Madness & Shadow: Spells for the Dark Tapestry

[Palanan]

I’m finishing up a Dark Tapestry oracle, and I need suggestions for spells that would complement the theme of darkness, insanity and general sociopathic creepiness.

The oracle is fourth level, so I’m looking for suggestions for first- and second-level spells. I’m open to all official Paizo sources, and official 3.5 material on a case-by-case basis. Does anything especially creepy come to mind?

[Geddy2112]

With the right fluff, almost any spell can be creepy. Making a spell creepy is largely thematic, although you are going to be mostly looking at spells that target enemies with a negative effect.
0 level:bleed, stabilize, and with enough creepy all the orisons can be unnerving and unnatural. Purify food and drink to make rotten moldy maggot infested bread edible, or stabilizing lethal wounds...
1st level: bane, curse water, dancing lantern, deathwatch, detect evil/undead/demon/bad things, doom, grasping corpse, infernal healing, shadow trap, touch of blindness.
2nd level: Blinding ray, bloodbath, blood blaze, darkness, death whispers, death candle/knell, deathwine, defending bone, delay pain/poison/disease, desecrate, disfiguring touch, dread bolt, flickering lights, instrument of agony,savage maw, sentry skull, whispering lore.

[Psyren]

I have some suggestions for 1st level:

Bane/Doom
Cause Fear
Command/Murderous Command
Face of the Devourer
Know The Enemy
Ray of Sickening
Touch of Blindness

I wouldn't pick all of them but there are some decent ones there.

2nd the pickings are a bit slimmer.

[Florian]

These are the spells in the Necronomicon:

9th—astral projection, major mind
swap*, OA, teleportation circle, time
stop, weird
8th—binding, create greater undead,
dimensional lock, discern location,
symbol of insanity
7th—banishment, contact entity IVHA, control
undead, dream councilOA, ethereal
jaunt, greater teleport, insanity,
teleport object
6th—create undead, legend lore, mass
suggestion, mind swapOA, night terrorsHA,
phobiaHA, symbol of fear, telepahtyOA,
true seeing
5th—break enchantment, contact entity IIIHA, contact other
plane, dismissal, dream, impossible anglesHA, locate
gateHA, nightmare, sending, teleport
4th—animate dead, black tentacles, confusion, dimension
door, dimensional anchor, fear, mad sultan’s melodyHA,
phantasmal killer, scrying
3rd—clairaudience/clairvoyance, contact entity IIHA,
illusory script, oneiric horrorOA, secret page, suggestion,
vampiric touch
2nd—command undead, contact entity IHA, detect thoughts,
hypnotic pattern, scare, see invisibility
1st—cause fear, endure elements, erase, hypnotism,
identify, obscuring mist

[peacenlove]

Tome of magic has some shadowcaster mysteries that might fill the bill.
Especially afraid of the dark, consume essence and truth revealed.

[Val666]

The Yellow Sign YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!

Edit: Also I find Water of Maddening very fitting.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Geddy2112
With the right fluff, almost any spell can be creepy. Making a spell creepy is largely thematic, although you are going to be mostly looking at spells that target enemies with a negative effect.


Originally Posted by Psyren
I have some suggestions for 1st level:

These lists are quite helpful, thanks to you both.


Originally Posted by Florian
2nd—command undead, contact entity IHA, detect thoughts,
hypnotic pattern, scare, see invisibility
1st—cause fear, endure elements, erase, hypnotism,
identify, obscuring mist

And these are helpful as well, thanks. I assume “HA” is Horror Adventures, although “IHA” was a little confusing.

Contact Entity is an interesting spell, and perfectly thematic, but also rather iffy. The entities are sort of…out there, maybe? And they’ll wander your way, eventually, if they feel like it? And you might run across them, or you might not, depending on where you end up going?

As a DM it’s a little tricky, because the entities are vaguely around the area where the PCs and the bad guys are operating…but it also feels like I need to force an encounter just to make use of the spell.

And as a player, this would drive me crazy, because it’s not really a useful summons. Not quite sure how this spell is meant to be used.

[Florian]

These lists are quite helpful, thanks to you both.



And these are helpful as well, thanks. I assume “HA” is Horror Adventures, although “IHA” was a little confusing.

Contact Entity is an interesting spell, and perfectly thematic, but also rather iffy. The entities are sort of…out there, maybe? And they’ll wander your way, eventually, if they feel like it? And you might run across them, or you might not, depending on where you end up going?

As a DM it’s a little tricky, because the entities are vaguely around the area where the PCs and the bad guys are operating…but it also feels like I need to force an encounter just to make use of the spell.

And as a player, this would drive me crazy, because it’s not really a useful summons. Not quite sure how this spell is meant to be used.

That got copy-pasta-mangled. Check the whole list and you'll find that they're tagged IHA, IIHA, IIIHA and so on.... so the "I" is the version of the spell, HA is Horror Adventures.

Spell of the Contact or Entice series work a bit different than their Planar counterpart, by assuming that the creatures are a regular part of the setting and around on the same plane that you are. It´s like you use the spell to fire up a meeting request and the nearest one will answer any way it can. Yes, that can be easy if the creature can teleport or has starflight, you've gotta camp and wait for something that has to cross the distance by walking.

As a tool, it´s way more subtile and powerful than the brute force of a Planar spell, when you know your lore and you know what you can get out of it. (That requires that you've read your Lovecraft, especially the Dreamquest)

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Florian
Spell of the Contact or Entice….

You mean Contact Entity, right? Autocorrect strikes again?


Originally Posted by Florian
It´s like you use the spell to fire up a meeting request….

And this is hilarious. :smallbiggrin:


Originally Posted by Florian
…assuming that the creatures are a regular part of the setting….

This is the real trick, since many settings won’t have nightgaunts or mi-go just chillin’ at the local crossroads. It seems to me this is really up to DM fiat, so the mechanics of the spell seem unreliable from a player’s perspective.

In this case I’m the DM, and I can fiat away, but it ends up feeling contrived. I could wish that this was some sort of contact/summon combo instead, one which calls creatures but isn’t very precise about where they show up. That could have some real RP and story potential—especially if a PC tries summoning something to help in a pinch, which instead starts wreaking havoc five towns away.

.

[Florian]

Nah. Besides "Contact Entity", there're other spell line, like "Entice Fey", that work on a similar principle.

Besides that, there's a huge number of spells, abilities, monsters, and so on, that assume that their usage will have a direkt effect on in-game reality. The critters for Summon Nature´s Ally will have to arrive from somewhere, as do the ones when a Vampire uses Children Of The Night, and so and so on. The rues simply don't work for a "simulation" of a static and fixed game world.

You fire up a Contact III to get in touch with a Denizen of Leng, then these outsiders are in play, as is the Plateau, the rubies and Black Ships. *snip* done, reality changed. (Or that spell is banned...)