Occult Rituals

It’s a common belief that only those initiated in the rites and practices of arcane, divine, or psychic magic can cast spells, but this is not strictly true. Hidden within dusty libraries and amid the ramblings of lunatics lie the mysteries of another form of spellcasting—occult ritual magic. These spells are rare, coveted by both those eager to gain their power and those wishing to hide their existence. Most traditional spellcasters consider these rituals dangerous and uncontrollable, something to be avoided or used as a last resort. They fear the power these ceremonies grant to the uninitiated, as the rituals allow those with only a glimmering of understanding the ability to interact with the underlying fabric of magic.

While anyone can attempt to cast occult rituals, the process is fraught with peril. The strange and intricate incantations are often challenging to perform with precision, and failure can weaken the casters or even unleash horrors upon the world. Even when successfully performed, each occult ritual has a price—a backlash that affects at least the caster leading the ritual, and often those assisting in its performance.

Casting Occult Rituals

Before performing an occult ritual, the primary caster must assemble and ready all the components needed as well as any secondary casters. Some occult rituals require the casting to occur at a specific time or place; attempting to cast such rituals at a different time or a substandard location is nearly impossible.

Casting an occult ritual requires at least 10 minutes per ritual level and sometimes as long as 1 hour per ritual level. One of the casters—either the primary caster or a secondary caster who the primary caster specifies— attempts one of the skill checks required by the ritual every 10 minutes of the casting, unless the ritual takes 1 hour per caster level, in which case the caster attempts the check every hour of the ritual. These checks cannot benefit from the aid another action, and the caster attempting the check can’t take 10 or take 20, even if she has an ability that would normally allow her to do so when threatened or distracted.

Furthermore, because of the specific procedures of ritual casting, mundane equipment that grants bonuses on skill checks can’t usually increase the caster’s bonus on the checks required by the ritual, unless the GM allows it. Bonuses on the skill checks required for the ritual that are granted by feats, spells (with enough duration to last throughout the casting), traits, and magic items usually apply, at the GM’s discretion. The primary caster decides the order in which the various skill checks are attempted, but the GM rolls for the checks and tracks the progress of the ritual casting in secret. Once a ritual casting begins, it must be performed to its completion unless it’s disrupted by outside influences or fails.

The primary caster leads a ritual’s casting, often with the aid of a number of secondary casters. Secondary casters can be indispensable to the ritual’s casting even when they’re not taking an active role in ensuring its success. Unless stated otherwise in the ritual description, secondary casters must be within 100 feet and line of effect of the primary caster and each other during the entirety of a ritual’s casting.

If a ritual allows the participation of secondary casters, in such cases, the ritual’s Components line includes SC (secondary casters) as an entry, immediately followed by a parenthetical that details any maximum or minimum number of secondary casters required to cast the ritual.

If a ritual description has no secondary caster entry, that ritual does not permit the assistance of secondary casters.

While secondary casters can help by attempting the skill checks the primary caster assigns them, their chief purpose is to aid in the ritual’s casting. If a ritual’s casting is aided by at least four secondary casters, all casters gain a +1 bonus on all skill checks attempted as part of casting the occult ritual. This bonus increases by 1 for every four secondary casters beyond four (up to a maximum bonus of +5 for 20 or more secondary casters).

To cast an occult ritual, the primary caster must learn the ritual’s secrets (see Discovering Occult Rituals). Secondary casters can assist in the casting without fully understanding the intricacies of the ritual.

Since it is possible for those lacking the ability to cast arcane, divine, or psychic spells to cast rituals, variables that would normally rely on caster level (such as range and spell resistance) use the character level or total Hit Dice of the primary caster instead. This is the case even for a ritual caster who has the ability to cast spells. Characters with a caster level gain a +1 bonus on skill checks to cast a ritual, and this bonus increases by 1 for every 5 caster levels they possess (to a maximum of +5 at caster level 20th) as their understanding of the fundamentals of magic grows.

It’s difficult to disrupt a ritual. Casting a ritual does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and the casters can pause the ritual to engage in combat or take other actions though not without consequences. For each round an occult ritual is paused in this way, the DC of all the ritual’s subsequent skill checks increases by 1. For practical purposes, a ritual is successfully disrupted when its casting is paused for more than 1 minute or any of the casters are incapacitated, killed, or moved more than 100 feet from (or out of line of effect of ) all other casters.

If more than half the skill checks for an occult ritual are successful, the ritual succeeds, and the primary caster (and the secondary casters if specified) experiences the ritual’s backlash before the ritual’s effect occurs. The DC for a saving throw against a ritual’s effects (if applicable) is equal to 10 + the ritual level + the primary caster’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma bonus (whichever is highest).

If the casters fail half of the skill checks required for an occult ritual (rounded down), the ritual ends, the casters also experience the ritual’s backlash, and the failure consequences occur. The consequences of failure are detailed in each ritual’s description.

Ley Lines

A primary ritual caster with the ability to cast spells or use spell-like abilities can tap into a ley line within 30 feet by performing a simple ritual that takes 1 hour per 2 caster levels of the ley line. At the end of the ritual, the primary caster must succeed at a Spellcraft check (DC = 15 + the ley line’s caster level) to attune herself with the ley line. If she fails, she can try the attunement ritual anew. On a successful check, the primary caster and any secondary casters gain a +1 bonus on skill checks to cast an occult ritual using the ley line, provided they remain within 30 feet of the ley line. This bonus increases by 1 for every 5 caster levels of the ley line, to a maximum of +5.

This form of attunement can be broken in the standard ways described in Using Ley Lines.

Discovering Occult Rituals

The mysteries of occult rituals are jealously guarded secrets, often painstakingly obscured by a ritual’s originators or those who stumbled upon the obscure formulae detailing it.

The particulars of casting occult rituals are hidden within coded tomes, concealed in puzzles, or referenced only through allusions woven into esoteric tales. Recovering the casting method of an occult ritual can be an adventure within itself, something revealed by hallucinatory visions, coerced from an occult practitioner, or passed on by a true initiate hovering at death’s door and wishing for his genius to live beyond his mortal existence.

If an occult ritual is taught or its secrets are explained directly, it takes at least 1 day per ritual level to learn the method of its casting. Learning a ritual from hidden clues or from scratch takes a week or a month per ritual level (GM’s discretion). At the end of this period of study and contemplation, the person attempting to learn the ritual must succeed at an Intelligence check (DC = 15 + the ritual level if learning from clues or a coerced teacher, or DC = 10 + the ritual level if learning from an instructor eager to teach). Failing the check means the secrets of the ritual elude the learner’s understanding, though she can start the process anew at the same rate of potential discovery.

Creating Occult Rituals

While the occult rituals provided in this book give you numerous options with which to dabble, eventually you may want to create your own rituals. Creating a new occult ritual has five main steps.

Table: Modifying Occult Rituals
Casting Time Check DC Modifier or Modification
Casting time is restricted —4 (such as “only during a full moon”)
Casting time is severely restricted —8 (such as “only during a lunar eclipse”)
Focus and Material Components Check DC Modifier or Modification
Expensive material component (500 gp) —1
Expensive material component (5,000 gp) —2
Expensive material component (25,000 gp) —4
Expensive focus (5,000 gp) —1
Expensive focus (25,000 gp) —2
Range Check DC Modifier or Modification
Greater range than normal +1 to +6
Shorter range than normal —1 to —4
Area Check DC Modifier or Modification
Larger area than normal +1 to +6
Smaller area than normal —1 to —4
Target Check DC Modifier or Modification
Unwilling target must be helpless —2
Limited targets (by HD, creature type, and so on) —3
Single target to multiple targets +4
Duration Check DC Modifier or Modification
Greater duration than normal +1 to +6
Shorter duration than normal —1 to —4
One year or more Casting time in increments of 1 hour/level instead of 10 minutes/level
Backlash Check DC Modifier or Modification
Per 2d6 points of damage —1
Caster is exhausted —2
Per temporary negative level caster gains —2
Per permanent negative level caster gains —4
Caster reduced to —1 hp —3
Caster infected with disease —4
Caster suffers curse effects —4
Backlash affects secondary casters too —1

Step 1—Concept: As when creating any rules component, You should begin by deciding what you want the ritual to do. Rituals are often an interesting way to introduce unusually powerful magical effects into your game in a limited or controlled way. They can also introduce these effects in a manner that is more specific than similar higher-level spell effects. The ritual’s purpose should influence subsequent design decisions.

Step 2—Determine School: Once you have the concept for the ritual, next determine which school best suits the ritual’s effect, just as if it were any other type of spell. If you’re unsure which school is most appropriate, compare the effects with existing spells. If a ritual could have one or more possible schools, determine which is the most relevant school and use that one.

