No Kotath, if they fail the save against full damage they are still frightened, even if immune to the damage type. That’s because they failed the save. It has nothing to do with whether or not they take the damage. But the save isn’t to prevent the condition, it’s to reduce the damage, the condition is just an additional effect of failing the save against the damage.
Hi Sposta, OP here. After reading through all the comments and looking around a bit online, I think I have to disagree with you. The action's text has two clauses: "A creature that fails this saving throw takes damage" and "A creature that fails this saving throw is frightened". These two clauses can be reshuffled and reordered without changing the meaning of the action. Here is one possible way of doing so: "The target must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature that fails this save is frightened and takes 5d8 damage. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and is not frightened."
It is certainly a bit odd that not scaring easy would make you more nimble to avoid a spectral crocodile mouth, but this is how the rules read.
You can disagree all you want, it’s a free country. But I stand by my interpretation of the rules.
To your first point, correct. If they had disadvantage on a save Vs frightened it also wouldn’t apply because you’re not saving against the condition, you’re saving against the damage and the condition is secondary. (As I’ve stated several times.)
To your second point, if some external factor imposed disadvantage on an Ability check then of course they would get disadvantage on that check. But since this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the topic at hand I’ll speak no more about it.
To your third point, now you’re just being ridiculous and throwing strawmen at me, proving that you’ve got nothing left to hold up for your argument. “I say ‘good day’ to you sir.”
If I were DMing and this came up, I'd rule that the save is against the piercing damage and not the fear. My reasoning for this is that the form of the attack is a spectral maw that does piercing damage when failing a dexterity save--it's a tangible thing that you have to dodge, not some kind of psychic attack or illusion that you rely on mental fortitude against. I'd thus follow that the fear effect stems from the actual piercing action of the attack--perhaps the maw has some special property that directly delivers a shock through the nervous system, which in turn creates an uncontrollable instinctual reaction, for example. The fact the fear effect only lasts until the end of its next turn, instead of having additional saving throws per turn kind, of fits well enough with the idea that it's a momentary and instinctive state of shock, too.
But also, I just think it's more interesting that there should be an unusual effect that bypasses an advantage on a saving throw against fear (or some other status). If you've got a character who keeps shrugging off fear effect after fear effect, suddenly being subjected to real, abject terror for a moment is an opportunity for character development.
That said, the pattern I've seen is that there aren't generally abilities you roll saves against that require you to then roll a save against a secondary effect if you fail, even though there are attack rolls that force you to roll a save against a secondary effect if they hit. My wild and baseless conjecture is that the writer had to stick to that pattern but really wanted to impose a dexterity save, and figured Rule 0 would handle the resulting weirdness.
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You can disagree all you want, it’s a free country. But I stand by my interpretation of the rules.
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To your first point, correct. If they had disadvantage on a save Vs frightened it also wouldn’t apply because you’re not saving against the condition, you’re saving against the damage and the condition is secondary. (As I’ve stated several times.)
To your second point, if some external factor imposed disadvantage on an Ability check then of course they would get disadvantage on that check. But since this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the topic at hand I’ll speak no more about it.
To your third point, now you’re just being ridiculous and throwing strawmen at me, proving that you’ve got nothing left to hold up for your argument. “I say ‘good day’ to you sir.”
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
If I were DMing and this came up, I'd rule that the save is against the piercing damage and not the fear. My reasoning for this is that the form of the attack is a spectral maw that does piercing damage when failing a dexterity save--it's a tangible thing that you have to dodge, not some kind of psychic attack or illusion that you rely on mental fortitude against. I'd thus follow that the fear effect stems from the actual piercing action of the attack--perhaps the maw has some special property that directly delivers a shock through the nervous system, which in turn creates an uncontrollable instinctual reaction, for example. The fact the fear effect only lasts until the end of its next turn, instead of having additional saving throws per turn kind, of fits well enough with the idea that it's a momentary and instinctive state of shock, too.
But also, I just think it's more interesting that there should be an unusual effect that bypasses an advantage on a saving throw against fear (or some other status). If you've got a character who keeps shrugging off fear effect after fear effect, suddenly being subjected to real, abject terror for a moment is an opportunity for character development.
That said, the pattern I've seen is that there aren't generally abilities you roll saves against that require you to then roll a save against a secondary effect if you fail, even though there are attack rolls that force you to roll a save against a secondary effect if they hit. My wild and baseless conjecture is that the writer had to stick to that pattern but really wanted to impose a dexterity save, and figured Rule 0 would handle the resulting weirdness.