Symbol of Fear Spell — Mark of Phobos
A ward written not to wound the body, but to make courage abandon it.
The mark can wait for days in absolute silence. A line carved above a gate, a figure worked into a mosaic, a sign concealed among the decoration of a coffer: nothing moves until the appointed victim satisfies the condition laid upon it.
Then recognition becomes terror. Soldiers forget the doorway they meant to defend. Thieves abandon the treasure they crossed a kingdom to steal. Men who stood through artillery fire turn and run from an inscription no larger than a hand.
Spell Mechanics
Symbol — Fear Effect
Rules identity: there is no separate Symbol of Fear spell in these rules. Fear is one of the effects that can be chosen when casting the spell Symbol.
You inscribe a harmful glyph on a surface or inside an object that can be closed. The glyph can occupy an area no more than 10 feet in diameter.
If it is placed within an object, that object must remain where the spell was cast. Moving the object more than 10 feet from that location breaks the glyph and ends the spell without activating it.
The glyph is nearly imperceptible. Noticing it requires a successful Wisdom (Perception) check against the caster’s spell save DC.
Setting the Trigger
When the glyph is created, the caster establishes its trigger. A surface glyph might respond to a creature touching it, stepping on it, removing something that covers it or approaching within a chosen distance. A glyph within an object might respond when that object is opened or when the glyph is seen.
The trigger can be refined so that only certain creature types activate it. The caster can also establish exceptions, including a password that permits a creature to pass without activating the glyph.
Activation
When triggered, the glyph glows and fills a 60-foot-radius Sphere with Dim Light for 10 minutes.
A creature is targeted if it is in the Sphere when the glyph activates, enters the Sphere for the first time on a turn, or ends its turn there. A creature can be targeted only once on the same turn.
Fear
Each target makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it has the Frightened condition for 1 minute.
While Frightened by this effect, the creature must move at least 30 feet farther from the glyph on each of its turns, if it is able to do so.
No repeat save: the Fear effect does not instruct an affected creature to repeat its saving throw at the end of its turn. On a failed initial save, the stated one-minute duration therefore runs unless another rule ends the effect.
Important 2024 Rulings
- The spell does not require Concentration.
- The caster chooses the symbol’s effect when the glyph is inscribed; Fear is one of six available effects.
- A creature entering the active Sphere later can still be targeted even though it was not present when the glyph first triggered.
- A creature already targeted can be targeted again on a later turn if the spell’s targeting conditions are met.
- The mandatory movement is measured away from the glyph itself.
- The modern spell has no inherited 150-hit-point pool.
Symbol of Fear — Pathfinder 1e
The spell creates a potent magical rune on a surface. It uses the operating framework of Symbol of Death, but replaces that spell’s lethal effect with supernatural panic.
When the rune affects a creature, that creature attempts a Will save. Failure leaves it Panicked for 1 round per caster level.
Placement and Visibility
The rune must be placed in plain sight and in a prominent location. Hiding or covering it makes it ineffective while the covering remains in place. Removing the covering can activate the symbol if the selected trigger conditions are satisfied.
Default Triggers
At casting, the caster chooses one or more standard ways to activate the rune. These can include:
- looking at the rune;
- reading or attempting to understand it;
- touching it;
- passing over it; or
- passing through a portal bearing it.
A creature farther than 60 feet from the rune cannot activate it. Once the spell has been cast, its trigger conditions cannot be altered.
Custom Trigger Conditions
The caster can establish more specific conditions based on things that can actually be observed, such as identity, name, alignment, appearance or conduct. Invisible game statistics such as class, Hit Dice or current hit points are not valid trigger criteria.
A password can be established to prevent a creature from triggering the rune and to protect that creature while it remains within 60 feet. If it later leaves that radius and returns, the password must be used again.
Attunement
The caster can attune creatures to the rune so they neither activate it nor suffer its effects. The caster is automatically attuned.
- One or two creatures add no meaningful time to the casting.
- Attuning up to 10 creatures extends the casting process to 1 hour.
- Attuning up to 25 creatures requires 24 hours.
- Larger groups require additional preparation time.
Activation Area
Once triggered, the symbol becomes active and glows. Its effect reaches creatures within 60 feet. Creatures entering the area while the rune remains active are also exposed to it.
A creature normally saves only once while it continuously remains inside the active area. If it leaves and later returns while the rune is still active, it is exposed again and must save again.
Finding and Disarming the Rune
- Perception DC 31: any character can attempt to find the magical trap.
- Disable Device DC 31: disarming it requires the trapfinding class feature.
- Read magic: the inherited identification procedure uses Spellcraft DC 10 + the symbol’s spell level, giving DC 16 for this rune.
Dispelling and Destruction
A successful dispel magic directed specifically at the rune can remove it. Erase does not remove it. Destroying the surface on which the rune is written destroys the symbol but also activates it.
The rune is a prepared ward rather than a weapon that can simply be pushed into a foe. A touch-triggered symbol does not activate merely because the object bearing it is used to touch another creature, and it cannot be put on a weapon to trigger when that weapon strikes.
