PDA

View Full Version : Dark Ritual - the most powerful 1st level spell.



Alias
2013-01-15, 10:41 AM
In my home games before 3e there was a running joke - broken was anything more powerful than Dark Ritual, a setting defining, campaign inspiring monster of a little spell. Adventures have been had seeking to stop this spell from getting cast. In 3e I originally neutered it to something more grounded and useable in the framework of the game, but for Pathfinder I've decided to pitch that rather boring version out and restore it's full glory. Here's what I'm rambling about.


Dark Ritual
Ritual Sodran Necromancy [Death, Metamagic]
Level: Clr 1
Components: V, S, Sacrifice, Location
Casting Time: 1 night
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Until next dawn

This sinister ritual drains the life force from a creature and converts it to spell energy. At the conclusion of the ritual you may prepare spells as a spell caster with the same number of levels as the victim, or your own level +3, whichever is higher. Your spell caster level likewise increases. This effect persists until the next dawn.

Location: This spell must be cast on unhallowed ground.

Sacrifice: This spell requires a living sacrifice. The victim must remain on the premises during the entire casting. This spell does not kill or secure the victim in any way, you must find some means to do this yourself and do so on cue. You may have an assistant do this for you.

The amount of power gained from especially pure or innocent victims (clerics,
paladins, infants, unicorns, virgins, etc) may be more than their character levels would otherwise indicate, though such gruesome details are left to the discretion of individual GM's.

In theory, if you can sacrifice a 17th level character then you can, even at 1st level, prepare spells like miracle. In practice the victim is of equal or lower level than the cleric and since the spell requires access to unhallow it tends not to get used before 5th level despite its own level.

Of the spells I've written, its one of my favorites, even if it is more plot point than spell. Still, it can make the big bad that more frightening - consider a big bad that sacrifices a baby each night to keep his spell level higher than it should be, or something equally vile and sinister.

The evil descriptor applies of course if you're using classic alignment.

Xefas
2013-01-15, 01:16 PM
It's a neat idea. I'd think very very hard before including it in a campaign - as you say, its extreme power for its level is the kind of anomaly that can define settings and inspire whole campaigns. Certainly not for everyone, but it sounds, more or less, like you achieved your design goal, and that's what counts.

Tanuki Tales
2013-01-15, 01:52 PM
I pose this question to you, fellow Pathfinder homebrewer:

Why does it have to be a spell of any level?


Why not just make it a ritual that requires being a divine caster? Possibly with the caveat that they must be in the unholy graces of a dark god?

JoshuaZ
2013-01-15, 02:54 PM
You may want to specify that the sacrifice needs to be intelligent (int at least 3) and living. Otherwise one just sacrifices livestock to get a close to free +3 bonus to caster level. So a first level individual now gets a massive leg up.

I'm not completely clear on the mechanics of this. Do you get the same number of spell slots of the spellcaster sacrificed or yourself if you had 3 more levels in a spellcasting class? If so, does your casting stat still restrict you? E.g. if I've got a primary casting stat that's only a +1 modifier, can I still use these slots? Also, what happens if I have more than 1 spellcasting class? If it applies to all of them then there's obvious abuse there.

The other worry is how it could be used by high level characters. There are a variety of ways to get resurrection or true resurrection with reduced or no material component. So you can sacrifice a compatriot and then res them right after. That's wide open to abuse. It may make sense to add some sort of permanent ability drain that occurs to the sacrifice even if they are resurrected or raised that way one can't use this stunt.

Also I don't think that [metamagic] is a normal spell descriptor, although it is clear why you've labeled it that way. It actually would make sense as a descriptor for spells like this or Lucubration.

Edit: One other thought- if you want this to be mainly used by NPCs it may make sense to give it also some required focus which is difficult to make or obtain or is expensive.

sengmeng
2013-01-16, 10:19 PM
I have to agree with Tanuki Tales: this doesn't feel like a spell. Maybe a magical item, such as an altar? And it can be used by an evil divine caster or a successful UMD check? Really sounds more like a plot hook than anything else.