Step 3—Determine Ritual Level: This step involves setting the level of the occult ritual. Occult rituals are always equivalent to at least 4th-level spells. Often the best way to determine a ritual level is to compare it to other spells in the game. The ritual level determines how many total successes are required to cast the ritual, the DCs for the skill checks needed to complete the ritual, the save DC for the ritual’s effect (if applicable), and indirectly determines the ritual’s range and duration. The number of skill checks the ritual requires is equal to the level of the ritual, and the base DC of the skill checks needed to complete a ritual is 28 + the ritual level.

Any saving throw DCs of the ritual (including any DC to remove a temporary negative level gained by the backlash or by failing the ritual) are equal to 10 + the ritual level + the primary caster’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma bonus (whichever is highest).

In general, the spell a ritual is based on will give guidelines on the range, targets, area, effect, duration, and any saving throw or spell resistance that applies. If you are unsure or are creating a new effect for your ritual, You can use the suggestions in the Ritual Benchmarks Based on School sidebar.

While the ritual’s school or the spell it’s based on gives you a starting point for the ritual’s details, you may want to deviate from those examples when determining the particulars. Doing so to a greater or lesser degree can and should affect the skill check DCs for casting a ritual, and can also affect the casting time of a ritual. Table: Modifying Occult Rituals (at right) gives some examples of how to modify DCs and casting times.

Step 4—Determine Ritual’s Skills: This step involves determining the skills required to cast the ritual. The chosen skills should have a connection to the concept or the effect of the ritual. While a number of Knowledge skills are obvious choices (especially Knowledge [arcana] and Knowledge [religion]), more interesting rituals may feature other skills. Often these other skills allow secondary casters to play a more active role in the casting or make the ritual more interesting and challenging.

In all cases, you should require checks from two or more skills.

Step 5—Create Backlash and Failure Effects: The last step is to figure out the effects of the ritual’s backlash and what happens to the casters if the ritual fails. Like modifying the base spell or deviating from the baselines of the ritual’s school, the backlash and its severity can affect the DCs of the skill checks made to cast the ritual (see Table: Modifying Occult Rituals at right). Backlashes should be minor debilitations rather than severe punishments, and you need to decide whether they affect just the primary caster or all the casters.

Failure effects should be much more severe and should not invalidate or overlap with the effects of the backlash (since the backlash occurs whether or not the ritual succeeds). They should always represent the cost associated with the casting of uncontrolled magic, and they can be very debilitating to the casters, and could even harm those not associated with the ritual (especially for high-level rituals).

Horror and Ritual Failures

The standard rules are extremely lenient on how many skill checks a caster of an occult ritual can fail and still succeed. In a game where horror and tension are paramount, GMs may consider making it so that each failure on a skill check results in a weaker final effect or detrimental side effect. A simpler, more suspenseful solution is to have an occult ritual fail if a caster fails one skill check, regardless of how many checks the ritual requires.

Occult Ritual Benchmarks by School

Each summary below specifies the range, target, duration, and other aspects of an occult ritual associated with a particular school.

Abjuration: Range close; Target one or more creatures, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart; Duration minutes; Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes.

Conjuration: Range close; Target one creature; Duration hours (instantaneous for teleportation subschool); Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless).

Divination: Range long; Target personal; Duration minutes; Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no.

Enchantment: Range close; Target one living creature; Duration minutes; Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes.

Evocation: Range medium; Area 5-ft.-wide bolt or 20-ft.-radius burst; Duration instantaneous; Saving Throw Reflex half; Spell Resistance yes.

Illusion: Range touch; Target one living creature or 20 cu. ft. of matter; Duration minutes; Saving Throw Will disbelief; Spell Resistance no.

Necromancy: Range close; Target one or more creatures or corpses; Duration instantaneous; Saving throw none; Spell Resistance no.

Transmutation: Range medium; Target one creature or 20 cu. ft. of matter; Duration rounds; Saving Throw Fortitude half (or harmless); Spell Resistance yes.

Sample Occult Rituals

The following are a selection of occult rituals. Occult rituals are formatted in a similar manner as spells, but also feature a backlash and failure entry.

Activate Elf Gate

Source PCS:OR

School conjuration (calling); Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (a diamond-tipped stone chisel worth at least 500 gp), SC (up to 4)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 29, 3 successes; Knowledge (geography) DC 29, 3 successes
Range touch
Target one inactive elf gate
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster is exhausted.
Failure The portal creates a temporary one-way link with a random location, immediately delivering a hostile creature as though via summon monster VI. At the GM’s discretion, the creature may be accompanied by 1d3 creatures of the same kind from the 5th-level summon monster list, or 1d4+1 creatures of the same type from a lower-level list.

EFFECT

By repairing damaged magical runes and realigning the energies based on the gate’s planetary position, the caster reactivates a dormant elf gate. A reactivated gate automatically reconnects with its linked twin, acting as a two-way gate (as per the gate spell) between the locations. The caster knows the gate’s password—which might be anything from an Elven phrase to a song’s refrain to a spell—from the research required to learn this ritual. All other creatures who use this gate must also know the password to access the gate’s magic after it has been reactivated.

Created using ancient elven knowledge, this system of magical portals is placed throughout the solar system. Also known as “elf gates”—a term elves consider vulgar—these portals come in two distinct models: linked gates and hubs. Linked gateways connect two gates together, while hubs allow a single location access to multiple sites.

The art of crafting new gates is now lost to the elves, but occult rituals for activating most existing linked gates persist.

Activate Elf Hub Gate

Source PCS:OR

School conjuration (calling); Level 7;
Casting Time 70 minutes;
Components add F (a rare gem worth at least 5,000 gp);

Skill Checks add 1 Knowledge (history) success
Failure same effect, except the hostile creature comes from the summon monster VII list (and potential additional creatures come from the 6th-level list or lower-level lists).

The ritual for reconnecting a hub gate to all its affiliated gates is modified from the above ritual as follows:

Analytical Congress

Source PCS:OR

School transmutation; Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (a spool of copper wire and incense worth 500 gp), SC (at least 2, up to 8)

Skill Checks Diplomacy DC 31, 1 success; Perception DC 31, 2 successes; Sense Motive DC 31, 1 success
Range touch
Target primary and secondary casters
Duration 1 day (D)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

Backlash The primary caster and all secondary casters take 1 point of Dexterity and Strength damage.
Failure The primary caster takes 2d6 points of Intelligence damage and Wisdom damage; all secondary casters take 1d6 points of Intelligence damage and of Wisdom damage.

EFFECT

The analytical congress ritual was first created to help groups focus on conducting research. The ritual relies on the resolve of a study group’s mentor to form a cohesive team, allowing the order to both include less intelligent allies in research tasks and boost learned allies’ ability to assist in study.

Through a process of reaching mutual understanding and agreeing on a shared goal, the casters of this ritual are joined in the pursuit of knowledge. Each secondary caster holds on to a section of long copper wire, while the primary caster questions them. Only when assured of the purity of joint purpose among all casters does the primary caster permit the other casters to let go of the wire, successfully completing the ritual. Failure by the primary caster to conduct this purpose-driven interrogation, or by the secondary casters to withstand it, can lead to severe mental trauma for all involved.

While devoting the remainder of the day to research and study, each caster can choose one of the following bonuses after the ritual’s completion.

  • Decrease the time necessary to attempt an untrained Knowledge check by using a library (as per the Knowledge skill) to 1 hour.
  • Gain a +5 insight bonus on all Knowledge checks of one type for the remainder of the day.
  • While using a library or similar research resource, replace a required Knowledge check with a Perception check at a –5 penalty.
  • Reroll any one Knowledge check attempted over the course of the day.

Avoidance Ward

School enchantment (compulsion); Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, M (a piece of rowan wood charcoal), F (a small silver mirror worth 50 gp)

Skill Checks Knowledge (dungeoneering) DC 30, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 30, 1 success
Range touch
Target one dungeon door
Duration 8 hours
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance yes (harmless, object)

Backlash The caster takes 4d6 points of damage.
Failure The target door swings open and cannot be closed by the caster by any means short of a limited wish for 24 hours.

EFFECT

The caster begins by placing a mirror on one side of the door and writing occult symbols on the other side of the door that conform to one type or subtype of creature on the ranger’s favored enemy list. Upon completion of the ritual, creatures of the chosen type or subtype cannot open, touch, or even magically manipulate the door by any means (with no save or spell resistance applicable). A dungeon door can have only one avoidance ward at a time.

