Death Sphere
From Titan's Teeth
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You may command the powers of unlife.
Ghost Strike
Some Death talents are designated (ghost strike), which provide you with additional types of ghost strikes. You gain the following ghost strike when you gain the Death sphere:
Exhausting strike: The subject of your ghost strike becomes fatigued for 1 round per caster level (Fortitude negates). You may spend a spell point to increases this effect to making the target exhausted for 1 minute per caster level (Fortitude negates). On a successful save, the target is still fatigued for 1 round. Unlike regular fatigue and exhaustion, these conditions end as soon as the duration expires.Reanimate
Base Talents
Death Talents (Ghost Strike Types)
Bleeding Wounds
You may make a ghost strike that deals 1 bleed damage per 2 caster levels (minimum: 1; no save). Targets take damage on the round they are hit, plus each additional round until the bleed effect stops (usually through the Heal skill or an application of magical healing). You may spend a spell point before making this ghost strike to improve this effect to 1 bleed damage per caster level (minimum: 2).
Command Undead
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that grants you a measure of control over an undead creature (Will negates). For 1 minute per caster level, an unintelligent undead creature falls under your control or an intelligent undead become friendly toward you. You can give an intelligent undead creature 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.
Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the commanded undead (regardless of its Intelligence) breaks this effect. Your commands are not telepathic; the undead creature must be able to hear you. Intelligent undead remember they were manipulated and may seek revenge.
Curse
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that bestows a permanent curse on the target (Will negates). Curses may be removed with the Break Enchantment Life talent, upon your death, or by your choice as a free action, but otherwise cannot be dispelled.
Choose one of the following effects to bestow upon the target (with GM permission you may invent your own curse, but it should not be more powerful than these):
- The target suffers 1d6 points of non-lethal damage every minute spent in bright light
- The target becomes blind except when in areas of dim light or darkness
- The target must eat and drink twice as much as normal or begin suffering from starvation
- The target becomes vulnerable to a single energy type (this cannot affect a creature already immune to that energy type—apply vulnerability before protection or resistance)
- The target suffers the penalties (but not bonuses) of advancing to the next age category
Drain
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that imposes 1 temporary negative level on the target for one hour per caster level (no save). This increases by 1 die size per 5 caster levels (1d2, 1d3, 1d4, and 1d6). Unlike with other ghost strikes, negative levels stack. While normally negative levels have a chance to become permanent and can kill a target whose negative levels equal its Hit Dice, these negative levels do not last long enough to become permanent, and if a negative level would reduce the creature to 0 Hit Dice, the creature instead takes 4 points of Constitution drain for the duration of the effect.
If a negative level lasts longer than 1 day, the target must pass a Fortitude save per negative level or have the negative level become permanent. If this ability is used on an undead creature, it instead grants the creature 5 temporary hit points per negative level, which last for 1 hour.
Inflict Disease
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that causes the target to contract a disease (Fortitude negates). The subject contracts one of the following diseases:
blinding sickness, bubonic plague, cackle fever, filth fever, leprosy, mindfire, red ache, shakes, or slimy doom.
The disease is contracted immediately (the onset period does not apply). Use the disease’s listed frequency and save DC to determine further effects.
Manipulate Undeath
You may make a ghost strike that harms undead, dealing 1d8 damage per 2 caster levels (minimum: 1d8, Will half). You may spend a spell point to instead heal the undead for this amount.
Necrotic Feeding
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that, when it strikes a target with -1 or fewer hit points, kills it instantly (Will negates). If the target fails their saving throw, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice the target’s Hit Dice, as well as a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength and Dexterity, which increases to +4 if the target has 8 HD or more and +6 if the target has 16 HD or more.
These effects last for 10 minutes per HD of the slain creature. Bonuses from multiple creature do not stack; only the highest bonuses apply.
Sickening
You may make a ghost strike that causes the target to be sickened for 1 round per caster level (Fortitude negates). You may spend a spell point to cause the target to instead become nauseated. On a successful save, the target is still sickened for 1 round.