Permanency
Permanency can make Symbol of Fear permanent. This requires a minimum caster level of 14th and costs 15,000 gp. A permanent symbol that becomes inactive can reset after 10 minutes and become capable of triggering again.
Hit-point inheritance: this page uses the inherited 150-current-hit-point pool from Symbol of Death. The source wording creates a genuine ambiguity; see the Legacy RAW Ruling below.
Symbol of Fear — D&D 3.5e
The caster scribes a magical rune that operates according to the general rules of Symbol of Death, except that its victims are not slain. A creature that fails its Will save becomes Panicked for 1 round per caster level.
Placement
The symbol must remain visible and prominent. Covering or hiding it prevents it from functioning until it is exposed again.
Triggers
The caster chooses the trigger when the spell is cast. Standard choices include looking at the rune, reading it, touching it, passing over it or passing through a portal bearing it.
A creature more than 60 feet away cannot trigger the rune. Trigger conditions are fixed once the casting is complete.
Custom Conditions, Passwords and Attunement
More elaborate trigger conditions can be based on observable qualities or actions, including identity, name or alignment. Hidden statistics such as level, class, Hit Dice and hit points cannot be used as trigger criteria.
The caster may establish a password that allows a creature to avoid triggering the symbol and remain immune while it stays within 60 feet. Creatures can also be attuned during the casting process. The caster is always attuned to their own rune.
Attuning as many as 10 creatures extends preparation to 1 hour; attuning as many as 25 requires 24 hours, with larger groups taking proportionately longer.
Active Rune
When triggered, the symbol glows and affects creatures within a 60-foot burst. A creature entering that area while the rune remains active is exposed to it. A creature that stays continuously in the area normally saves only once, but leaving and returning causes a new exposure.
Finding and Disabling
- Only a Rogue can use Search to locate the magical trap.
- The Search DC is 31.
- Only a Rogue can use Disable Device to thwart it.
- The Disable Device DC is 31.
Removing the Rune
A targeted dispel magic can remove the symbol. Erase cannot. Destroying the surface bearing the mark destroys the rune but activates it in the process.
The symbol cannot be converted into a simple strike-triggered weapon. Moving a touch-triggered inscription into contact with an enemy does not satisfy the intended offensive use, and putting the rune on a weapon does not make it discharge when the weapon hits.
Permanency
The spell can be made permanent with permanency. A permanent symbol that becomes inactive can later reset and become capable of activation again.
Hit-point inheritance: this page retains the 150-current-hit-point pool inherited from Symbol of Death. The source wording is not completely explicit on whether the phrase “all creatures within 60 feet” replaces that limit; see the ruling below.
Legacy RAW Ruling: Does Symbol of Fear Have a 150-HP Limit?
The legacy spell says that it functions like Symbol of Death except that creatures within 60 feet become Panicked rather than dying. Symbol of Death normally works through a pool of 150 current hit points, affecting the nearest eligible creatures first.
Several other members of the Symbol family explicitly state when they discard Symbol of Death’s hit-point limit. Symbol of Fear does not contain that explicit exception.
SpiralWorlds ruling: retain the inherited 150-current-HP limit. Begin with the closest eligible creature and continue outward, skipping a creature when the remaining pool is insufficient to affect it. The active rune expires when its normal duration ends or when its 150-HP allowance has been expended.
This is a conservative reading rather than a claim that the original wording is perfectly unambiguous. A GM who interprets “all creatures within 60 feet” as replacing the hit-point limitation can instead remove the pool, but should apply that interpretation consistently.
Using Symbol of Fear
Symbol of Fear is most dangerous when the enemy has already committed to entering a place. Its strength is not raw damage. Its strength is the sudden destruction of formation, purpose and nerve.
Guard a Threshold
Gatehouses, stairways, vault doors, bridgeheads and narrow passages make natural sites for the mark. A group that turns to flee in confined ground can obstruct its own reinforcements.
Protect What Must Not Be Opened
A treasury, archive, sealed coffer or forbidden chamber gives the symbol time to do what an ordinary trap cannot: defeat resolve rather than armour.
Break an Assault
A frightened individual is dangerous to themselves. A frightened formation is dangerous to everyone behind it. A ward placed where attackers must bunch together can turn an orderly advance into a rout.
Protect a Retreat
The spell is equally useful behind a withdrawing force. Pursuers who trigger the mark can lose the momentum that made pursuit dangerous in the first place.
The Symbol Should Feel Personal
The magic need not manifest as a blast. It is more unsettling when almost nothing happens to the room. The rune brightens. A shadow seems to move in the wrong direction. A familiar face appears for an instant where no face should be. The victim hears armour scraping behind them when the corridor is empty.
What matters is that the fear feels immediate and undeniable. The mark does not need to create a real monster. It needs only to make flight seem more necessary than courage.