Breach the Veil of Dreams

School conjuration (creation); Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (incenses burned in a bowl filled with grave earth, a bottle of wormwood wine for each caster), F (an ornate silver and mithral key worth 5,000 gp), SC (up to the Intelligence modifier of the primary caster)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 32, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 32, 3 successes
Range touch
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage and becomes exhausted.
Failure An animate dream appears at the site of the ritual and attacks the casters. At the GM’s discretion, the animate dream may have the advanced template, be accompanied by fellow animate dreams, or both.

EFFECT

This ritual must be cast at night on the Material Plane. The casters drink the wormwood wine and begin chanting the incantation as the incense burns. The casters mix the ashes with the grave earth and use the mixture to draw a threshold with a keyhole. They then insert the key into this door as the incantation is completed.

Success indicates the casters pass through the portal and enter a random location on the Dimension of Dreams.

If the casters wish to return to the Material Plane from the Dimension of Dreams, each must succeed at a DC 35 concentration check to do so. This is a full-round action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. The DC of this check is reduced by 1 for every 2d6 points of damage the traveler willingly takes from psychic and physical trauma as part of the full-round action (this damage can’t be reduced in any way). If successful, the caster is transported back to the site of the ritual’s casting of the Material Plane. The casters can try again if they fail their concentration checks. A caster can use her character level + her Charisma modifier as her bonus on the concentration check if she isn’t a spellcaster or if that value is higher than her usual concentration bonus.

Breath of Forgotten Life

Source PZO9488

School divination [mind-affecting]; Level 6

CASTING

Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (a token of a past life), F (an elegant mirror), SC (up to 8)
Skill Checks Knowledge (history) DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (nature) DC 30, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 30, 2 successes

EFFECT

Range primary caster
Duration 1 hour/character level of the primary caster
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Backlash The primary caster takes 4d6 points of damage and becomes exhausted.
Failure A shade of one of the primary caster’s past lives manifests and attacks the casters. This shade functions as an animus shade of the primary caster.

DESCRIPTION

The primary caster channels the experiences of her previous lives into a vessel of her current life, gaining meaningful insight from her forgotten past. The breath of forgotten life ritual must be cast within a location of great significance to the primary caster, such as her childhood home or marriage shrine. The primary caster meditates on her current life by focusing on the mirror and recalling her past deeds in reverse chronological order, while any secondary casters act out the scenes she describes. After the casting time, the primary caster’s reflection in the mirror changes to an image of one of her past forms.

This image describes its own deeds, which are relevant to the primary caster’s immediate future and grant her a +2 insight bonus to her Armor Class and on initiative checks for the ritual’s duration. The primary caster also gains the ability to cast legend lore as a spell-like ability once within the following week.

Call Beyond the Veil

School conjuration (calling); Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, F (either an object once possessed by the spirit or entity called, or the name of the spirit or entity called), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Diplomacy DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 33, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 33, 1 success
Range primary caster
Effect call on the spirit of a single deceased creature or a psychic entity
Duration concentration of the primary caster
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters become exhausted and gain 1 temporary negative level (DC = 16 + primary caster’s Charisma bonus to remove after the first day).
Failure All casters gain 1 permanent negative level and are exhausted until that negative level is removed.

EFFECT

The primary caster attempts to compel the spirit of a specific individual or a psychic entity to manifest from its final rest or extraplanar location. Unwilling spirits or entities can resist the summons by succeeding at a Will save. If a spirit or entity succeeds at the saving throw, it doesn’t manifest, but the ritual is still considered a success. Spirits or entities that fail or forgo this save are summoned into the primary caster’s body, where they speak by way of the caster’s voice, which takes on an otherworldly timbre. Though the spirit or entity speaks through the primary caster, it has no further control of that caster’s mind or body, and can’t use any spells, spell-like abilities, or even purely mental supernatural abilities it may have. It must leave the primary caster when that caster ends his concentration. While the spirit is speaking through the primary caster, the secondary casters can ask it questions at a maximum rate of 1 question per round (regardless of the number of secondary casters). The spirit or entity speaks in a language it knows or knew while it was alive, and can refuse to answer questions or attempt to deceive its questioners and the primary caster using Bluff. It is not otherwise beholden to the ritual casters.

Call the Darkness

Source PCS:IST

School conjuration (creation or calling); Level 9

CASTING

Casting Time 90 minutes
Components V, S, M (black diamond dust worth 10,000 gp), SC (at least 8, up to 16)
Skill Checks Knowledge (geography) DC 36, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 36, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 36, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 36, 2 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Effect up to 20′ 10-ft. cubes/character level of the primary caster
Duration 10 minutes/character level of the primary caster (D); see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Backlash The primary caster takes 1 permanent negative level.
Failure All casters must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC = 19 + primary caster’s Charisma modifier) or be transported to a random location on the Shadow Plane, as per plane shift.

EFFECT

This ritual must be cast on the Material Plane. The primary caster begins the ritual by delineating the boundaries of the area to be affected using the black diamond dust. The casters link hands and chant. Upon the ritual’s completion, magical darkness fills the designated area as the Material Plane and Shadow Plane blend together there. The affected area thereafter exists simultaneously on both planes, becoming an amalgam of the two. A thin layer of impenetrable darkness surrounds the affected area, so it is impossible to see beyond the area’s boundaries into either plane. Colors appear faded in the area, but not completely black and white as on the Shadow Plane.

The area has the enhanced magic and impeded magic traits of the Shadow Plane, but all other planar traits correspond to those of the Material Plane. As long as the primary caster remains within range of the designated area, this effect lasts for up to 10 minutes per character level of the primary caster, but if the primary caster ever moves beyond the range, the effect immediately ends.

Any creature that enters the affected area remains on the same plane as before but can interact with creatures on the other plane as though they were on the same plane. While casting this ritual, the primary caster can set a condition that allows creatures to cross over from the Shadow Plane to the Material Plane or vice versa. This condition can be a password, a specific action that a creature must take (such as stepping through a mirror), or a specific type of item that a creature must carry in order to cross over. Alternatively, the primary caster can grant a creature passage between the two planes as a standard action. If the primary caster does not set a condition or grant passage, creatures cannot cross between the two planes.

Dance of the Dervish

Source PCS:IST

School transmutation; Level 8

CASTING

Casting Time 80 minutes
Components V, M (a flask of blessed sunflower seed oil worth 100 gp for each caster and a potion of cat’s grace), F (a masterwork scimitar made from rose gold worth 5,000 gp), SC (at least 1, up to the Charisma modifier of the primary caster)
Skill Checks Acrobatics DC 30, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 30, 2 successes; Perform (dance) DC 30, 3 successes
Range touch
Target primary and secondary casters
Duration 1 day (D)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
Backlash The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage and all casters are exhausted.
Failure All casters cannot be targeted by any beneficial spells from the conjuration (healing) school (such as cure light wounds) and cannot touch a scimitar for 1 year (this is a curse effect, and can be removed with remove curse or similar effects).

EFFECT

This ritual must be cast at dawn beneath the open sky on the Material Plane. The ritual must be performed at a site of worship that has hosted active worship services for at least 52 consecutive weeks. The primary caster holds aloft the rose-gold scimitar, and the secondary casters stand around him and begin spinning in place. The primary caster recites verses a holy text, taking a sip from the potion of cat’s grace between each stanza. After the last verse is completed, the secondary casters whirl around the primary caster, each anointing the rose-gold scimitar with blessed sunflower seed oil. Upon the successful completion of the ritual, all the casters are filled with the spirits of dervish heroes, becoming faster, stronger, tougher, and more skilled in combat.

Each caster gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution; a +2 dodge bonus to AC; and a +2 sacred bonus on all saving throws. The caster’s base attack bonus is equal his character level (which may give the caster multiple attacks). If the caster’s base attack bonus is already equal to his character level, he gains one additional attack at his highest base attack bonus when making a full-attack action.

In addition, any scimitar wielded by a caster is treated as if it has the keen weapon special ability. In exchange, each caster temporarily loses his ability to cast spells, save for those from the conjuration (healing) school.

Finally, once during the duration of the ritual, each caster can activate a whirling dance on the battlefield as a standard action.

While dancing, the caster gains the effects of a displacement spell and can use the Spring Attack and Whirlwind Attack feats as if he possessed them without meeting their prerequisites.

This dance is a supernatural effect and lasts a number of rounds equal to the primary caster’s character level.

Each caster of the ritual can individually choose to dismiss the ritual’s effects for himself.

Divert Soul

Source PCS:CoR

School necromancy; Level 9
Casting Time 9 hours
Components V, S, M (black diamond worth 25,000 gp), F (a forked metal rod attuned to the destination plane, as that used for plane shift), SC (at least 6, up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 26, 4 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 26, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 26, 2 successes
Range touch
Target one helpless creature or soul (such as a soul imprisoned by soul bind or trap the soul)
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; SR no

Backlash For 1 week following the performance of the ritual, every psychopomp within 10 miles of a caster knows the distance and direction to that caster and is aware that the caster was involved in a ritual to thwart a soul’s natural progression.
Failure A helpless creature is automatically freed and whisked away to a place it considers familiar and safe, as word of recall. An imprisoned soul is automatically freed. In addition, a memitim psychopomp appears adjacent to each caster and attacks the caster to the best of its ability. The memitim disappears once its designated caster is slain or after 10 minutes, whichever comes first.

