Death Spell

(Necromancy)

When a death spell is cast, it snuffs out the life forces of creatures in the area of effect
instantly and irrevocably. Such creatures cannot be raised or resurrected, but an
individual slain in this manner might be brought back via a wish. The number of creatures that can be slain is a function of their Hit Dice.

If creatures of differing Hit Dice are attacked with a death spell, roll the dice (4d20) to determine how many creatures of under 2 Hit Dice are
affected. If the number rolled is greater than the actual number of sub-2 Hit
Dice creatures, apply the remainder of the roll to the higher Hit Dice creatures
by consulting the following table.

In other words, from the 4d20 roll subtract the number of creatures of less
than 2 Hit Dice (these creatures die). If there are any remaining points from the
4d20 roll, subtract 2 for each creature of 2 to 4 Hit Dice (these creatures
also die). If this still doesn’t use up all the 4d20 roll, subtract 10 for each
creature of 4+1 to 6+3 Hit Dice, and so on. Stop when all the creatures are
dead, all the 4d20 roll is used up, or the remainder is less than half the CF of
any remaining creatures. (If the remainder is one-half or more of the CF of a
creature, that creature dies.)

For example, a mixed group of 20 goblins, eight gnolls, and four ogres, led by
a hill giant, are caught in the area of a death spell. The 4d20 roll gives a total of 53 points; 20 of this eliminates the goblins
(20 x 1 CF), 16 kills the gnolls (8 x 2 CF), and the remaining 17 kills two
ogres (10 points to kill one ogre, and the remaining 7 points are enough to kill
one more ogre). The other two ogres and the hill giant are unharmed.

A death spell does not affect lycanthropes, undead creatures, or creatures from planes
other than the Prime Material.

The material component of this spell is a crushed black pearl with a minimum
value of 1,000 gp.

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