Your best bet is going to be some kind of caster--most magic classes have access to Fear, Minor Illusion, and (the incredibly overpowered and poorly worded for a second level spell) Phantasmal Force. These illusions either allow you to craft terror yourself, or, in the case of Fear, simply manifest the target's worse fear.
With most every non-cleric caster having access to the full set of fear inducing spells or the ability to otherwise obtain them, your next consideration should be stats. Warlock, Bard, and Sorcerer are all charisma based--which means you can maximize your attack and accuracy while also maximizing intimidation. You probably want Wisdom as your secondary stat so you can use Insight to gauge the effectiveness of your illusions and intimidation tactics.
Other than that, you have a number of subclass options at your disposal. College of Glamour Bard for their ability to enthrall others, or College of Spirits for that spooky element. Shadow or Aberrant Sorcerer. Most of the Warlock patrons would work. At that point, it really involves what other skills you want at your disposal and the particular flavour you are looking at.
It sounds to me like you want a build that can output the Frightened Condition easily and reliably.
Right off the bat, you want to play as a Dragonborn from the Fizban's book, because their breath weapon is a lot better than the base dragonborn. Then, at an early level, grab the Dragon Fear feat, which allows you to replace your Dragon's Breath with a 30ft Radius fear effect with no limit on how many creatures can be affect, and fortunately you can willingly exclude your allies from the effect. Most useful of all, however, is the Frightened condition lasts a full minute, and they only get to attempt another save if they take damage. This keys off your Charisma, which works out great because the classes that also feed into this are Charisma-based.
Second, you want at least 1 level of Undead Warlock. This is to get access to Form of Dread, which gives you a few boosts but most importantly, once per turn a creature you hit with an attack roll can be forced to make a Wisdom Save or become Frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Super useful since it has no resource cost (aside from your limited uses of Form of Dread), and no action economy cost since it's just tacked onto attack rolls you would be making anyway.
Finally, take at least 3 levels of Bard to get to the College of Whispers subclass. This gives you a really cool out-of-combat ability to Frighten enemies for a full hour, with the added bonus that they don't actually realize that you were doing anything if they succeed, so no guards getting angry at you for trying to cast magic on them. However, you need to converse with someone for a full minute, at minimum, to trigger this skill, so it's not something you can just pop out at-will.
From there it's just a matter of picking spells which cause the Frightened condition... although there's not a lot of those. There's Cause Fear at level 1 for Warlocks, just "Fear" as a 3rd level spell for both Bards and Warlocks... I think Phantamal Killer at 4th level was added to the Bard spell list?
A Fallen Aasimar Order Domain Cleric - Fallen Aasimar 1/long rest 10' radius fear effect for 1 minute (Cha based saving throw). Several Cleric spells can be themed as fear-related effects. Like casting Sanctuary on yourself can be themed as your enemies are too frightened to attack you. Command (flee) works like fear. Channel Divinity: Order's Demand charms (and disarms), theme this as a fear effect. Dip 1 level of Hexblade Warlock to add Infestation and Minor Illusion cantrips along with Wrathful Smite. A 2nd lvl of Hexblade can get you Misty Visions (cast Silent Image at will) and Mask of Many Faces (Disguise Self at will).
No, seriously. Nothing is scarier than an angry barbarian whaling away with a giant 2-hander while having advantage on attacks, and resistance to whatever you feel like doing to stop him. Or her. You don't even get to save vs. Fear. The fear only stops when you die.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Take at minimum 3 levels in Way of Long Death Monk and 2 levels in Circle of the Blighted Druid from Tal Dorei Reborn from Critical role (for a minimum total of at least 5 player levels). Plug that into either a Shade, Wraith, or Revenant OR make them either a Fallen Aasimar, Dampyre(Salt Marsh), or Hollowed One(Explorers Guide), or Reborn(Van Richtans Guide). You have your death themed big bad for part or the entire campaign.
If your running curse of strahd and want to change Strahds stats, pro tip: Use the guide provided stat block as a Simulacrum encounter halfway through and use this build as the REAL Strahd encounter
I had a similar idea for a character in the three sentence backstory thread, spoiler below:
I am what is called a phobophile, I love fear, espeicially in others. Causing fear and levels of fright in others comes easily to me, maybe too easily. I have grown bored of frightening those that live nearby and must set about challenging myself to cuase fear in larger and more intimidating creatures.
**Introducing Sir Richmond Pheare, probably the most complicated and least useful spellcaster a party could ever hope to have with them because he specialises with giving creature the Frightened condition or some version of it, no big flashy spell just spells and effects that mess with peoples minds and make them scared. Principle spells would be: Cause Fear, Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Phantasmal Force, Fear, Hallucinatory Terrain and Phantasmal Killer. Best option would be Wizard but a version of Cleric with the Arcana domain and an amended spell list could also work and having their God as Tergrid the God of Fright from Magic the Gathering.