EFFECT

This powerful ritual attempts to shunt the target’s soul to a plane determined during the preparation for the ritual. A key component of the ritual is a forked rod, just like that used for a plane shift spell. Any other device suitable for use as a focus component for plane shift is also suitable for use with this ritual. The casters form a circle around the target, each touching the shoulder of the caster to his left to form a ring representing the multiverse as a whole. The primary caster stands inside this ring with the target, holding the diamond in one hand and the forked rod in the other. As the casters chant, the primary caster walks around the target in a circle. At the conclusion of the ritual, the primary caster touches the forked rod to the black diamond, which shatters.

If the ritual is performed successfully, the target’s soul is immediately sent to the designated plane and manifests there as a petitioner or another appropriate outsider, just as if the designated plane were the soul’s appropriate reward and regardless of the soul’s actual alignment or outlook. If the target is a helpless creature, it is slain by this effect (no save). If the target is a soul trapped inside an object, the object is emptied when the soul departs to its designated destination.

As this ritual bypasses the soul’s judgment and natural passage to the afterlife, it is considered anathema to the psychopomps. Agents of the psychopomp ushers actively attempt to suppress knowledge of this ritual wherever they find it, but the psychopomps’ enemies—such as daemons and sahkils—work hard to disseminate knowledge of the ritual to inquisitive mortals.

Earthbound Ward

Source PZO9446H

School abjuration; Level 5
Casting Time 10 minutes per 10-ft.-cube affected by the ritual (minimum of 50 minutes)
Components V, S, M (materials worth 500 gp per 10-ft.-cube of the ritual’s area), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes or religion) DC 35, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 35, 3 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Area one 10-ft. cube/2 character levels of the primary caster (S)
Duration 24 hours
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters become fatigued for twice the ritual’s casting time.
Failure All casters take a –4 penalty on saving throws against effects used by creatures that the earthbound ward was intended to affect for 24 hours.

EFFECT

The primary caster marks an enclosed space upon the ground with a material that is anathema to a specific type of creature that the caster wishes to keep at bay; typically, this ritual is used against specific outsider subtypes and undead creatures. Typical materials (and a list of creatures affected by those materials) include cold iron powder (daemons, demons, and fey), mithral or silver powder (devils and lycanthropes), oil mixed with sulfur (agathions, angels, archons, and azatas), and salt (undead and outsiders with the incorporeal subtype). At the GM’s decision, additional materials may be available for use against other creatures. The area to be affected must be enclosed, with no gaps in the material’s outline.

If the ritual is successful, creatures to whom the used material is anathema cannot enter or exit the warded area, much as if the area were under the effects of an outward facing magic circle effect against those creatures. Those creatures cannot cross the area’s boundaries or exit it by any means, including via extradimensional travel (astral projection, blink, dimension door, etherealness, gate, plane shift, shadow walk, teleport, wind walk, or similar means), and they cannot reach across the area’s boundaries with melee attacks (even those with greater than 5 feet of reach). Incorporeal creatures cannot enter or pass through solid objects into or out of a warded area. An affected creature can make physical ranged attacks at targets within the earthbound ward, but the ward blocks line of effect (but not line of sight) for spells. Flight allows a creature to pass over earthbound wards, but it cannot approach closer than 10 feet off the ground within the area outlined by the ward. A flying creature that falls or otherwise attempts to land in the area is instead shunted to the closest available area just outside of the earthbound ward’s area of effect and is knocked prone.

If the markings used to create an earthbound ward are disturbed or defaced, the effects of the ritual immediately cease. Physical efforts (such as scratching, erasing, or otherwise breaking or damaging the materials), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities used by a creature for whom the material is anathema cannot target the markings. Such creatures can damage the markings as a consequence of those abilities, so long as the markings aren’t directly targeted. For example, such a creature can use earthquake to disturb an earthbound ward set against it because the spell targets an area, not the markings itself. The ritual’s magic prevents minor effects from disrupting the wards, although severe or stronger winds can do so.

Egoist’s Militia

Source PPC:CoL

School conjuration; Level 8

CASTING

Casting Time 80 minutes
Components V, S, M (1 pint of the primary caster’s blood, diamond dust worth 5,000 gp), F (at least four weapons), SC (at least 2 and up to 10)
Skill Checks Craft (weapons) DC 36, 1 success per martial weapon; Knowledge (arcana) DC 36, 2 successes; Knowledge (nobility) DC 36, 2 successes

EFFECTS

Range touch
Target weapons touched Duration permanent (D) or until the death of the primary caster
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage per weapon and is exhausted.

Failure All casters take a –10 penalty on attack rolls for 1 month, and all of the targeted weapons gain the broken condition.

DESCRIPTION

This ritual must be performed in a place that holds a significance related to weapons, such as an armory, an old battlefield, or a warrior’s crypt. The primary caster begins this ritual by mixing her blood with the diamond dust, smearing each weapon with the mixture, and placing the weapons in a circle around herself. The primary caster then holds each weapon and demonstrates the weapon in a combat performance. After the primary caster finishes her performance with a weapon, she places the weapon into the air in front of her, now held in midair by her force of ego.

Upon successful completion of this ritual, ghostly apparitions of the primary caster appear and grasp each of the weapons before fading, representing the shards of the primary caster’s own ego placed within each weapon. The egoist weapons are treated as if they are held by the primary caster, using her base attack bonus, ability scores, and any relevant feats when calculating their attack and damage rolls, but the weapons function independently from the primary caster. Egoist weapons make attacks on the primary caster’s initiative. When moving, egoist weapons have a fly speed of 100 feet. An egoist weapon uses the statistics of the base weapon and retains its magical enhancements and material properties. For every 2 Hit Dice the primary caster has, an egoist weapon has a hardness of 10 and 5 hit points (magical weapons maintain their additional bonuses to AC and HP). When an egoist weapon is reduced to 0 hit points, it is destroyed.

All casters who were part of the ritual can issue simple commands to the egoist weapons, and the weapons follow these commands to the best of their abilities. If an egoist weapon completes its task and does not receive further orders, it remains in its location until it receives additional orders. The primary caster can dispel an individual egoist weapon as a standard action.

This ritual can be used to create more than four egoist weapons. The DC of each skill check increases by 1 for each weapon beyond the fourth added to the ritual.

Ensnaring Circle

School abjuration [variable; see text]; Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (powdered silver), F (a stylus made of mithral and diamond worth 5,000 gp), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 30, 1 success; Linguistics DC 30, 1 success
Range 10 ft.
Effect a 20-foot-radius magic circle
Duration 1 day/character level of the primary caster
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance no, see text

Backlash The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage.
Failure The casters believe their work was successful, though when they attempt to use the circle, nothing occurs.

EFFECT

This ritual requires the casters to create a large magic circle outlined with the silver powder and shaped with the focus stylus. The circle must be painstakingly molded to attune it to the alignment targeted (chaos, evil, good, or law), which is chosen during the time of creation. The ritual gains the descriptor of the alignment selected. Once the circle is complete, it becomes invisible to all but the casters of the ritual or to creatures with see invisibility, true seeing, or some other method of seeing invisible objects.

Once the circle is complete, it can be used to trap an outsider whose subtype matches the chosen alignment, as if it were an inward-focused magic circle spell of the appropriate type (thus, an ensnaring circle attuned to evil acts like an inward-focused magic circle against evil). For an outsider to be trapped in this manner, the entire space of the outsider must be within the circle, at which point the primary caster can activate the circle as an immediate action. The primary caster must be within 100 feet of the circle and be able to see it and the outsider he wishes to trap in order to activate the circle. It is possible to trap multiple outsiders of the appropriate subtype in the circle if more than one are in the circle when it is activated. However, if any such outsider is not completely within the circle, it is not caught within the circle’s confines and is free to disrupt the circle as described in the magic circle against evil spell description.

As with a magic circle, the trapped outsider cannot cross the circle’s boundaries or reach over or beyond the boundaries, nor can it disrupt the circle either directly or indirectly, though it can make ranged attacks beyond the circle’s boundaries. If the outsider has spell resistance, it can test the trap once per day. If the primary caster fails to overcome the outsider’s spell resistance, the circle is disrupted and the outsider is freed from the circle’s restraints.

An outsider capable of any form of dimensional travel can simply leave the circle using such an ability.