Erik Vale
2013-01-17, 02:32 AM
I will point out that due to the ritual, the caster will have to be getting his sleep durring the day [If neccessary, warforged exist, minimum is 2 hours with ring of sustenence]
Also, by having a duration of all night, combined with sleeping, without sleep reduces sure your a more potent spell caster, but you have almost no adventuring time. This means that this spell is more useful for crafters or prepared assualts [Quick powerlevel boost the night before you slay the big bad, or the ability to create something more powerful than normal].;

Also of note, this spell won't give you the addition spells known from being a higher level, so the only class that can get anything out of it are wizards/other classes that can learn higher level spells than they can cast, as the other casters don't know any spells to put in those slots [before meta-magic, which does again make the spell useful]. {Edit: Actually, thought of again, clerics and other classes that automatically know all spells they can cast would find this useful, as they automatically know the spells to fill the slots}
But, I think you can prepare/use higher level slots for lower level spells, which may make this line of thought almost pointless.

However, I will be approaching my DM with this spell. [Expecting rejection of course]. I do however see low level wizard/cleric followers becoming Very lethal...
I'm going to need to combine this with a swarmlord and some mice.

Alias
2013-01-17, 09:38 AM
I pose this question to you, fellow Pathfinder homebrewer:

Why does it have to be a spell of any level?

Why have spells at all? Why not just toss out the dice and run everything ad hoc??

Silly counterpoint indeed.

On another note, I keep DM's notes on spell effects in a separate section from the main spell descriptions in order to cover unusual corner cases. I'll probably blend them into the main spell description for the Pathfinder rewrite. Here's the notes on dark ritual.

1) A creature sacrificed by dark ritual can only be ressurected by wresting the soul from the control of the deity the dark ritual was done in the name of. Until this is done not even miracle or wish can restore the character.

2) A caster who attempts an unworthy sacrifice (such as an animal) will die, no save, upon completion of the spell for affronting their god.

Alias
2013-01-17, 09:40 AM
However, I will be approaching my DM with this spell. [Expecting rejection of course]. I do however see low level wizard/cleric followers becoming Very lethal...
I'm going to need to combine this with a swarmlord and some mice.

That would leave you with a very dead character - very dead as in a wish or miracle won't bring you back because the dark power you cast the spell in the name of and insulted must be destroyed before you're getting free. Good luck with that.

sengmeng
2013-01-17, 11:21 AM
Why have spells at all? Why not just toss out the dice and run everything ad hoc??

Silly counterpoint indeed.

It's not silly, since as you said yourself "entire campaigns have been run around keeping this spell from being cast" which is entirely outside the realm of a first level spell, AND you made it a cleric spell, a class which knows every spell on their class's spell list. Literally, every cleric (good ones can fall to temptation; they'd automatically know the spell exists and how to cast it) is a possible world-ending danger at this point and I don't know of divinations that can explicitly tell you the names of everyone in the setting who MIGHT in the future cast a particular 1st level spell, or has the Use Magic Device skill, a scroll, and zero morals.

Did you actually play campaigns this way, or was it not quite so ubiquitous as its utility would make it? Meaning, the Unhallowed ground requirement must have been difficult to arrange, or not every cleric knew of it, or something must have been in its way. It really doesn't FEEL like a spell. The IDEA certainly has merit and it is something I would probably include in a darker campaign, but it would, at the very least, be an arcane spell whose existence at first seems to be nothing but rumor until an evil mage discovers it on a scroll and adds it to his spellbook. No one ever said "Why have spells at all?" They asked (in paraphrase) "Why does this particular plot hook have to take the form of a first level spell?"

Erik Vale
2013-01-17, 01:19 PM
That would leave you with a very dead character - very dead as in a wish or miracle won't bring you back because the dark power you cast the spell in the name of and insulted must be destroyed before you're getting free. Good luck with that.

No, I was thinking of Level 1 Wizards/Clerics sacrificing 1HD commoners to become level 4 Wizards/Clerics. [However this is now a cleric only spell].