The Mark in the World of 1454
Learned natural philosophers place symbols among the most difficult forms of inscriptional magic because a successful rune must preserve intention after its creator has walked away. The mark is therefore studied not only as necromancy or wardcraft, but as evidence that written form can hold a magical condition in suspension.
University masters debate whether the inscription contains fear itself or merely opens a path through which fear enters the mind. Court scholars care less about the distinction. To a prince protecting a treasury, a Free Imperial City guarding a powder store, or a mercenary captain securing a captured gatehouse, the useful fact is simpler: a few lines cut into stone can defend a place without posting another sentry.
The expense of the required gemstones keeps powerful symbols out of ordinary households. They are more commonly associated with rulers, wealthy guilds, important archives, fortified estates, magical colleges and places whose owners believe intrusion must be answered with something more enduring than a lock.
Because symbols can distinguish between those who may pass and those who may not, the existence of a rune also raises an uncomfortable question: who was the ward made to fear? Finding the mark is sometimes easier than discovering the name, password or old political grievance written into its conditions.
Phobos and the Mark of Panic
The scholarly name Mark of Phobos draws on Phobos, the Hellenic god of fear and panic. Phobos is not merely anxiety made divine. His oldest battlefield character is the moment disciplined courage becomes flight.
That makes him an unusually close mythic parallel for the spell. A sword threatens the soldier in front of it. Panic can empty a line, abandon a gate and turn retreat into rout.
Classical tradition repeatedly places Phobos beside Ares in war and associates him with terror, flight and the collapse of martial nerve. The Theoi account of Phobos and Deimos preserves several of these ancient literary traditions, including Phobos appearing in battle imagery and upon the shield of Agamemnon.
Among Hellenic magicians, invoking his name over a fear rune is therefore more than ornament. It identifies exactly what the mark is meant to destroy: not flesh, but the decision to stand.
Related Spells
Symbol of Fear FAQ
Is Symbol of Fear a separate spell in D&D 5.5e / 2024?
No. The current spell is Symbol, a 7th-level Abjuration. Fear is one of the effects the caster can place in the glyph.
Which classes receive the modern Symbol spell?
Bard, Cleric, Druid and Wizard.
Does the D&D 2024 Fear effect allow another saving throw each round?
No repeat saving throw is stated. A creature that fails the Wisdom save is Frightened for 1 minute unless another rule ends the effect.
Does leaving the active modern Symbol area immediately end the Frightened condition?
No. The failed save imposes Frightened for its stated duration. Leaving the Sphere is not listed as an early-ending condition.
Can a creature be targeted more than once by an active D&D 2024 Symbol?
Yes, on different turns. The restriction is that a creature is targeted only once per turn. Entering the Sphere on a later turn or ending a later turn there can cause another targeting event.
What does Symbol of Fear do in Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e?
A creature that fails its Will save becomes Panicked for 1 round per caster level. The spell also inherits the placement, triggering, password, attunement and ward-removal framework of Symbol of Death.
Does the legacy Symbol of Fear have the 150-hit-point limit?
The text is genuinely ambiguous because it says that the spell functions like Symbol of Death while also referring to all creatures within 60 feet. SpiralWorlds retains Symbol of Death’s 150-current-HP pool because Symbol of Fear does not expressly remove it.
Can Symbol of Fear be hidden?
The legacy rune must be visible and prominent to function. Covering it suppresses its operation until the covering is removed. The modern Symbol follows a different model: its glyph is nearly imperceptible and can be noticed with Wisdom (Perception) against the caster’s spell save DC.
Can someone simply destroy the wall bearing a legacy Symbol of Fear?
They can destroy the surface, but doing so is hazardous: the inherited Symbol rules state that destruction of the inscribed surface destroys the rune and triggers it.
Can Pathfinder Symbol of Fear be made permanent?
Yes. Permanency can make it permanent at minimum caster level 14 with a 15,000 gp cost.
Rules, Research and Licensing
- System Reference Document 5.2.1 — current Symbol spell and Fear effect. SRD 5.2.1 content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
- Archives of Nethys — Symbol of Fear — Pathfinder 1e descriptors, complete class access and core spell statistics.
- Pathfinder legacy PRD — Symbol of Death — inherited trigger, attunement, password, activation, dispelling and magic-trap procedures.
- Archives of Nethys — Permanency — permanent Symbol of Fear requirements.
- Hypertext d20 SRD — Symbol of Fear — D&D 3.5e spell statistics.
- Hypertext d20 SRD — Symbol of Death — inherited D&D 3.5e Symbol procedures.
- Theoi — Deimos and Phobos — classical literary and artistic traditions concerning fear, panic and battlefield rout.
Pathfinder RPG and Revised d20 material: Open Game Content used under the Open Game License v1.0a. Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook © 2009 Paizo Publishing, LLC; based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skip Williams. Revised System Reference Document material © Wizards of the Coast.
SpiralWorlds material: “Mark of Phobos,” the setting material, practical discussion, adjudication commentary and original illustration are SpiralWorlds editorial material.