Unlike with a magic circle, you cannot create a special diagram when creating the circle to make the ensnaring circle more secure.

Enter the Umbral Court

Source PCS:NLoS

School necromancy; Level 8
Casting Time 80 minutes
Components V, S, M (a whip made of braided strips of skin flayed from the target), SC (at least 2 and up to 7)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 4 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one creature
Duration permanent
Saving Throw Will negates; SR yes

Backlash All casters take 1 permanent negative level.
Failure The casters are immediately shunted to a single place on the Shadow Plane that is anywhere from 5 to 500 miles (5d%) from a specific deific realm, as plane shift. Within 1 round of arriving, the casters are attacked by a number of apostle kytons equal to the number of casters plus 3.

EFFECT

Before this ritual can be cast, the casters must reach deep into the target’s mind to extract the most personally heinous torture the target could imagine, and then the casters must inflict it upon the target during the casting. This often involves whips, spiked chains, barbed hooks, or other torturous elements usually constructed from the target’s own skin and viscera. While the target endures this torture, it must recite a pact while the casters alternatingly chant epic poetry. If the target does not cower in fear at these descriptions, the ritual fails.

Upon successful completion of this ritual, the target’s eyes fill with inky black shadow, and it gains the following benefits. It is immune to spells from the shadow subschool and those with the shadow descriptor, though it can choose to suppress or restore this immunity as a standard action. The target also gains regeneration 5, bypassed by good weapons and spells and silver weapons, and DR 15/good or silver.

If the target’s alignment is not already lawful evil, it immediately shifts to such upon this ritual’s successful completion. Further, this ritual ties a shard of the target’s soul to the Shadow Plane. If the target commits a heretical act, there is a 25% chance (1-25 on d%) that at a random time within 24 hours the target is transported via plane shift into a private, eternal torment-scape. This effect cannot be suppressed or removed.

Eternal Apotheosis

Source PCS:OR

School necromancy [evil]; Level 9
Casting Time 9 hours
Components V, S, M (incense made from ground-up bits of undead creatures), F (phylactery worth at least 120,000 gp), SC (at least 1, up to 21; see text)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 34, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 34, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 34, 3 successes
Range primary caster
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All secondary casters take 20d6 points of damage. Those slain are reduced to dust.
Failure The primary caster becomes a forsaken lich, doomed to inevitable destruction in 1d10 days.

EFFECT

The depraved path to becoming a lich is a deeply personal experience for those who dare tread it. All spellcasters seeking such a goal must spend months, and more frequently years, gathering eldritch knowledge and conducting fell experiments to research the myriad routes to undeath. Even then, it is exceedingly rare for two liches to have achieved immortality in the exact same way, although their motivations—incredible power without the limitations of a mortal body—are often quite similar.

This ritual represents just one way some liches have transferred their souls into phylacteries. Other rituals tied to lichdom involve bargains or liaisons with evil outsiders, caster-created alchemical tinctures infused with the energy of loved ones’ souls, and other such trying necessities. Although heinously evil, the eternal apotheosis occult ritual is perhaps the most direct way to achieve lichdom.

The primary caster must begin this incantation at dusk.

The ritual must be performed in a place of significance to the caster and is typically the site where she began her descent into evil, or a site where she committed a great atrocity. Unlike other occult rituals, the secondary casters are simply fodder for the necromantic energies unleashed by the aspiring lich; they do not contribute to the ritual beyond taking the damage of the ritual’s backlash. Unlike with normal occult rituals, these secondary casters do not need to be willing participants, but they do need to be within close range (25 feet + 2 feet per character level of the primary caster) of the primary caster for the duration of the ritual. For every seven secondary casters, the ritual’s level is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 6th level), the casting time is reduced by 1 hour, and the number of skill checks required decreases by one.

When reducing the ritual’s level in this manner, the primary caster can choose which check or checks are eliminated. The primary caster also receives a +1 bonus on the required skill checks for every four secondary casters, as normal.

Casting this ritual funnels raw and very painful necromantic energy through the primary caster, possibly eviscerating all of the secondary casters in the process. Successful completion of the ritual allows the primary caster to transfer her soul into the phylactery, forever sealing it within the magical receptacle and turning her into a full-fledged lich.

Ethereal Rip

School evocation; Level 5
Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, M (a dollop of ectoplasm and paste extracted from ground lotus root worth 500 gp), F (an obsidian dagger with at least a +2 enhancement bonus and the ghost touch special weapon ability, worth at least 18,301 gp)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 29, 3 successes; Knowledge (geography) DC 29, 2 successes
Range touch
Effect a rip between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane
Duration 1 hour/primary caster’s character level and instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Reflex negates; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster takes 4d6 points of damage.
Failure The caster gains the incorporeal subtype and is confused for 24 hours.

EFFECT

Upon this ritual’s completion, the focus dagger is imbued with the power to cut a momentary rift between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane, though only if the caster adheres to the restrictions of the ritual.

At the ritual’s start, the caster must find the perfect spot for such an incision: a place where the features of the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane are closely aligned (the exact spot is determined by the GM). Then, after mumbling an incantation that weakens the borders of those two planes at that location, the caster must evenly coat the entire focus blade with a mixture of the material components. When that is compete, the ritual is successful and the backlash occurs, but the ritual’s true effect can be delayed. As long as the caster does not move from her space, and does not stop holding the focus dagger, she can use the dagger to cut into the weakened border between the two planes as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but she must do so within 1 hour per character level after successfully completing the ritual and taking the backlash.

Doing so has an immediate and dramatic effect—the rip attempts to suck all creatures and unattended objects within 30 feet of the caster’s space that weigh less than 200 pounds into either the Ethereal Plane (if the rip is made on the Material Plane) or the Material Plane (if the rip is made on the Ethereal Plane). With a successful Reflex save, a creature avoids the rip’s pull. Creatures and objects pulled into the rift land in a corresponding space on the other plane. The ritual caster can choose whether she wants to be sucked through the rift or stay on the plane where she cast the ritual.

Exorcise Haunt

Source PZO9446H

School necromancy; Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (a glass of wine, nine candles, and rare incense worth 500 gp), F (a lexicon on the exorcism of spirits worth 750 gp).

Skill Checks Diplomacy DC 31, 1 success; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 2 successes; Sense Motive, DC 31, 1 success
Range touch
Target one persistent vaporous haunt
Duration 1 minute/character level of the primary caster
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes

Backlash The primary caster becomes helpless for the ritual’s duration and the target haunt’s hit points are fully healed to its total maximum. If the target haunt has been neutralized, it immediately reactivates.
Failure The primary caster takes 2d6 points of Wisdom drain. A caster whose Wisdom drain equals or exceeds her Wisdom score dies, her spirit becoming conjoined with that of the haunt to create a more powerful haunt (subject to GM discretion but typically increasing the haunt’s CR by 1).

EFFECT

The caster reads aloud from her chosen lexicon while standing amid a circle of candles, reciting passages that fill her with dedication and conviction. Upon the completion of the ritual’s casting time, she steps into the target haunt’s area, causing her to forge a psychic connection with the haunt that pulls her mind into a binary mindscape of the haunt’s creation and that is strongly reminiscent of the haunt’s anguish and themed along the lines of the haunt’s destruction method.

This ritual allows the caster to instigate a psychic duel with the target haunt, functioning like instigate psychic duel. Unlike with instigating a duel with another creature, a haunt remains responsive in the real world during the psychic duel; it is able to act during its normal initiative. The haunt counts as a psychic spellcaster with a caster level equal to the haunt’s caster level for all purposes and can generate an unlimited number of manifestation points, though it can spend only a number of manifestation points equal to 1/2 its caster level (minimum 1st) per psychic manifestation. In the mindscape, the haunt’s saving throw bonuses are equal to its CR + 2, and its melee and ranged attack bonuses are equal to 1-1/2 its CR + 2. In addition, the haunt has an amount of temporary hit points equal to its normal hit point total. If these temporary hit points are reduced to 0, the haunt is destroyed as if its specific destruction action had been performed.

Fiendish Apotheosis

Source PRG:BotD

The rituals of fiendish transformation can be found only in the rarest of tomes (such as the Book of the Damned). A few fiends know these rituals and can teach them as well, but they guard this knowledge closely, offering it only to those they deem deserving of the lore. One way to learn such a ritual from a demon is to use planar ally or planar binding to conjure the fiend in question and offer it a payment in return for the secrets of the transformation ritual—this could be a fourstep process requiring a new conjuration for each step of the ritual. Not every fiend knows this information, of course, so researching the name of a specific fiend that does can add an additional level of research required before the process can begin. A character might even receive the methods by which to transform into a fiend via a series of dreams or visions (typically granted to him from a fiendish patron in reward for service), although this route is best left for NPCs that are strictly under the GM’s control.