Vampiric Strike
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that deals 1d6 damage per 2 caster levels to the target (minimum: 1d6) and grants yourself an equal number of temporary hit points that last 1 minute per caster level (Fortitude half). You cannot gain more temporary hit points in this manner than the subject’s current hit points + their Constitution score. If you strike multiple targets at once with the same vampiric strike (for example, through the Greater Ghost Strike talent) you cannot gain more temporary hit points than 3 per caster level (minimum: 6). As always, temporary hit points do not stack.
Weakening
You may make a ghost strike that inflicts a 1d4 point penalty to the target’s Strength or Dexterity (your choice, Fortitude negates) for 1 round per level. You may spend a spell point to increase this reduction by half your caster level (minimum: 1) and cause a successful Fortitude save to only halve the effect instead of negate it. This cannot reduce the target’s Strength or Dexterity scores to less than 1.
Death Talents (Ghost Strike Modifiers)
Cryptic Strike
As a standard action, you may make a single ranged or melee attack coupled with a ghost strike. If the attack hits, the target is also affected by the ghost strike.
Killing Curse
Your ghost strike can rip the very soul from the living. If a target fails their saving throws against your ghost strike 3 times within a 1-minute period, they immediately die (Fortitude negates).
If a ghost strike does not allow a save, it is not usable with this talent.
Death Talents (Reanimate)
Empowered Reanimate
All creatures you reanimate gain a +4 enhancement bonus to their Strength and Dexterity
Expanded Necromancy
When you reanimate a creature, you may reanimate it as a bloody skeleton, burning skeleton, fast zombie, or plague zombie.
When reanimating a creature in this way, they count as twice their Hit Dice against the total amount you may have reanimated at once.
Greater Reanimate
Increase the total Hit Dice of creatures you may have reanimated at once by an additional 1 per caster level.
You may select this talent up to 3 times.
Lingering Necromancy
When you reanimate a corpse or corpses, they remain for 1 hour per caster level instead of 1 minute per caster level.
Mass Reanimate
When using your reanimate ability, you may spend an additional spell point to reanimate multiple creatures at once. All corpses to be reanimated must be within Close range. Your Hit Dice limits apply to the total number you may reanimate at once with this ability.
Necrotic Senses
As a full-round action, you may concentrate on one undead creature under your control. This allows you to perceive that creature’s surroundings as if you were standing where that creature was. While you may use the creature’s special sense (i.e., Darkvision, etc.), you must use your own Perception skill if making a check. Only targets completely under your control are valid; charmed undead are not truly under your control, and as such as such do not qualify.
Advanced Talents
Death Talents (Necromancy)
Greater Undead
Prerequisite: Lingering Necromancy, Permanent Undead, 15th caster level or higher.
You may spend 3 spell points and 1 hour to reanimate a body as a greater form of undead, including banshees, vampires, wrights, and others.
This is always an instantaneous effect, creating permanent undead that cannot be dispelled. These undead are not automatically under your control; alternate means of control must be established beyond your usual HD limits.
Many undead have specific requirements for their creation listed in their descriptions (banshees are the spirits of female elves who either betrayed a lover or were betrayed by one, Bodak’s are extraplanar undead created in the Abyss, Allip’s are the spirits of insane suicides, etc.). These prerequisites must be met in order to create a specific kind of undead.
Permanent Undead
Prerequisite: Lingering Necromancy, 5th caster level or higher.
When you reanimate a corpses as a skeleton or zombie, you may spend 2 spell points to make the reanimation an instantaneous effect. The undead creature exists independent of your concentration, has no duration, and cannot be dispelled.
These undead still count against the total number of undead you may have reanimated at any one time. If you create more undead than your total, old permanent undead are not destroyed; instead, they are simply released from service and will attack you or any other nearby living creature.
Soul Trap
Prerequisite: 15th caster level or higher.
As a standard action, when adjacent to a creature that has died very recently (within 1 round per caster level) you may spend 3 spell points to trap their soul into a gem. The target is allowed a Will save to negate the effect, and the gemstone’s value must be at least 1,000 gp per HD of the creature you are attempting to trap.
