Greater Holy Word (spell)

[rferries]

A triple-whammy spell that attacks all three saving throws and has some extra effects on top of that. No spell resistance or immunities allowed, you have to succeed on your saves the hard way. A much better alternative to Summon Monster 9 as the Good domain capstone.

Greater Holy Word
Evocation [Good]

Level:	Good 9
Components:	V
Casting Time:	1 round
Range:	80 ft.
Area:	Nongood creatures in a 80-ft.-radius spread centered on you
Duration:	Instantaneous
Saving Throw:	See text
Spell Resistance:	No

You utter a lengthy word of ultimate holy power. Any nongood creature within the area suffers the following ill effects (regardless of whether or not they actually hear the word):

Dispel
All active nongood spells, active spells cast by nongood creatures and nongood magic items in the area of effect are dispelled as if by a greater dispel magic spell of your caster level (with a maximum bonus on the dispel check of +25). Until your next turn, a counterspell attempt is automatically made against any nongood spell or spell cast by a nongood creature as if by the same greater dispel magic.

Rapture
All nongood creatures in the area are instantly converted to a Good alignment on the moral (Good vs. Evil) axis. Creatures converted in this way do not suffer the other effects of the spell. Fiends converted in this way gain the Ascendant Fiend creature template. Mindless creatures converted in this way are still mindless, but generally act in benign ways in future. A successful Will saving throw negates all these effects.

Banish
All nongood outsiders with CRs less than your caster level are automatically banished to their home plane and permanently shaken. Outsiders that are already on their home plane or that have a CR greater than your caster level are not subject to the banishing, but they still become shaken.

Awe
All nongood creatures in the area are permanently blinded and deafened and take 1 point of Charisma drain per caster level (maximum 25 points). A successful Fortitude saving throw negates the deafness, reduces the blindness to being permanently dazzled, and reduces the Charisma drain to one point of Charisma damage per two caster levels.

Smite
The spell deals 1d4 points of damage per caster level (maximum 25d4) to each nongood creature in the area (or 1d8 points of damage per caster level, maximum 25d8, to a nongood outsider). A successful Reflex saving throw reduces the damage to half.

Creatures that would normally ignore or be immune to any of the effects of this spell by any means (including incorporeality, magic immunity, blindsight, immunity to mind-affecting effects, immunity to effects requiring Fortitude saves, the Improved Evasion class feature, and the like) are not immune unless they have at least Divine Rank 0.

[JNAProductions]

Dispel seems really nice, but also makes you quite susceptible to friendly fire. Not a ton of good-aligned magic items, even if ally our teammates are good-aligned.

Rapture... Seems off. And evil. You're forcibly changing people.

Banish, I don't like the permanently shaken with no save. That's a pretty big penalty to last FOREVER, with no way of negating it.

Awe, similar complaints as to Banish. Permanent Dazzling on a successful save, while not AS bad, is still kinda mean.

Smite seems fine.

Question-does Rapture apply first, last, or somewhere in the middle? Because if it goes first, it could render a creature immune to most of the other effects.

[Kaskus]

I agree regarding Rapture. I'm not a fan in general though of messing with alignments.

As far as the conditions go, Heal removes both the dazzled and shaken condition. Using a level 6 spell to combat the effects of a level 9 spell seems fine.

I also agree that the order in which the effects takes place should be explained.

[rferries]

Dispel seems really nice, but also makes you quite susceptible to friendly fire. Not a ton of good-aligned magic items, even if ally our teammates are good-aligned.

Rapture... Seems off. And evil. You're forcibly changing people.

Banish, I don't like the permanently shaken with no save. That's a pretty big penalty to last FOREVER, with no way of negating it.

Awe, similar complaints as to Banish. Permanent Dazzling on a successful save, while not AS bad, is still kinda mean.

Smite seems fine.

Question-does Rapture apply first, last, or somewhere in the middle? Because if it goes first, it could render a creature immune to most of the other effects.

Dispel is something of a scorched earth policy; in combination with the 1-round casting time it helps justify the power of the effects.

I intended greater restoration as a counter for the shaken effect and heal as a counter for the dazzling, but you're right in that this should all be explicitly laid out (I may also add that dispel evil, break enchantment, wish, and miracle can remove these effects). Perhaps I'll just switch the shaken effect to "nongood outsiders take a -4 penalty on saves against this spell".

The order was intended to be as written - ideally Dispel removes any protections, then Rapture gives a chance for creatures to survive the rest of the spell and become allies of the caster, then Banish sends Outsiders away (or at least makes them susceptible to the other effects), and so on. You both make a good point that the order should be clearly defined though.

Rapture isn't evil - you'll note it's explicitly not a mind-affecting effect and the spell doesn't have the [Evil] descriptor ;). Fluff-wise you give the creatures an epiphany about how they've wasted their lives on selfishness and would be much happier if they renounce their evil ways, and they can choose to lie to themselves and ignore the epiphany with a successful Will save.

I agree regarding Rapture. I'm not a fan in general though of messing with alignments.

As far as the conditions go, Heal removes both the dazzled and shaken condition. Using a level 6 spell to combat the effects of a level 9 spell seems fine.

I also agree that the order in which the effects takes place should be explained.

I wanted each save (Fort, Ref, Will) to have a traditional consequence (simple damage for Reflex a la fireball, "mind control" a la charm/compulsion for Will, stat effects and ability drain for Fort a la poison/blindness). I suppose Rapture could be the Charisma damage, or maybe a hold monster effect, or even a death effect, but I like the idea of the spell being so overwhelming Good it's like an unlimited Diplomacy check to convert enemies.

I'll think about the best order for the effects.


Thank you both for your feedback!