The nature of the fiend into which the caster wishes to transform determines which specific ritual is to be performed—different rituals exist for all forms of fiends, from demons to devils, kytons to oni, and divs to qlippoth.

The mechanics for each ritual are similar, but once a character begins the transformation into a specific type of fiend, the next three steps must all build upon that fiendish race.

First Apotheosis

Source PRG:BotD

School transmutation [evil]; Level 4

Casting Time 4 hours

Components V, S, M (exotic incense worth 500 gp)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 18, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes or religion) DC 18, 2 successes

Range personal

Target caster

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster takes 4d6 points of damage and is exhausted.

Failure The caster is rendered unconscious for 2d4 hours and must wait 1 year before attempting the first apotheosis again.

EFFECT

The first ritual is the simplest and requires nothing more than for the caster’s alignment to become lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil (depending on the type of fiend the user wishes to transform into). To prepare for this ritual, the caster must undertake acts of a vile and destructive nature over the course of a year. The caster consigns her soul to Abaddon, the Abyss, or Hell even if she never finishes the subsequent rituals. The caster must select a powerful fiend at this point to serve as a demonic patron. The acts the caster must undertake can vary, but they should be of a nature that represents and honors the areas of interest of her chosen demonic patron—these acts are intended to attract the patron’s attention, after all. Even casters who begin the transformation ritual with an evil alignment must undergo this stage of the ritual, if only to select a fiendish patron.

On the day precisely 1 year after she began these evil acts, she must perform the 4-hour first apotheosis ritual to properly devote her previous year in the name of her chosen patron. Once she successfully completes the first apotheosis, she becomes eligible to undertake the second apotheosis.

Second Apotheosis

Source PRG:BotD

School transmutation [evil]; Level 5

Casting Time 5 hours

Components V, S, M (exotic incense worth 500 gp, burned offering of a family member)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 23, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes or religion) DC 23, 2 successes

Range personal

Target caster

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster takes 4d6 points of damage and is exhausted.

Failure The caster is rendered unconscious for 2d4 hours.

EFFECT

Preparation for the second apotheosis requires many more months of debased acts and vile plots, but at some point during this second year, the caster must contact her chosen fiendish patron, via either commune or contact other plane. A trusted minion or ally can cast this spell on the caster’s behalf; it’s common for a spellcaster to gain a cacodaemon, imp, or quasit familiar so that it can use its commune spell-like ability for this purpose. Once contact is made, the patron must be told of the caster’s desire to become a fiend; during this time, the commune or contact other plane spell cannot be used to ask any other questions. At any point thereafter but before a year has passed, the caster must offer a significant sacrifice to her fiendish patron as a burned offering in a temple consecrated to the fiend. This offering can be either living or dead, but the burned offering must be of someone who is related to the caster by blood or family (such as a spouse or an adopted parent or child) and the caster and the offering must once have shared a positive emotional connection such as love or pride.

If this ritual fails, the caster can try again, although the number of attempts she can make is limited in that each new attempt requires a burned offering of a different relative. Once the second apotheosis is successful, part of the caster’s body transforms into something fiendish as proof of her patron’s favor. Use the various fleshcraft grafts to model these partial transformations; the specific transformation granted is up to the GM, but typical results include claw gauntlet or wings of darkness. Once the caster successfully completes the second apotheosis, she becomes eligible to undertake the third apotheosis.

Third Apotheosis

Source PRG:BotD

School transmutation [evil]; Level 6

Casting Time 6 hours

Components V, S, M (exotic incense worth 2,000 gp; prior completion of special quest); SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 28, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes or religion) DC 28, 3 successes

Range personal

Target primary caster

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary and secondary casters take 4d6 points of damage and become exhausted.

Failure The primary and secondary casters are reduced to –1 hp.

EFFECT

At some point after the primary caster contacts her fiendish patron (typically after she succeeds at the second ritual, but sometimes before), the fiend sends the primary caster a vision of a task she must complete (such as freeing a bound evil outsider from a Material Plane prison or assassinating a powerful cleric of a good-aligned religion). This task is typically one of significance to the fiend, and in many cases it is one that the primary caster has no hope of completing until she grows more powerful. There is no time limit for how long the primary caster has to complete this task, but she must perform weekly devotions to her fiendish patron in the intervening time in the form of regular worship and continued atrocities in the fiend’s name. Additional burned offerings to the demon, assaults on innocents, and betrayals of allies are popular choices. Once the assigned task is completed, the primary caster can perform the third apotheosis. Unlike the first and second rituals, the third apotheosis allows for the use of secondary casters, yet it carries a much greater risk for failure. If the primary caster succeeds, she permanently gains the half-fiend template and becomes eligible to undertake the fourth apotheosis.

Fourth Apotheosis

Source PRG:BotD

School transmutation [evil]; Level 9

Casting Time 9 hours

Components V, S, M (significant living sacrifice of CR 9 or higher); SC (up to 20)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 3 successes

Range personal

Target primary caster

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary and secondary casters take 4d6 points of damage and become exhausted.

Failure The primary and secondary casters are slain.

EFFECT

For those who wish to go further than merely becoming a half-fiend, a fourth ritual exists. The primary caster’s fiendish lord grants no vision or advice to begin this ritual—the primary caster must take it upon herself to honor her patron in a manner appropriate to that fiend’s interests and areas of concern. Once every year, on the anniversary of the day the primary caster completed the third apotheosis, she can perform a special ceremony that recounts her accomplishments over the past year and culminates in a significant sacrifice (usually consisting of the sacrifice of an important member of an enemy faith,or of a lawful or good outsider; in either case, the sacrifice must be at least CR 9). If this ritual is a success, the primary caster transforms into a full-fledged fiend: she loses all benefits of her previous race and the half-fiend template but can immediately apply all of her class levels to her new fiendish race (for example, a human fighter 10 could become a vrock fighter 10). The type of fiend that she transforms into depends on both the nature of her chosen fiendish patron and the GM’s discretion, but it should generally not have a total number of Hit Dice more than twice her original Hit Dice. The primary caster generally gets only one chance at the fourth apotheosis, for failure results in her death; however, should she be restored to life, she can attempt the fourth apotheosis again.

Fiendish Conjuration

Source PRG:BotD

School conjuration (calling) [evil]; Level 9

Casting Time 90 minutes

Components V, S, M (rare incense worth 1,000 gp), F (a conjuration circle and an offering pleasing to the fiend, such as a sacrifice or trapped soul of CR equal to the fiend’s CR + 1)

Skill Checks Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate DC 34, 4 successes; Knowledge (arcana) DC 34, 1 success; Knowledge (planes) DC 34, 1 success; Linguistics DC 34, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 34, 1 success

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the caster)

Target one evil outsider

Duration 1 hour/character level of the caster

Saving Throw none (see text); Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster becomes exhausted.

Failure The conjured fiend escapes from its conjuration circle.

Its actions can vary, but most escaped fiends eagerly attack their conjurers for at least a few rounds before teleporting or otherwise fleeing into the world to begin a reign of terror.

EFFECT

The first 20 minutes of the ritual of fiendish conjuration involve preparing the conjuration circle and inscribing the appropriate names around the circle. This step involves attempting both Linguistics checks; if the conjuration circle is permanently inscribed and has been successfully used for this ritual at any point in the past, these Linguistics checks are attempted with a +5 bonus.

The next 30 minutes of the ritual invokes the fiend, involving the Knowledge and Spellcraft checks; if the fiend’s true name is used, these checks are attempted with a +5 bonus. At the start of the final 40 minutes, the smoky, indistinct shape of the fiend manifests within the circle, at which point the caster must attempt the final four Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate checks. Once this stage is reached, the fiend manifests in the flesh at the end of the ritual regardless of the ritual’s success or failure, but only if the ritual is successful is the fiend trapped within the conjuration circle and unable to visit harm upon the caster.

If the ritual is successful, the fiend remains on the Material Plane for a number of hours equal to the caster’s character level, during which the caster makes an offering to the fiend and asks for its aid. If the caster’s alignment is the same as the fiend’s, the fiend automatically agrees to perform a service that takes no more time to perform than the ritual’s duration. A fiend will agree to perform a longer task if it is given an additional offering for its services. Each offering given must be of equal or greater value to the one given during the ritual’s casting and secures the fiend’s cooperation for an additional number of hours equal to the caster’s character level. At the caster’s discretion, the start time for these additional hours can be delayed until a certain circumstance arises, at which point the fiend immediately reappears in its original conjuration circle and can immediately depart to complete its task.

If the fiend’s true name was used during the ritual, all of these periods of time normally measured in hours (including the ritual’s initial duration) are instead measured in days.

