Form Blight
NecromancyNecromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife, and the life force. Spells involving undead creatures make up a large part of this school.
Ritual Level 9
- Casting Time
- 9 hoursRituals 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 (the hearts of one or more creatures native to the environment associated with the intended blight whose total CR equals that of the intended blight), F (a bone altar filled with various natural alchemical liquids worth 20,000 gp), SC (up to 20)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.F (Focus): A prop used but not consumed by the ritual — it can be reused.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
- 5-square-mile area of appropriate terrain; see textHow 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
- instantaneousHow 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 ↗
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 (geography) 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) | 24 + CR (see text) | 3 |
| Knowledge (nature) 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) | 24 + CR (see text) | 4 |
| Survival Survival You are skilled at surviving in the wild and at navigating in the wilderness. You also excel at following trails and tracks left by others. View on Archives of Nethys ↗ | 24 + CR (see text) | 2 |
BacklashHarm or strain the casters suffer simply from performing the ritual, regardless of whether it ultimately succeeds.Casting Occult Rituals ↗
All casters take 6d6 points of damage and are exhausted.
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 15d6 points of damage (no save). If slain by this damage, the primary caster is reduced to a pile of rotten sludge, and can be restored only by true resurrection or greater magic.
Description
The primary caster leads a grueling session of incantations and feats of physical prowess throughout a specific type of terrain. Example terrain types include (but are not limited to) cave, desert, forest, mountain, sewer, swamp, or tundra. This ritual corrupts the affected area, summoning forth a blight (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 6 38) associated with the terrain as well as turning the affected area into the blight’s cursed domain. The DC for skill checks associated with this ritual is 24 plus the CR of the associated blight (for example, DC 37 for a desert blight, DC 40 for a tundra blight, and so on). During the ritual’s enactment, the primary caster guides any secondary casters through the terrain, defiling the area with blasphemous words from a long-extinct, primordial language. A bone altar, often assembled from sacrificed animals or humanoids, must stand at the center of the area to be affected, and is the starting and ending point of the ritual. Once the surrounding area is suitably prepared, the primary caster deposits the preserved hearts into the altar. If the ritual is successful, the associated blight bubbles forth from within the altar, formed from the alchemical soup that the altar contains.This ritual provides no protection against the formed blight, and it’s likely that the blight’s first action is to attack the primary and secondary casters. Luckily for the primary caster, blights created in this manner have a penchant for consuming the secondary casters first, giving ample time for the primary caster to escape.