the Innocents — historical context.
D&D 5.5e: Scare does not appear as a spell in SRD 5.2.1. The modern panel on this page is an independent SpiralWorlds adaptation written for compatibility with the current rules framework; it is not presented as an official Wizards of the Coast spell.
This work includes material from System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Pathfinder First Edition and D&D 3.5e Open Game Content is used under the Open Game License v1.0a.