If at any point during the fiend’s servitude the caster is slain or the original conjuration circle is damaged, the fiend can attempt a Will save to escape the ritual’s binding power. If successful, the fiend is no longer bound to perform the task it has been ordered to do and can remain on the Material Plane for as long as it wishes.

Fiendish Transformation

Source PCS:OR

School transmutation [evil]; Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (powdered obsidian, vial of unholy water), F (the severed head of a good-aligned outsider whose CR was 10 or higher)

Skill Checks Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate (choose one) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (arcana) DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 31, 1 success
Range primary caster
Duration 1 week
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster takes a –4 penalty on Will saves for the next 24 hours.
Failure The caster gains 1 permanent negative level and must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC = 16 + caster’s Charisma bonus) or be transported to a random location in Abaddon, the Abyss, or Hell (based on the ritual), as per plane shift.

EFFECT

Wicked ceremonies and rites offer myriad means for humanoids to meld with fiendish entities. Each ritual contains information regarding its fiendish subject’s boons. One specific, four-part ritual can result in a mortal transforming into a demon. This painstaking process, however, takes at least several years, and not all who want to harness fiendish power wish to fully transform.

Described here is one of the more rudimentary rituals for fiendish transformation. By contacting an evil-aligned plane, the ritual caster entreats a powerful force (typically a fiend of CR 20 or higher) to temporarily imbue him with fiendish powers. Such ritual negotiations are fraught with danger and can lead to the caster being pulled from his reality and into nightmarish realms. Still, the allure of such temporary power is strong for those seeking a quick means of achieving greater success.

A solitary ritual, the rite of fiendish transformation must take place in an area bereft of light, save for that of a single candle. The candle is centered on a circular sigil crafted out of powdered obsidian and lined with unholy water. As the ritual commences, the caster holds aloft the severed head of a good outsider, through which a fiendish patron speaks. The circle channels the patron into the head without summoning its full presence, and the primary caster can choose which evil plane the creature comes from (Abaddon, the Abyss, or Hell).

A grueling negotiation determines whether the ritual succeeds or fails. Success imparts the half-fiend template to the primary caster for 1 week, while simultaneously damning the soul of the primary caster to the plane he has contacted.

Five-Generations Curse

Source PPC:BotC

School necromancy [curse, evil]; Level 7

CASTING

Casting Time 7 hours
Components V, S, M (a sample of the victim’s hair or blood), F (a ruby worth at least 5,000 gp), SC (up to 4)
Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana or history) DC 33, 2 successes; Knowledge (nobility or religion) DC 33, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 33, 2 successes Range touch; see text
Target see text
Duration permanent
Saving Throw Will negates (see text); Spell Resistance yes
Backlash All casters become exhausted and gain 1 temporary negative level.
Failure All creatures that would have been targeted by the ritual gain the benefits of spell resistance (CL = primary caster’s Hit Dice) against the primary and secondary casters of the ritual until the next full moon.

EFFECT

This ritual inflicts a terrible curse upon an entire family line. The casters use a sample of the victim’s hair or blood to infuse a ruby with dark magic and a shred of their target’s soul. If successful, the ritual functions as bestow curse, affecting the primary target, as well as the primary target’s siblings, children, grandchildren, parents, and grandparents, no matter their location. Each target can resist the curse with a successful Will saving throw; success means the negative effects of the curse do not affect that individual, though they may still pass the curse on to their descendants. Children born into the curse manifest its effects and attempt their saving throws upon reaching maturity.

By increasing the skill check DCs by 2, the ritual can be modified to instead affect the primary target and the primary target’s children, grandchildren, and two additional generations of descendants beyond.

When cast, the ritual must specify a single condition any member of the family can fulfill to destroy the curse—this condition must be possible, however unlikely, though victims of the curse do not automatically know what condition or actions might destroy the magic. The curse remains empowered by the gem originally used as the ritual focus. Should the focusing gem be destroyed, the curse ends immediately. As such, most covens take great care in hiding and defending the focusing gems of their victims. An individual can be freed from the five-generations curse with a break enchantment or remove curse spell cast by a spellcaster whose caster level is higher than the primary ritual caster’s Hit Dice, and the curse can be removed from an entire line with a miracle or wish spell.

Form Blight

Source PZO1140

School necromancy [curse]; Level 9

CASTING

Casting Time 9 hours

Components V, S, M (the hearts of one or more creatures native to the environment associated with the intended blight whose total CR equals that of the intended blight), F (a bone altar filled with various natural alchemical liquids worth 20,000 gp), SC (up to 20)

Skill Checks Knowledge (geography) DC 24 + CR (see text), 3 successes; Knowledge (nature) DC 24 + CR (see text), 4 successes; Survival DC 24 + CR (see text), 2 successes

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)

Area 5-square-mile area of appropriate terrain; see text

Duration instantaneous

Backlash All casters take 6d6 points of damage and are exhausted.

Failure The primary caster takes 15d6 points of damage (no save). If slain by this damage, the primary caster is reduced to a pile of rotten sludge, and can be restored only by true resurrection or greater magic.

EFFECT

The primary caster leads a grueling session of incantations and feats of physical prowess throughout a specific type of terrain. Example terrain types include (but are not limited to) cave, desert, forest, mountain, sewer, swamp, or tundra. This ritual corrupts the affected area, summoning forth a blight associated with the terrain as well as turning the affected area into the blight’s cursed domain. The DC for skill checks associated with this ritual is 24 plus the CR of the associated blight (for example, DC 37 for a desert blight, DC 40 for a tundra blight, and so on).

During the ritual’s enactment, the primary caster guides any secondary casters through the terrain, defiling the area with blasphemous words from a long-extinct, primordial language. A bone altar, often assembled from sacrificed animals or humanoids, must stand at the center of the area to be affected, and is the starting and ending point of the ritual. Once the surrounding area is suitably prepared, the primary caster deposits the preserved hearts into the altar. If the ritual is successful, the associated blight bubbles forth from within the altar, formed from the alchemical soup that the altar contains.

This ritual provides no protection against the formed blight, and it’s likely that the blight’s first action is to attack the primary and secondary casters. Luckily for the primary caster, blights created in this manner have a penchant for consuming the secondary casters first, giving ample time for the primary caster to escape.

Freeing the Beast

Source PCS:OR

School conjuration (calling); Level 9
Casting Time 9 hours
Components V, S, F (a piece of the beast’s body), SC (at least 4, up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 35, 2 successes; Knowledge (dungeoneering) DC 35, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 35, 5 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one helpless or willing creature with at least 11 HD
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster and all secondary casters each take 1d4 points of Intelligence damage.
Failure The primary caster is immediately killed. No means can locate the primary caster’s remains or return her to life.

EFFECT

Some groups are obsessed with freeing a horrifically powerful creature from a hidden prison.

The primary caster begins the ritual by placing the focus in a pool of water that measures at least 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 50 feet deep. After this is done, the secondary casters surround the pool and perform ceremonial chants and wild supplications. The ritual casters then place the target inside the pool.

If the ritual succeeds, a vast and alien mind overwhelms the target. The freed monster immediately and hideously transforms the target’s body and irrevocably destroys it, replacing the gory remains with it’s own writhing form, now freed from its prison and unleashed to wreak the destruction it craved so hungrily, and for so long, in its unknown prison. The target is annihilated and can be restored to life only with a miracle or wish spell.

Fugue of Oblivion

Source PZO1135

School enchantment (compulsion); Level 6
Casting Time 6 hours
Components V, S, F (a receptacle urn worth at least 1,000 gp per level to be stolen; see below), SC (up to 4)

Skill Checks Bluff DC 35, 3 successes; Heal DC 35, 3 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one living creature
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes

Backlash The primary caster can’t form short-term memories for the next 24 hours.
Failure The primary caster must succeed at a Will save or suffer the effects of the amnesia greater madness.

EFFECT

The amnesia lasts until removed, but can’t be removed, even by magic, until 2d6 days have passed.

The casters weave the target’s name into a chant of nonsense rhyming stories for 6 hours, as they slowly extract the target’s memories into the urn as a purple mist. The target loses all but the first class level she ever gained (if any; this ritual doesn’t affect racial hit dice), immediately reducing or removing all level-dependent abilities as if the target were a 1st-level character. In addition to the loss of her class levels, the target suffers from total amnesia of the time in which she accrued those levels. The target can gain experience and accrue new levels, though she must adhere to all the same decisions she made previously with her missing levels (class, archetype, skills, feats, and so on), even if she can’t explain why she now makes such decisions. In some cases, she might do so without meeting the requirements, such as if her amnesia blocked an alignment change and she gained levels in a class with an alignment restriction she no longer met; in this case, she would gain the abilities but retain only those she would have as an ex-member of the class. The rule that she must adhere to all previous decisions has one exception: if the target is a psychic, she can gain the amnesiac archetype, as long as she could otherwise take it.

