Invoking the Hero-God
TransmutationTransmutation spells change the properties of some creature, thing, or condition.
Ritual Level 7
- Casting Time
- 70 minutesRituals 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 (mixture of wine, outsider's blood, and cedar ash worth 5,000 gp total), F (primary caster must be menstruating), SC (up to 12)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
- touchHow far the ritual's effect reaches from the primary caster, measured like a spell's range.Spell rule: Range ↗Casting Occult Rituals ↗
- Target
- up to 10 willing creatures/character level of the primary caster, all of whom must be present for the ritualHow 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
- 14 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
- Will (harmless)If 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
- yesWhether 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:
|
31 | 2 | ||
| 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) | 31 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge (history) 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) | 31 | 3 |
BacklashHarm or strain the casters suffer simply from performing the ritual, regardless of whether it ultimately succeeds.Casting Occult Rituals ↗
The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage and becomes host to a restless “god” spirit (see text).
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 ↗
A random creature conjurable via summon monster XI appears and attacks all participants for 9 minutes. At the GM's discretion, the conjured creature can have the advanced template, be accompanied by additional creatures, or both.
Description
The rituals of lost Sarkoris summoned and put to use many of their myriad “gods,” including conjuring powerful spirits into a clan's soldiers to invest them with bravery and divine grace in an upcoming battle. In this ritual, after an hour of chanting, calling down a spirit, and begging and forcing its service, the primary caster moves among those to be invested with the spirit's power, anointing the participants' foreheads with blood. The ritual infuses each anointed warrior with inhuman passion and courage, granting a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks, as well as a +4 morale bonus on saves against fear effects, but also renders them vulnerable to spells that forbid outsiders or deal additional damage against creatures of the outsider type (such as magic circle against chaos and chaos hammer). A target of this spell does not become an outsider; it simply gains a temporary vulnerability to these effects.To maintain this spell's magic, the primary caster must host the “god” invoked within her body for the duration of the spell. The outsider scuttles beneath her flesh, causing intense pain and distraction; each round, she has a 50% chance of being dazed by the pain. When the spell's duration expires, the primary caster can eject her parasitic “god” back to its home plane with a successful Will saving throw. On a failed save, the spirit remains and continues to inflict debilitating pain until banished via break enchantment, dismissal, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish. Banishing the spirit early immediately ends the ritual's effect.