Menacing Helm is a rare artifact found in dens and lairs that also gives fear. The Holy Hand Grenade gives fear. Any undead, demon, or nightmare (mounted) unit can gain fear after Combat V. Personally I'd rather have the ivory resource over the fear totem in nearly every situation. Plenty of promotions also protect against fear, Courage being the easiest to acquire (Spirit I spell).
My personal favorite totem is the Tiger Totem, gives +3 first strikes and +25% strength. If anything, it seems too good. Here's a breakdown of the totems:
All three of the Subdue Beast Promotions are amazing, but Subdue Beast is a hard promo to get (Requires Combat 3 and Subdue Animals). Only Beastmasters start with this promotion. However for the lesser tier Subdue Animals is a fairly easy promotion to get, and Rangers start off with it. Of all the first tier promotions, to me it is the Tiger Totem that stands out as being clearly better than many alternatives. There is no reason for me to ever want the Bear Totem if I can get the Tiger Totem. As such I would suggest reducing to 10% or removing entirely the +strength on the Tiger Totem, it is great already with the first strikes.
But to return to the original discussion, I would rather "farm" tigers (or whichever den animals are available) for my mass-produced rangers than waste a precious elephant on a Totem. Remember, Ivory is gathered by camps, camps do not remove the forest they are planted on. Put the Ivory in forested squares for a significant yield bonus (the normal Ivory yield + 1/2 health and +1 hammer from the forest). Dumping 6 or 7 Ivory on a city turns your fringe colony into an economic powerhouse. This is also doable fairly early in the game with hunters, to give recon-focused civilizations a significant economic boost.