It's not silly, since as you said yourself "entire campaigns have been run around keeping this spell from being cast" which is entirely outside the realm of a first level spell, AND you made it a cleric spell, a class which knows every spell on their class's spell list. Literally, every cleric (good ones can fall to temptation; they'd automatically know the spell exists and how to cast it) is a possible world-ending danger at this point and I don't know of divinations that can explicitly tell you the names of everyone in the setting who MIGHT in the future cast a particular 1st level spell, or has the Use Magic Device skill, a scroll, and zero morals.


This.

Tanuki Tales
2013-01-17, 01:32 PM
Why have spells at all? Why not just toss out the dice and run everything ad hoc??

Silly counterpoint indeed.

Thank you completely for Strawmanning my point when I was giving an honest critique of your "spell".

What you haven't made is a spell. What you have made is what some systems would treat as a completely separate thing from their spell system (or would be their entire magic system) or is something that would be tied to a major artifact or something similar.

It's not my fault if you've done the equivalent of taking a jackhammer and wanting to call it a piece of fishing equipment (not the best metaphor, but I've just woken up).

But if that's how you're going to treat my opinion, I think I'll take my leave.

Alias
2013-01-17, 01:38 PM
It's not silly, since as you said yourself "entire campaigns have been run around keeping this spell from being cast" which is entirely outside the realm of a first level spell, AND you made it a cleric spell, a class which knows every spell on their class's spell list.

I have never ran it that way, and I strongly, strongly advise against it as it makes divine characters far too powerful. The cleric has access to the PHB spells, and that's it. The prayer rites required for other spells, including this one, must be discovered in play. Just because a spell is 1st level does not mean it's not rare.

JoshuaZ
2013-01-17, 02:21 PM
I have never ran it that way, and I strongly, strongly advise against it as it makes divine characters far too powerful. The cleric has access to the PHB spells, and that's it. The prayer rites required for other spells, including this one, must be discovered in play. Just because a spell is 1st level does not mean it's not rare.

But:


A cleric may prepare and cast any spell on the cleric spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.

It is extremely difficult for people to know how to evaluate or to comment on anything you propose when they are major unstated modifications on how classes work that take a 10 messages to get through. Moreover, such differences make listing your homebrew with no comment much less helpful to other people to decide if something is something they could use or would want to use in their campaigns. See also the illusion of transparency (http://lesswrong.com/lw/ke/illusion_of_transparency_why_no_one_understands/).

Yitzi
2013-01-17, 05:28 PM
-Instead of a first-level spell, would it make more sense as a Prestige Class class feature?
-Perhaps if done often it should have some marked nasty effect on the world as a whole?

lesser_minion
2013-01-17, 07:01 PM
It is extremely difficult for people to know how to evaluate or to comment on anything you propose when they are major unstated modifications on how classes work that take a 10 messages to get through.

While your point is fine in general, there are no "major unstated modifications on how classes work" here.

The default way to incorporate any homebrewed spell into a campaign is as the fruits of independent research (indeed, doing it this way is actually RAW). An independently researched divine spell cannot be cast by any caster of the right class, only by the individual who researched it and those with whom he shares it.

Obviously, you can state that your spell is an extension to the appropriate spell list, but that is not, in fact, the default.

JoshuaZ
2013-01-17, 07:19 PM
While your point is fine in general, there are no "major unstated modifications on how classes work" here.

The default way to incorporate any homebrewed spell into a campaign is as the fruits of independent research (indeed, doing it this way is actually RAW). An independently researched divine spell cannot be cast by any caster of the right class, only by the individual who researched it and those with whom he shares it.

Obviously, you can state that your spell is an extension to the appropriate spell list, but that is not, in fact, the default.

Alias said "The cleric has access to the PHB spells, and that's it." That's not how one even incorporates official splat books. And the default assumption for spells being homebrewed is that they work how other spells for a class work, unless one stated otherwise. In this context, there's a standard rule for how clerics work, and if one doesn't want to do so one should state it explicitly.