Necromancy

Animate (dead): The spell restores movement to dead creatures.

At base difficulty (25), the spell animates one Hit Die of skeletons or zombies for each level of the caster’s experience. Doubling the base difficulty (50) doubles the Hit Dice of creatures animated, tripling the difficulty (75) triples the Hit Dice of creatures animated, and so on. All the remains to be animated must be intact and within the spell’s area of effect. See the 5th-level wizard spell animate dead for details.

The current condition of the remains can affect the spell. If the remains have been scattered, but not destroyed, the spell’s base difficulty increases by 25. If the remains are scattered and ancient, such as buried and broken up by time and natural forces, the difficulty increases by 75.

Slay: The spell destroys life, utterly and irrevocably slaying living creatures.

At base difficulty (50), the caster can slay a single creature whose Hit Dice do not exceed his own. If the spell is extended over an area, the total Hit Dice of the creatures slain cannot exceed the caster’s level.

A touch-delivered slaying requires an attack roll, but ranged slayings do not. Targets with 9 Hit Dice or more gain saving throws vs. death to negate the effects. For every five points of additional difficulty, the Hit Dice affected increases by 1 die. There is no maximum.

Tap: The spell manipulates a creature’s life force. Priests (and only priests) use this spell to heal injuries.

At base difficulty (40), this spell drains 1d8 hit points from living targets by touch. A touch-delivered tap requires an attack roll, but ranged taps do not. Targets with 9 Hit Dice or more gain a saving throws vs. spells to negate the effects. For every five points of additional difficulty, the damage increases by one die to a maximum of 30d8. A damage-inflicting tap always has an instantaneous duration which cannot be increased.

At double difficulty (80), a tap can transfer hit points drained from a victim to the caster for the duration of the spell or until the caster loses the hit points through combat or other means. Any damage the caster suffers is deducted from the stolen hit points first. In any case, the target does not automatically regain the lost points when the spell ends, though the damage can be restored through rest or magical healing just as most other forms of damage.

Alternately, the caster can employ a tap at double difficulty (80) to drain one point from an ability score. The loss persists for the duration of the spell (the ability score is suppressed, not drained away). At a difficulty of 160, the caster can transfer the stolen ability score to himself for the duration of the spell.

At triple difficulty (120), the caster can drain one energy level for the duration of the spell. At a difficulty of 240, the caster can transfer the stolen level to himself.

Table of Contents