u/Keithin8a

I'm really struggling to understand/justify using fear outside of combat mainly because of the ambush scene in the sablewood messenger.

I get this was a scripted narrative event, but how do the players know that. An example I've read is if your players are sat in a tavern you might want to spend fear to make assassins jump through the window... Sure there is less foreshadowing but realistically an ambush isn't meant to be expected

So how does that justify using a fear over a scripted event? And how else could I use it? Is it effectively a more friendly way of fudging DM rolls for dramatic tension in D&D?