A List of Ways To Become Immune to Fear in Pathfinder

There are few things as frustrating as fear effects in Pathfinder. While being shaken is irritating, if you get the frightened or panicked condition, all of a sudden your hulking brute or lifelong mercenary just tucks tail and runs from the fight. Most players I've shared a table with would rather have their characters bleeding out and dying than being forced to flee, because at least then getting sidelined would mean they went out fighting. And fear effects are just littered throughout the game, coming in the form of auras, monster powers, spells, and more, so this is something you're going to have to deal with a lot in basically every campaign you play.

And while there are plenty of ways you can get a boost to saves against fear effects, there's a 1 on every die. So if you're looking for some unique ways to get your next character completely immune to fear, I'd recommend trying out some of the following tricks.

Yes, yes, Aura of Dread, all that. We doing this or not?

For folks who are wondering, this may or may not have been part of the research for the guide that will be the follow up to my Imperial Commissar conversion that I posted a few weeks back. If you want to make sure you don't miss out on all that nonsense, the consider signing up for my weekly newsletter to ensure all my freshest releases go straight to your email!

Lastly, I'm sure this is far from a complete list given the amount of content out there. So if I missed something, make sure you toss it in the comments!

Class Features

The most common way for characters to gain immunity to fear is with 3 paladin levels. However, that class is by no means a universal fit for folks who don't want to deal with fear effects, but who may not necessarily want to maintain that LG alignment requirement. Or play a partial caster.

The land and title is nice, but I'm really here to face my fears.

For those who want to stay away from a lawful alignment, the barbarian has the rage power fearless rage, which does just what it says on the tin. Sadly it requires you to be level 12. However, for earlier levels you could take the feat Bear's Balance. This allows you to start raging whenever you'd fail a save against a fear effect, essentially allowing you to hold it at bay as long as you've still got Rage rounds left to burn, which is a pretty snazzy trick.

There are also a few options in the cavalier class. The ghost rider (an archetype that gets to summon its own phantom mount as well as a gaze attack, making it my basis for my Ghost Rider character conversion) gains immunity to fear at 3rd level, which is on par with the paladin. There's also the standard bearer archetype, whose banner grants everyone fear immunity... but at level 20. Sadly that's probably never going to really come up as most games don't even go that high.

And for those who want to try out an inquisitor, the Valor inquisition gives you fear immunity at 8th level. Still a bit of a wait, but definitely early enough to still have plenty of juice left in it.

If your GM allows you to bring 3rd party stuff to the table, you could try out the knight from Adventuring Classes: A Fistful of Denarii. It gets fear immunity at level one, which is all kinds of sexy. There's also the Order of The Flagon for cavaliers in Flaming Crab's Cavalier Orders, which gains immunity to fear whenever the cavalier issues a Challenge.

Alternatively, if you look at my own supplement Cities of Sundara: Moüd you'll find the Deathstalker archetype for slayers, which also grants immunity to fear at level one. Just something to think about if you're looking for another reason to check out my Sundara setting!

Magical Solutions

While I came across a lot of magical options that granted bonuses against fear, or which did things when you succeeded on a fear effect, there weren't that many that actually flat out gave you immunity. However, the ones I did manage to find are as follows.

I know, I figured there would have been more, too.

The grim helm, found in The Dead Roads, is one of the main ways I found to give one immunity to fear. It has the negative that you can't gain morale bonuses as long as you wear it, but it can also suck the morale bonuses out of people near you, so that's an added plus. It does cost a whopping 48k gold, though, so it may not be worth all that effort.

In addition, the spell Blessing of Luck and Resolve, taken out of the Advanced Race Guide, grants a +2 bonus on saves against fear, or makes you immune to fear if you already possess the fearless trait (read: you are a halfling). Another option, for those who didn't opt for the small sized race, is Litany of Defense out of Ultimate Combat. This spell doubles any enhancement bonus on your armor, and renders you immune to fear. If you're not a paladin, antipaladin, or inquisitor, though, you'll probably need to get it in a wand.

There's also, as one reader pointed out, greater heroism. Not sure how I missed that one, but it's one of the "easier" methods to get... it is a 5th or 6th-level spell slot, though, so keep that in mind when you prepare it. You could also grab the Padma Blossom (another suggestion by a reader), which costs 8k gold, but honestly is pretty great. Bonuses to concentration, twice per day cast calm emotions, and it suppresses a bunch of effects in addition to fear.

Miscellaneous Solutions

There are two other solutions I've come across for the problem of fear, and rendering it a moot point. The first, and arguably the one that will be the hardest to get most GMs to agree to, is to let you play an android. Fear is one of the many things they just don't have to deal with. At all.

What... is... fear?

The other useful option I found is the feat Stoic. While not a perfect solution, since it forces you to make the initial save against fear, it states that you are immune to any other fear effect from that source for 24 hours after making that initial save. So, while useful against things like auras that require you to make constant saves, this feat isn't a very useful solution when it comes to things like a one-time spell effect. Still, it's a +1 bonus in addition to the post-save immunity, so it's not going to be wasted if you think you're going to be in a lot of situations where you're going to have to cope with things that require you to keep your cool.

Another interesting combo a reader shared was by combining the feats Nameless One and Masked by Fear. It's a pricey combo, and doesn't technically make you immune to fear, but it means you can only be shaken rather than frightened or panicked, and that's good enough for my purposes! Especially since this is the trick I opted to use in my Death Korps of Krieg character conversion for Warhammer 40k!

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