Blush of Youth
NecromancyNecromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife, and the life force. Spells involving undead creatures make up a large part of this school.
[ EvilSpells that draw upon evil powers or conjure creatures from evil-aligned planes or with the evil subtype should have the evil descriptor.]
Ritual Level 7
- Casting Time
- 7hoursRituals take far longer than spells to perform — typically 10 minutes per ritual level, and sometimes hours or days. The ritual fails if its casting is interrupted.Spell rule: Casting Time ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Components
- V, S, M (a fist-sized onyx worth at least 5,000 gp, one creature of younger than adult age of the same race as the primary caster per level of the primary caster), SC (see text)V (Verbal): Spoken incantations, often chanted by all participants throughout the casting.S (Somatic): Precise ritual gestures performed during the casting.M (Material): Physical substances consumed by the ritual. Costly components are listed with their price.SC (Secondary Casters): Additional casters who aid the primary caster; the required count appears in the components line as "SC (…)".Spell rule: Components ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Range
- primary casterHow far the ritual's effect reaches from the primary caster, measured like a spell's range.Spell rule: Range ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Duration
- 1 month/character level of the primary caster; see textHow long the ritual's effect lasts once completed — from instantaneous to permanent. A trailing "(D)" means the primary caster can dismiss it.Spell rule: Duration ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Saving Throw
- noneIf the ritual allows a save, this lists which save and its effect. A ritual's save DC is usually fixed by the ritual rather than derived from a caster's ability.Spell rule: Saving Throw ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Spell Resistance
- noWhether a creature's spell resistance can block the ritual's effect (Yes/No).Spell rule: Spell Resistance ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
Skill ChecksThe heart of a ritual: during the casting the primary caster (and sometimes assistants) must succeed at the listed skill checks. Each entry gives the skill, its DC, and how many successes are required. Failing a check can trigger the ritual's Failure entry.Casting Occult Rituals ↗
| Skill | DC | Successes |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge (arcana) Knowledge You are educated in a field of study and can answer both simple and complex questions. Like the Craft, Perform, and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of different specialties. Below are listed typical fields of study. View on Archives of Nethys ↗- Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, constructs, dragons, magical beasts) - Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking) - Engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications) - Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people) - History (wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities) - Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids) - Nature (animals, fey, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin) - Nobility (lineages, heraldry, personalities, royalty) - Planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, planar magic) - Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead) | 33 | 4 |
| Disguise Disguise You are skilled at changing your appearance. View on Archives of Nethys ↗ | 33 | 2 |
| Heal Heal You are skilled at tending to wounds and ailments. View on Archives of Nethys ↗ | 33 | 1 |
BacklashHarm or strain the casters suffer simply from performing the ritual, regardless of whether it ultimately succeeds.Casting Occult Rituals ↗
If the ritual is successful, the primary caster loses her memories from after the physical age of her new body (see below) for 24 hours. Otherwise, unlike normal, while the secondary casters perish, the primary caster suffers no further backlash.
FailureWhat goes wrong if the ritual's skill checks fail — often dangerous, ranging from wasted effort to summoning a hostile creature or worse.Casting Occult Rituals ↗
The primary caster takes damage to her highest ability score equal to that score’s modifier for 1 week, and no effect can remove, suppress, or otherwise ameliorate this damage until then. All creatures receive a +5 bonus on Will saving throws to disbelieve any illusions affecting the primary caster as long as this ability damage is in effect. Finally, the primary caster cannot attempt this ritual again as long as she suffers this penalty.
Description
The caster must gather her intended victims in a circle with a radius no larger than 10 feet around her and restrain them for the duration of the ritual; while they don’t participate in the ritual other than as sacrifices, these victims count as secondary casters for the purpose of determining the caster’s skill bonuses. At the ritual’s start, the caster stands at the center of the circle of victims and chants while holding the onyx aloft. The evil energy emanating from the caster slowly siphons the victims’ blood through their facial orifices; that blood travels in a liquid line from the victims to the primary caster’s onyx. From there, the blood washes over the primary caster. By the end of the ritual, the primary caster’s entire body is bathed in an occluding egg of thick, dripping blood.If the ritual is completed successfully, the blood hardens and then cracks like a chrysalis, revealing that the caster’s body has become youthful and attractive; regardless of her actual years, she appears to be the age at which her beauty was most radiant. Her skin looks supple and healthy, her eyes are bright and sparkle like jewels, and her voice sounds musical.
If the caster is undead, she returns to her previous creature type (before dying and becoming undead) for the ritual’s duration, treating her Constitution score as being equal to her Charisma score when necessary. She counts as a living creature of her previous type, but she retains the immunities granted by the undead type as well as any special abilities granted by her particular type of undead, unless those abilities rely on appearing undead or on physical features her young living body doesn’t have (for instance, she would lose horrific appearance or claw attacks gained by becoming undead, but not a lich’s paralyzing touch).
An incorporeal caster has no body and can’t use this ritual, and the same holds true for any non-undead creature that never ages, such as a construct.
The caster receives a +5 competence bonus on Charisma-based skill checks other than Use Magic Device. Additionally, whenever she uses an illusion spell or similar effect that makes her appear as someone or something she is not (including disguise self, appearance of life, greater appearance of life, or veil, but not invisibility, displacement, or mirror image), creatures take a –10 penalty on saving throws to disbelieve the illusion, and divination magic that would normally allow creatures to see through illusions (such as true seeing) fails to do so for this illusion. If the illusion that changes her appearance causes a negative effect on any creatures that fail their saving throw to disbelieve, the saving throw penalty does not apply.