I've been having a think about it and I think the following spells give the most options:
Unfortuantely these spells come several different spell lists so no one class will get you everything so for ease of play I;d likely go Cleric with Arcana domain and then have those spells as special spell list for that one god, the reason to take a cleric with the arcana domain over other classes for me would be the ability to use channel divinty to turn celestials, elementals, fey, fiends and undead. An alternative would be Wizard Necromancer and create spells that mimic the spells from non-wizard spell lists and that mimic the turn channel divinty options of cleric which could be thematically appropriate for a Necromancer tapping into a targets darkest fears.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Conquering Presence Aura of Conquest you constantly emanate a menacing aura while you’re not incapacitated. The aura extends 10 feet from you in every direction, but not through total cover.
Undead Warlock is a good option. Has access to the fear type spells and has some subclass abilities that do as well. Hexblade gets access to a few spells that also cause the frightened condition.
Undead Warlock multiclassed with Conquest Paladin is a great "Inquisitor for the Raven Queen" type build. It's not just about causing fear, but leveraging that fear to your advantage. If you want to melee, this would be the way to go. Otherwise as a spellcaster there are lots of ways you could go.
The Fallen Aasimar's Necrotic Shroud does that mean that if you were in melee combat together with other members of the party within 10 foot radius, that they are technically affected or frightened? This thread has tempted me to make a Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Conquest, though not 100% settled on race yet.
Scariest Builds based on what kind of horror you want:
Body Horror - Gore: Zealot Barbarian with Great Weapon Master. This thing outputs so much damage any time you land even one attack it's ridiculous. Is a naked man cleaving things in half while being too angry to die a terror on the battlefield? Yes, yes it is.
Mind Horror - Psychological Trauma: Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. The amount of shit you can stir in someone's head with the ultra-subtle nature of Psionic spells is crazy. You can tailor the extra spell list to perfectly cater to your mind-shattering needs and never be caught while you turn someone's psyche into mush.
There is the fear mechanic, and then there are things that are terrifying when your DM does a good job of accounting for NPC psychology.
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I mean a build that is centered around terrifying foes and NPCs.
I know that that's vague, but it's something I'm personally interested in.
Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
May each word that I speak be backed by each of my teeth.
Your best bet is going to be some kind of caster--most magic classes have access to Fear, Minor Illusion, and (the incredibly overpowered and poorly worded for a second level spell) Phantasmal Force. These illusions either allow you to craft terror yourself, or, in the case of Fear, simply manifest the target's worse fear.
With most every non-cleric caster having access to the full set of fear inducing spells or the ability to otherwise obtain them, your next consideration should be stats. Warlock, Bard, and Sorcerer are all charisma based--which means you can maximize your attack and accuracy while also maximizing intimidation. You probably want Wisdom as your secondary stat so you can use Insight to gauge the effectiveness of your illusions and intimidation tactics.
Other than that, you have a number of subclass options at your disposal. College of Glamour Bard for their ability to enthrall others, or College of Spirits for that spooky element. Shadow or Aberrant Sorcerer. Most of the Warlock patrons would work. At that point, it really involves what other skills you want at your disposal and the particular flavour you are looking at.
It sounds to me like you want a build that can output the Frightened Condition easily and reliably.
Right off the bat, you want to play as a Dragonborn from the Fizban's book, because their breath weapon is a lot better than the base dragonborn. Then, at an early level, grab the Dragon Fear feat, which allows you to replace your Dragon's Breath with a 30ft Radius fear effect with no limit on how many creatures can be affect, and fortunately you can willingly exclude your allies from the effect. Most useful of all, however, is the Frightened condition lasts a full minute, and they only get to attempt another save if they take damage. This keys off your Charisma, which works out great because the classes that also feed into this are Charisma-based.
Second, you want at least 1 level of Undead Warlock. This is to get access to Form of Dread, which gives you a few boosts but most importantly, once per turn a creature you hit with an attack roll can be forced to make a Wisdom Save or become Frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Super useful since it has no resource cost (aside from your limited uses of Form of Dread), and no action economy cost since it's just tacked onto attack rolls you would be making anyway.
Finally, take at least 3 levels of Bard to get to the College of Whispers subclass. This gives you a really cool out-of-combat ability to Frighten enemies for a full hour, with the added bonus that they don't actually realize that you were doing anything if they succeed, so no guards getting angry at you for trying to cast magic on them. However, you need to converse with someone for a full minute, at minimum, to trigger this skill, so it's not something you can just pop out at-will.
From there it's just a matter of picking spells which cause the Frightened condition... although there's not a lot of those. There's Cause Fear at level 1 for Warlocks, just "Fear" as a 3rd level spell for both Bards and Warlocks... I think Phantamal Killer at 4th level was added to the Bard spell list?