If successful, the creature’s soul becomes trapped within the gemstone. A trapped creature cannot be resurrected or have its spirit summoned, unless the caster is in possession of this gemstone. The creature trapped inside the gemstone always fails its saving throws if the holder of the gemstone uses the Summon Spirit advanced Death talent on it.
If the gemstone is broken, the spirit is released. If the spirit is called through the Summon Spirit advanced Death talent, the caster may choose to release the spirit, in which case it travels to the afterlife, leaving the gem empty and reusable.
Summon Spirit
Prerequisite: 5th caster level or higher.
You may spend 3 spell points and 1 hour to summon the spirit of a dead creature. You must know the exact creature you are trying to summon and be able to designate them (such as their name or place and time of death, etc.) and the more familiar you are with the spirit and the more recently they died, the more likely they are to appear. The spirit you are trying to summon is allowed a Will save with the following modifiers depending on your knowledge and connection to the target, as well as its time of death:
| Knowledge | Will Save Modifier |
|---|---|
| None* | +10 |
| Secondhand (you have heard of the subject) | +5 |
| Firsthand (you have met the subject) | +0 |
| Familiar (you know the subject well) | -5 |
*You must have some sort of connection (see below) to a creature of which you have no knowledge.
| Connection | Will Save Modifier |
|---|---|
| Likeness or picture | -2 |
| Possession or garment | -4 |
| Corpse/remains | -10 |
| Time the Creature has been Dead | Will Save Modifier |
|---|---|
| 1 year | +2 |
| 10 year | +4 |
| 100 year | +6 |
| 1000 year | +8 |
On a successful saving throw, the target does not appear and may choose to retaliate spiritually, giving you 2 temporary negative levels that last 24 hours (meaning you must save against them becoming permanent). While friends may choose to purposefully fail their saving throw and come willingly, in most other cases being ripped from the afterlife is a horrid experience and can turn even the nicest of spirits hostile. If a spirit makes their saving throw against this effect they cannot be summoned again by the same caster for 1 month. Sometimes, the spirits of heroes, kings, and others are protected by Deity and are simply unable to be summoned.
Once a spirit has been summoned, you may do any of the following:
- 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 may be brief, cryptic, or repetitive. A creature who would have opposed you in life may make a new Will save to refuse to answer or to lie with the Bluff skill.
- You may use the spirit as a component when creating an animated object or undead creature (Will negates if unwilling; if the spirit makes its save, it immediately returns to the afterlife as if it had made its original saving throw).
You must create the undead creature or animated object as usual, but by placing the spirit into the target, the spirit is brought back to life within this new body. The object or undead creature gains the mental attributes, personality, memories, etc. of the selected spirit, but otherwise is normal for its new creature type. (At the GM’s discretion, a spirit bound to a permanent animated object or undead creature may recover or gain class levels over time, but loses at least 1 level per Hit Die of its new form.)
An undead creature or animated object created in this way is not automatically under your control. - If you possess the Resurrection advanced Life talent, you may place the spirit into a new body, bringing the soul back to life, even if you do not have the target’s body, it is missing vital components, or the target has been dead for up to 1 year per caster level.
You must possess either a soulless body (such as one created through the Fleshcraft and Create Materials advanced Creation talents), or else a body assembled from other, recently slain bodies. (Assembly requires either the target’s body with one additional body for every replaced vital component, or else a minimum of six different bodies—one for each limb, the torso including head, and the brain. In some cases, more bodies may be necessary.
Special unguents and bindings worth 500 gp are also required.)
You may bring the target back to life with the Resurrection advanced Life talent. The target retains its ability scores and class levels (even those dependent on blood, such as sorcerer levels) but its race and appearance depend on the body possessed.
Death Talents (Project Spirit)
Astral Projection
Prerequisites: Project Spirit, 10th caster level or higher.
