Phantasmal Killer, what are you afraid of?

[Witty Username]

So spell conjures your greatest fears making you frightened and you take psychic damage.

And you cannot move closer to the object of your fear, so where is the illusion and how does movement work under the effect of the spell?

[DarknessEternal]

Considering I'd have to fail 2 saves before anything would happen, I'd say not this spell.

[LudicSavant]

Considering I'd have to fail 2 saves before anything would happen, I'd say not this spell.

I dunno, I'm pretty scared of lackluster game design choices.

[Lord Torath]

I dunno, I'm pretty scared of lackluster game design choices.

And yet, you are terrified, because that game with the lackluster design choices is the only thing you can play! And it's coming for you! The game books are approaching! The covers are opening, forcing you to read these terribly-designed rules! You try to avert your gaze, but it's no use! Everywhere you look you see another badly written rule! Cower in terror if you will! It will not save you!

I will confess I have not examined my deepest fears. Back when I was a teenager and had watched Arachnophobia, I think you could probably call spiders my biggest fear. Now, not so much.

When one of my PCs had this spell cast on her, I decided it was something with way too many wings, limbs, and tentacles and left it at that. For another, it'd likely be a giant ock'n or a renk (slug/snail-like creatures). I gather they've nerfed the spell a bit, though. In older versions, it came after you and if it landed a hit, you died. You got a single saving throw if you tried to disbelieve the illusion. Fail that and let it hit you - time to roll up a new PC.

[JonBeowulf]

And yet, you are terrified, because that game with the lackluster design choices is the only thing you can play! And it's coming for you! The game books are approaching! The covers are opening, forcing you to read these terribly-designed rules! You try to avert your gaze, but it's no use! Everywhere you look you see another badly written rule! Cower in terror if you will! It will not save you!

I will confess I have not examined my deepest fears. Back when I was a teenager and had watched Arachnophobia, I think you could probably call spiders my biggest fear. Now, not so much.

Orb spiders only. I don't mind the fuzzy ones much. Now if the DM throws an giant orb spider with clown makeup at me, I'm logging off / going home.

When one of my PCs had this spell cast on her, I decided it was something with way too many wings, limbs, and tentacles and left it at that. For another, it'd likely be a giant ock'n or a renk (slug/snail-like creatures). I gather they've nerfed the spell a bit, though. In older versions, it came after you and if it landed a hit, you died. You got a single saving throw if you tried to disbelieve the illusion. Fail that and let it hit you - time to roll up a new PC.

Ah, the good ol' days when you showed up at your friend's house with a character, a backup character, and three blank character sheets.

[Skrum]

Me, in real life, probably just die. 4d10 is like. A lot of damage for a regular person. I guess I'm plausibly level 3? Hopefully it's not a good roll.

I get nightmares involving plants....like, my hands turning into vines, or roots growing into my arms. So I think that's my fear lol. Not sure how that would be expressed in terms of a phantasm I can see though. I would freak out if approached by a Shambling Mound, now that I think of it. Some kind of Shambling Mound with a mutagenic touch. That would scare the heck out of me.

(little side note, body horror is the most grotesque and potent horror)

[Witty Username]

Considering I'd have to fail 2 saves before anything would happen, I'd say not this spell.

Well the incident that brought this on I have a +1 wisdom save (bards man) and it was a DC 22 I think.
Also, it was a monster replicating the spell effect so it didn't require concentration.

Either way, we had to think of stuff on the fly for effects that don't normally come up.

[Segev]

It is visible only to the target, but can it be used similarly to phantasmal force and not necessarily go right on the physical attack? Could it be used as a guard for a prison cell, for example, making the prisoner believe his worst fear is just outside and ready to destroy him if he escapes?

[Kane0]

I was not disappointed by this thread.

Anyways, i've never seen it actually used so I dont know. I would assume the frightened origin point would be the caster, or at least in their direction.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'm extremely unimpressed by Phantasmal Killer, it's just as bad as the 3.5 version. The target gets one save to completely negate the spell or become frightened, then another save to either take damage or immediately end the spell. The second save repeats every round until it either makes the save or the spell otherwise ends.

Phantasmal Force is significantly better - a single save, it's an Int save so less overlap in spell selection, and it can do tons of different things. I once had an NPC betraying the party use it to trick a PC into trying to walk through a prismatic wall. He took two colors to the face before someone else intervened and stopped him, otherwise he would have kept trying to make it through (not even role-playing, the player's Int save was even worse). In combat, make it look like you summoned a transparent ooze that's nearly imperceptible unless up close which begins to engulf the target. They won't question why nobody else can see it, and attacking it they'll roll against their own AC and damage themself. Say it feelt like it went solid when they tried to hit it and their weapon slid across its surface to strike themself, as if it's not just an illusion, or make them think the ooze itself is damaging them. You could probably even make it provoke an opportunity attack each turn so they'll beat themself up even harder.

[Segev]

How did he use the illusion to trick the PC into walking into the prismatic wall?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

How did he use the illusion to trick the PC into walking into the prismatic wall?

Told them he could make a weak spot in the wall that would be safe-ish for one person to pass through. To that character that spot looked slightly dimmer, so he just went face-first into it and tried to push past it.

[Witty Username]

I'm extremely unimpressed by Phantasmal Killer, it's just as bad as the 3.5 version. The target gets one save to completely negate the spell or become frightened, then another save to either take damage or immediately end the spell. The second save repeats every round until it either makes the save or the spell otherwise ends.

5e might be the right environment for the 3.5 version of phantasmal killer, wisdom save to avoid frightened, Con save or die/reduce to 0.
3.5 death effects were pretty available so it never saw action but in 5e it could be the low chance but very powerful effect it is thematicly.