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
A Fallen Aasimar Order Domain Cleric - Fallen Aasimar 1/long rest 10' radius fear effect for 1 minute (Cha based saving throw). Several Cleric spells can be themed as fear-related effects. Like casting Sanctuary on yourself can be themed as your enemies are too frightened to attack you. Command (flee) works like fear. Channel Divinity: Order's Demand charms (and disarms), theme this as a fear effect. Dip 1 level of Hexblade Warlock to add Infestation and Minor Illusion cantrips along with Wrathful Smite. A 2nd lvl of Hexblade can get you Misty Visions (cast Silent Image at will) and Mask of Many Faces (Disguise Self at will).
Barbarian.
No, seriously. Nothing is scarier than an angry barbarian whaling away with a giant 2-hander while having advantage on attacks, and resistance to whatever you feel like doing to stop him. Or her. You don't even get to save vs. Fear. The fear only stops when you die.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Take at minimum 3 levels in Way of Long Death Monk and 2 levels in Circle of the Blighted Druid from Tal Dorei Reborn from Critical role (for a minimum total of at least 5 player levels). Plug that into either a Shade, Wraith, or Revenant OR make them either a Fallen Aasimar, Dampyre(Salt Marsh), or Hollowed One(Explorers Guide), or Reborn(Van Richtans Guide). You have your death themed big bad for part or the entire campaign.
If your running curse of strahd and want to change Strahds stats, pro tip: Use the guide provided stat block as a Simulacrum encounter halfway through and use this build as the REAL Strahd encounter
I had a similar idea for a character in the three sentence backstory thread, spoiler below:
I am what is called a phobophile, I love fear, espeicially in others. Causing fear and levels of fright in others comes easily to me, maybe too easily. I have grown bored of frightening those that live nearby and must set about challenging myself to cuase fear in larger and more intimidating creatures.
**Introducing Sir Richmond Pheare, probably the most complicated and least useful spellcaster a party could ever hope to have with them because he specialises with giving creature the Frightened condition or some version of it, no big flashy spell just spells and effects that mess with peoples minds and make them scared. Principle spells would be: Cause Fear, Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Phantasmal Force, Fear, Hallucinatory Terrain and Phantasmal Killer. Best option would be Wizard but a version of Cleric with the Arcana domain and an amended spell list could also work and having their God as Tergrid the God of Fright from Magic the Gathering.
I've been having a think about it and I think the following spells give the most options:
Antipathy/Sympathy, Bestoe Curse, Cause Fear, Detect Thoughts, Dissonant Whispers, Enemies Abound, Eyebite, Dream, Fear, Fog Cloud, Guards and Wards, Hallow, Hallucinatory Terrain, Illusory Dragon, Magic Circle, Mental Prison, Phantasmal Force, Phantasmal Killer, Protection from Evil & Good, Silence, Symbol, Synaptic Static, Weird, Wrathful Strike.
Unfortuantely these spells come several different spell lists so no one class will get you everything so for ease of play I;d likely go Cleric with Arcana domain and then have those spells as special spell list for that one god, the reason to take a cleric with the arcana domain over other classes for me would be the ability to use channel divinty to turn celestials, elementals, fey, fiends and undead. An alternative would be Wizard Necromancer and create spells that mimic the spells from non-wizard spell lists and that mimic the turn channel divinty options of cleric which could be thematically appropriate for a Necromancer tapping into a targets darkest fears.
In singleclass, Oathbreaker paladin has a divinity chanell that imposes the frightened state at 30 feet if they fail a wisdom save.
The Undead Warlock has a feature that, for one minute, anyone you hit is frightened if they fail a wisdom save.
Both also have spells to impose the frightened state. Those are the two options that come to mind right now.
Paladin: Oath of Conquest
Conquering Presence
Aura of Conquest you constantly emanate a menacing aura while you’re not incapacitated. The aura extends 10 feet from you in every direction, but not through total cover.
Undead Warlock is a good option. Has access to the fear type spells and has some subclass abilities that do as well. Hexblade gets access to a few spells that also cause the frightened condition.
Undead Warlock multiclassed with Conquest Paladin is a great "Inquisitor for the Raven Queen" type build. It's not just about causing fear, but leveraging that fear to your advantage. If you want to melee, this would be the way to go. Otherwise as a spellcaster there are lots of ways you could go.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The Fallen Aasimar's Necrotic Shroud does that mean that if you were in melee combat together with other members of the party within 10 foot radius, that they are technically affected or frightened?
This thread has tempted me to make a Fallen Aasimar Paladin of Conquest, though not 100% settled on race yet.
Yes, the Necrotic Shroud will affect your party members if you're not careful.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Scariest Builds based on what kind of horror you want:
Body Horror - Gore: Zealot Barbarian with Great Weapon Master. This thing outputs so much damage any time you land even one attack it's ridiculous. Is a naked man cleaving things in half while being too angry to die a terror on the battlefield? Yes, yes it is.
Mind Horror - Psychological Trauma: Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. The amount of shit you can stir in someone's head with the ultra-subtle nature of Psionic spells is crazy. You can tailor the extra spell list to perfectly cater to your mind-shattering needs and never be caught while you turn someone's psyche into mush.
There is the fear mechanic, and then there are things that are terrifying when your DM does a good job of accounting for NPC psychology.