Earthbound Ward
AbjurationAbjurations are protective spells. They create physical or magical barriers, negate magical or physical abilities, harm trespassers, or even banish the subject of the spell to another plane of existence.
If one abjuration spell is active within 10 feet of another for 24 hours or more, the magical fields interfere with each other and create barely visible energy fluctuations. The DC to find such spells with the Perception skill drops by 4.
If an abjuration creates a barrier that keeps certain types of creatures at bay, that barrier cannot be used to push away those creatures. If you force the barrier against such a creature, you feel a discernible pressure against the barrier. If you continue to apply pressure, you end the spell.
Ritual Level 5
- Casting Time
- 10 minutes per 10-ft.-cube affected by the ritual (minimum of 50 minutes)Rituals 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 (materials worth 500 gp per 10-ft.-cube of the ritual’s area), SC (up to 8)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
- closeHow far the ritual's effect reaches from the primary caster, measured like a spell's range.Spell rule: Range ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Area
- one 10-ft. cube/2 character levels of the primary caster (S)How the ritual is aimed: a Target (specific creatures or objects), an Effect it creates, or an Area it covers. "Target or Area" means the ritual uses either, at the casters' choice.Spell rule: Aiming a Spell ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Duration
- 24 hoursHow 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 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Choose one:
|
35 | 2 | ||
| Spellcraft Spellcraft You are skilled at the art of casting spells, identifying magic items, crafting magic items, and identifying spells as they are being cast. View on Archives of Nethys ↗ | 35 | 3 |
BacklashHarm or strain the casters suffer simply from performing the ritual, regardless of whether it ultimately succeeds.Casting Occult Rituals ↗
All casters become fatigued for twice the ritual’s casting time.
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 ↗
All casters take a –4 penalty on saving throws against effects used by creatures that the earthbound ward was intended to affect for 24 hours.
Description
The primary caster marks an enclosed space upon the ground with a material that is anathema to a specific type of creature that the caster wishes to keep at bay; typically, this ritual is used against specific outsider subtypes and undead creatures. Typical materials (and a list of creatures affected by those materials) include cold iron powder (daemons, demons, and fey), mithral or silver powder (devils and lycanthropes), oil mixed with sulfur (agathions, angels, archons, and azatas), and salt (undead and outsiders with the incorporeal subtype). At the GM’s decision, additional materials may be available for use against other creatures. The area to be affected must be enclosed, with no gaps in the material’s outline.If the ritual is successful, creatures to whom the used material is anathema cannot enter or exit the warded area, much as if the area were under the effects of an outward facing magic circle effect against those creatures. Those creatures cannot cross the area’s boundaries or exit it by any means, including via extradimensional travel (astral projection, blink, dimension door, etherealness, gate, plane shift, shadow walk, teleport, wind walk, or similar means), and they cannot reach across the area’s boundaries with melee attacks (even those with greater than 5 feet of reach). Incorporeal creatures cannot enter or pass through solid objects into or out of a warded area. An affected creature can make physical ranged attacks at targets within the earthbound ward, but the ward blocks line of effect (but not line of sight) for spells. Flight allows a creature to pass over earthbound wards, but it cannot approach closer than 10 feet off the ground within the area outlined by the ward. A flying creature that falls or otherwise attempts to land in the area is instead shunted to the closest available area just outside of the earthbound ward’s area of effect and is knocked prone.
If the markings used to create an earthbound ward are disturbed or defaced, the effects of the ritual immediately cease. Physical efforts (such as scratching, erasing, or otherwise breaking or damaging the materials), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities used by a creature for whom the material is anathema cannot target the markings. Such creatures can damage the markings as a consequence of those abilities, so long as the markings aren’t directly targeted. For example, such a creature can use earthquake to disturb an earthbound ward set against it because the spell targets an area, not the markings itself. The ritual’s magic prevents minor effects from disrupting the wards, although severe or stronger winds can do so.