Death Rituals

Main > Magic > Rituals > Death

Name	Level
Brief Virulence	0	Increases a poison's DC by 2 for 1 minute.
Sculpt Corpse	1	Change the appearance of a corpse.
Command The Dead	2	Charm an intelligent or unintelligent undead.
Corpse Lantern	2	Create four spheres of light which reveal illusions and hidden creatures.
False Life	2	Gain 1d10 + 1/level temporary hit points.
Gentle Repose	2	Prevents decay of dead creature or body parts.
Speak With The Ancestors	3	You may ask a corpse a number of questions
Rest Eternal	4	Prevent a corpse from being returned to life or undeath
Final Meeting	7	Bring a person back to life for 24 hours

Brief Virulence

Sphere Death; Ritual Level 0
Casting Time 1 minute
Scroll Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S , M (a bit of diseased or poisoned flesh worth 1 gp)
Duration 1 minute
Increases the virulence of a poison, increasing its DC by 2 for the next minute.

Can also be cast on a creature with a venomous attack. The first time a creature is affected by its venomous attack within the next minute the attack's DC is increased by 2.

Command The Dead

This ritual allows you a degree of control over an undead creature.

‌Sphere Death; Ritual Level 2
Casting Time 10 minutes
Scroll Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 10 gp)
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 caster levels)
Duration 1 day/caster level
Saving Throw Will negates; see text (SR yes)

‌If the subject is intelligent, it perceives your words and actions favorably (treat its attitude as friendly). It will not attack you while the spell lasts. You can give the subject orders, but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn’t ordinarily do. Retries are not allowed. An intelligent commanded undead never obeys suicidal or obviously harmful orders, but it might be convinced that something very dangerous is worth doing.

A nonintelligent undead creature gets no saving throw against this spell. When you control a mindless being, you can communicate only basic commands, such as “come here,” “go there,” “fight,” “stand still,” and so on. Nonintelligent undead won’t resist suicidal or obviously harmful orders.

Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the commanded undead (regardless of its Intelligence) breaks the spell.

Your commands are not telepathic. The undead creature must be able to hear you.

Corpse Lantern

Sphere Death; Ritual Level 2
Casting Time 10 minutes
Scroll Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 10 gp)
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./caster level)
Duration 1 minute/caster level (D)
You create up to four spheres of light, each of which glows a sickly pale green. These corpse lanterns shed dim light in a 20-foot radius, and do not increase the light level in areas of normal light or bright light. In dim or normal light, the radiance of corpse lanterns provides a strange contrast, giving all creatures in the area a –5 penalty on Stealth checks. In addition, the hue interferes with illusion (pattern) spells, giving all creatures in the illuminated area a +2 bonus on any saving throws against such spells.

The lanterns must stay within a 10-foot-radius area in relation to each other but otherwise move as you desire (no concentration required): forward or back, up or down, straight or turning corners, or the like. The lanterns can move up to 100 feet per round. A lantern winks out if the distance between you and it exceeds the spell’s range. If you have more than one corpse lantern ritual running, you can only control the movement of one at a time.

False Life

You harness the power of unlife to grant yourself a limited ability to avoid death.

‌Sphere Death; Ritual Level 2
Casting Time 10 minutes
Scroll Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 10 gp)
Duration 1 hour/caster level (D)
While this ritual is in effect, you gain temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + 1 per caster level (maximum +10).

Final Meeting

You restore temporary life to a body.

‌Sphere Death; Ritual Level 7
Casting Time 8 hours
Scroll Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 500 gp, diamond dust worth 500 gp)
Duration 24 hours
The spell lasts for 24 hours, after which the target dies again. You must be in possession of at least 50% of the original body (though it may be in any state of decomposition).

The target gains 1 permanent negative level while under the effect of this spell; this negative level goes away when the target dies.

The target still counts as a dead corpse (but not undead) for the purpose of magic that revive dead creatures.

Gentle Repose

Sphere Life or Death; Ritual Level 2
Casting Time 10 minutes
Scroll Casting Time —
Components V, S , M (titan's teeth worth 10 gp)
Range touch
Duration 1 day/caster level
You preserve the remains of a dead creature so that they do not decay. The spell also works on severed body parts and the like.

Rest Eternal

You place a curse upon a dead creature that bars its spirit from returning.

‌Sphere Death; Ritual Level 4
Casting Time 1 hour
Scroll Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 50 gp)
Anyone casting a spell or ritual that would communicate with the dead creature, return it to life, or turn it into an undead creature must succeed on a caster level check with a DC of 11 plus your caster level. Rest eternal cannot be dispelled by any effect with a caster level lower than that used in the casting of the ritual.

Sculpt Corpse

With a clammy caress and a word to the powers lurking beyond death, you can reshape a dead body look like another creature or even a specific person so long as you have firsthand knowledge of how that creature or person actually looks.

‌Sphere Death; Ritual Level 1
Casting Time 5 minutes
Scroll Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 5 gp)
You can make the corpse one size larger or smaller and change anything else about it including its apparent type, gender, or age.

Creatures with a reason to suspect deception may make a Will Saving Throw to realize that the corpse was altered. If you chose to make the corpse look like a specific individual anyone who knows that individual can make a Will save to realize that the corpse is not actually that person. However, if a creature fails its Will save by 5 or less they believe the corpse is that of someone who closely resembled the person they knew rather than a deliberate fake.

This spell merely changes the appearance of the corpse. Any spell or effect that targets the corpse (such as speak with dead or raise dead) treats it as if it still had its original appearance.

Speak With The Ancestors

You grant the semblance of life to a corpse, allowing it to answer questions.

‌Sphere Death or Divination; Ritual Level 3
Casting Time 30 minutes
Scroll Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S , M (necrotic components worth 25 gp)
Duration 1 minute/caster level
You may ask one question per two caster levels. The corpse’s knowledge is limited to what it knew during life, including the languages it spoke. Answers are brief, cryptic, or repetitive, especially if the creature would have opposed you in life.

If the dead creature’s alignment was different from yours, the corpse gets a Will save to resist the ritual as if it were alive. If successful, the corpse can refuse to answer your questions or attempt to deceive you, using Bluff. The soul can only speak about what it knew in life. It cannot answer any questions that pertain to events that occurred after its death.

If the corpse has been subject to speak with dead within the past week, the new ritual fails. You can cast this ritual on a corpse that has been deceased for any amount of time, but the body must be mostly intact to be able to respond. A damaged corpse may be able to give partial answers or partially correct answers, but it must at least have a mouth in order to speak at all. This spell does not affect a corpse that has been turned into an undead creature.