When using the Project Spirit advanced Death talent, you may spend an additional spell point to project your spirit into the Astral Plane instead of the Ethereal Plane.
You may bring up to 1 additional willing creature per 2 caster levels with you, provided these creatures are linked in a circle with you at the time. These fellow travelers are dependent upon you and must accompany you at all times. If something happens to you during the journey, your companions are stranded wherever you left them.
While you are on the Astral Plane, your astral body is connected at all times to your physical body by an incorporeal silver cord. If the cord is broken, you are killed, astrally and physically. Luckily, very few things can destroy a silver cord.
Unlike a regular use of the Project Spirit talent, you and your companions may travel through the Astral Plane in this manner indefinitely, until you either choose to end the effect (which returns you to your body) or it is ended by some outside means.
This effect may be dispelled like any other sphere effect by targeting either your astral form or your physical body. Dispelling this effect immediately returns you to your body.
Astral Travel
Prerequisite: Astral Projection, Project Spirit, 15th caster level or higher.
When projecting yourself and/or your allies into the Astral Plane, you may spend an additional spell point (bringing the total to 3) to allow you and your allies to travel astrally to any of the other planes that border the Astral Plane. If you choose to enter one of these planes, you form a new physical body (and equipment) on that plane of existence, exactly like your true form, although the silver cord remains invisibly attached to this new body, and magic items used still count against the item’s total uses.
You are still subject to the weaknesses of an astral form (you may be dispelled, your cord may be broken, etc.). If your new form is killed, you are returned to your original body, gaining 2 permanent negative levels as normal.
Possession
Prerequisite: Project Spirit, 10th caster level or higher.
When you project your spirit by use of the Project Spirit advanced Death talent, you may move into the same space as a material creature and attempt to possess it.
You must spend a spell point to attempt a possession, and the target is allowed a Will save to negate. If their saving throw fails, the target’s soul is repressed, and yours assumes control of the body. You may only possess a physical creature with a soul (this includes most living creatures and intelligent undead but not constructs, unintelligent undead, or outsiders).
Attempting to possess a body is a full-round action. You may only attempt to possess a creature once during any individual projection of your spirit.
If you are successful, your life force occupies the host body. You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, mental abilities, extraordinary abilities, supernatural abilities, and magical abilities such as spells and sphere abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal. You cannot choose to activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature’s spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.
You may possess a body for up to 1 hour per caster level, but may always end the effect early as a standard action. If the host body is slain, you return to your body and suffer 2 permanent negative levels. As is usual when projecting your spirit, this effect may be dispelled at either your body or the host’s body.
Project Spirit
Prerequisite: 10th caster level or higher.
You may spend a spell point to project your spirit out of your body for up to 1 round per caster level. During this time, your body falls into a state of suspended animation; it requires neither food nor water and does not age, although it may be slain through normal means.
Your spirit manifests as an ethereal version of you with your hit points and abilities, and carries a copy of all of your equipment. It is invisible, insubstantial, and capable of moving in any direction, even up or down, albeit at half normal speed. It can move through solid objects, including living creatures, and may see and hear its surroundings, although as it is on the Ethereal Plane, it can only see and hear the Material Plane to a distance of 60 ft.
When the time limit expires, your spirit immediately returns to your body.
Using magic items (such as scrolls, wands, potions, and other items with a limited number of charges or uses per day) while ethereal counts against the item’s total remaining uses when you return to your body.
Your spirit cannot attack or otherwise affect creatures and objects on the Material Plane nor generally be affected by them, although some effects (such as force damage) specifically target ethereal creatures when used by material creatures. Certain material creatures or objects also have attacks or effects that can specifically affect creatures on the Ethereal Plane. These effects do not work in reverese to allow your spirit to affect material creatures. Your spirit treats other ethereal creatures and ethereal objects as if they were material. Your spirit may use any magic you possess, but such magic can only affect other ethereal things.
If your spirit self is slain, your spirit instantly returns to your body, reviving it from its state of suspended animation. This is a traumatic affair, however, and you gain two permanent negative levels.