Does the frightened Condition end when the monster you are afraid of dies?
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1Different question so not a duplicate but I reckon the answer to this question Does frightened condition end when you hit 0 HP? will answer this one. – Purple Monkey Jun 23 '21 at 11:46
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2What is the cause of the frightened condition? – Exempt-Medic Jun 23 '21 at 11:47
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3This is likely to depend on the particular frightening effect. Is there a particular source of fear you are interested in? – Thomas Markov Jun 23 '21 at 11:53
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4Did you mean "as a player character"? – Mołot Jun 23 '21 at 12:02
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The frightened condition does not specify when it ends or when it applies, it specifies only what the condition does. So there is no general answer. Perhaps you should ask about a specific monster and quote the text describing how it causes fear. – WakiNadiVellir Jun 24 '21 at 14:06
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Nothing prevents you from being terrified of a corpse
There just isn't any rule that says you can't be afraid of corpses.. Therefore, if the source of your fear dies, you would still be frightened. However, the source of the frightened condition may matter. For example, the fear spell is concentration, so if the caster dies, the spell ends as the caster falls unconscious.
But a GM is free to rule otherwise
A GM could argue that Alice's corpse isn't Alice at all, so when Bob becomes frightened of Alice for 1 minute, and Alice dies, the source of the fear simply doesn't exist anymore. We lack any general rule that addresses this case, so a GM is well within their rights to rule how they would like.
Exempt-Medic
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1I know I personally would be more scared of a corpse than a live person, and you don't even need a spell for that! – RevanantBacon Jun 23 '21 at 13:55
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@Ben pretty sure I already address that: "For example, the fear spell is concentration, so if the caster dies, the spell ends as the caster falls unconscious." – Exempt-Medic Jun 24 '21 at 04:18
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If source of the fear is a creature, and the effect requires seeing the creature, then the monster becoming an object (a corpse) would at least stop the negative effects of the condition. – WakiNadiVellir Jun 24 '21 at 14:09
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@Waki That only works if the effect requires actually seeing a creature at all. If the effects instead causes fear while some Orc is within sight, a GM would have to rule as to whether the corpse is still the Orc. I mention this in the answer. That said, I don't know any example of a cause of fear that says "While X type of creature is within sight", instead of just saying "While X (a named thing) is within sight". Also worth noting, a dead creature might still be a creature – Exempt-Medic Jun 24 '21 at 16:10