Destroying the receptacle instantly returns the lost levels to the target and reverses any amnesia. If the target became an amnesiac psychic, she loses the archetype as normal.

Grand Coven

Source PPC:BotC

School enchantment; Level 5

CASTING

Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, M (elderberry wine and secret herbs worth 100 gp per caster), SC (up to 12; see text)
Skill Checks Knowledge (nature) DC 28, 2 successes; Perform (sing or dance) DC 28, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 28, 1 success

EFFECT

Range touch
Target one willing creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
Backlash The subject and all casters are fatigued for 24 hours.
Failure The subject and all casters are sickened until the next full moon.

EFFECT

This ritual allows an established coven to induct a new member, allowing the coven to increase in size beyond the usual limit of three members. The newcomer must be a creature that could normally join a coven, such as a hag or a witch with the coven hex. Under the shadow of the new moon, the entire coven and the prospective member must prepare a bowl of rich red wine as they dance and chant, with each member adding handfuls of rare and expensive herbs.

At midnight, the coven consumes the wine together. If the ritual is a success, the newcomer becomes a full member of the coven. Every additional coven member above four increases the ritual skill check DCs by 2. No coven can be larger than 13 members.

Any three coven members can participate together to cast coven spells, as normal. Each additional coven member participating in a coven spell beyond the minimum requirement for a given spell increases the effective caster level of that spell by 1, to a maximum of; CL 20th.

Every two coven members participating in a coven spell beyond the minimum requirement also increase the saving throw DC by 1. When a coven reaches seven members, it gains the following new spells, which require all seven participants acting in concert to cast: create undead, dominate person (DC 18), epidemic (DC 19), fairy ring retreat, major curse (DC 18), magic jar (DC 18), and prying eyes. When a coven reaches 13 members, it gains the following new spells, which require 13 participants acting in concert to cast: create greater undead, cursed earth (DC 22), dominate monster (DC 22), greater prying eyes, and wail of the banshee (DC 22).

Hag’s Eye Brew

Source PPC:BotC

School transmutation (creation); Level 4

CASTING

Casting Time 2 weeks, plus 4 hours; see text
Components V, S, M (a hag or witch eye), SC (up to 6)
Skill Checks Knowledge (dungeoneering) DC 30, 2 successes; Craft (alchemy) or Profession (cook) DC 30, 2 successes

Range touch
Duration instantaneous
Backlash All casters are sickened from the fumes for 24 hours.
Failure The primary caster is permanently blinded.

EFFECT

This ritual is used to create a loyal servant and spy for the coven: a hag eye ooze.

Before the ritual can begin, the primary caster must spend 2 weeks carefully preparing an alchemical stew of animal organs, poisonous plants, and potent liquors.

Once the brew is prepared, the casters begin a 4-hour ritual of chanting around the bubbling cauldron. At the ritual’s end, the eye of a hag or witch—ideally the primary caster—is added to the cauldron (using an eye from anyone not participating in the ritual increases all skill check DCs by 5). If the ritual is successful, the noxious fluid in the cauldron animates into a hag eye ooze loyal to the ritual’s primary caster.

Harvest the Defiled Soul

Source PZO9446H

School necromancy [evil]; Level 5
Casting Time 5 hours; see text
Components V, S, M (one candle worth 10 gp per 5 feet of the area’s perimeter), F (special alchemist’s lab whose components have handles made from bone), SC (up to the Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier of the primary caster [whichever is highest])

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana or religion) DC 29, 5 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Area 100 square ft. + 10 square ft./character level of the primary caster
Duration 1 hour/character level of the primary caster
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters take 1d6 points of Constitution damage.
Failure All casters take 1d6 points of Constitution drain.

EFFECT

Formulated and perfected by the Whispering Way’s most twisted minds, this ritual allows the caster to perform a number of fell rites that thoroughly defile the metaphysical soul of a specific haunt or incorporeal creature, causing its essence to coalesce into a refined ectoplasmic material that can be used to craft especially powerful magic items and artifacts. Before she can begin casting this ritual, the primary caster must draw necromantic sigils around the area to be affected and adorn them with candles, a 12-hour process. Each secondary caster participating in the ritual reduces this time by 1 hour, to a minimum of 1 hour. During the ritual, one specific incorporeal undead creature or haunt must be present within the affected area for its entire casting time. Upon completing the ritual, the primary caster can harvest material components from the specific creature or haunt as if she had the Haunt Scavenger feat, though the creature or haunt need not be destroyed or neutralized. If she already has this feat, she gains a +20 competence bonus on skill checks to harvest material components from the specific creature or haunt and the gp value of those components doubles. This process doesn’t destroy or neutralize the creature or haunt, and can be used on a specific creature or haunt only once per month.

Haunted Communion

School necromancy; Level 7
Casting Time 70 minutes
Components V, S, M (special paints and a small, salted pastry), F (silver bell worth 500 gp), SC (up to 18)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 3 successes, Linguistics DC 31, 1 success
Range touch
Target one haunt within 60 feet
Duration 1 hour and 10 rounds (D); see text
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes

Backlash The primary caster is exhausted.
Failure The casters take 1 permanent negative level and a —4 penalty on all skill and ability checks for as long as the negative level persists.

EFFECT

This ritual must be performed within 60 feet of a haunt. The primary caster rings the silver bell using an object associated with the haunt’s origin or source of power. Once this is done, the primary caster draws an intricate circle adorned with occult symbols around a plate bearing the small, salted pastry.

If the incantation is successful, the haunt’s spirit enters into the pastry (making the haunt inert for the duration of the ritual) and one of the casters must eat the pastry before the next hour or the ritual ends. Failure to do so allows the haunt to go free and increases any DCs of the haunt’s effects by 4 and grants a +4 bonus on attack rolls made by the haunt for 24 hours. Once a caster eats the pastry, the spirit of the haunt speaks through the individual who ate the pastry, and is required to truthfully answer 10 questions (1 question per round) before departing, though since the haunt is an emotional echo, the answers may be brief, cryptic, or repetitive, as with speak with dead. Once the 10 questions are answered or the spell is dismissed, the haunt can manifest as normal.

Hungering of Shadows

Source PZO1135

School evocation; Level 9
Casting Time 1 day
Components V, S, M (lavender and green ioun stone split into 6 shards), F (an onyx throne worth at least 40,000 gp), SC (6)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 47, 4 successes; Knowledge (geography) DC 47, 2 successes; Knowledge (nature) 47, 1 success; Spellcraft DC 47, 2 successes
Range 10 miles/character level of primary caster
Area 1 mile radius/character level of primary caster
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster gains 2 permanent negative levels, and all secondary casters are permanently blinded and deafened. None of these effects can be removed by any means unless the ritual is reversed.
Failure The primary caster and all secondary casters are immediately transported to different locations on the Negative Energy Plane or Shadow Plane (50% for either plane, roll separately for each caster). The secondary casters remain catatonic for 1 hour upon arriving.

EFFECT

The primary caster sits upon the onyx throne, invoking ancient rites blaspheming against the light of the sun. The secondary casters offer up prayers to the gods of darkness. In turn, each of the secondary casters consumes one of the ioun stone shards, which induces a state of catatonia for 1 hour. Throughout the ritual’s casting, a localized partial solar eclipse marks the location of the throne with an obvious pillar of darkness from above, easily noticed by creatures throughout the ritual’s area.

If the ritual is successful, the area is draped in a curtain of eternal darkness, removing sunlight from the area. Illumination in the area can never be brighter than dim light, and only a miracle or wish can even temporarily alleviate this restriction (though direct intervention of a deity can end the ritual’s effect). Any light beyond dim light that would touch the area is instead transported into the ioun stone shards consumed by the secondary casters, making the secondary casters’ entire bodies glow. Any object with a light spell having its light thus dimmed by the ritual counts as a part of the secondary casters’ bodies for the purpose of a connection for spells like scrying. Collecting these ioun stone shards then piecing them back together while within the affected area ends the effects of this ritual.

Imperial Augury

PAP131:TRRH

School conjuration (summoning); Level 5

CASTING

Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, M (a combination of rare candles, incense, and oils worth 500 gp), SC (up to 4)

Skill Checks Knowledge (history) DC 34, 1 success; Knowledge (nobility) DC 34, 1 success; Knowledge (religion) DC 34, 1 success; Spellcraft DC 34, 2 successes

Range touch
Duration 1 hour
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no (harmless, object)
Backlash The primary caster is exhausted.
Failure The primary caster loses the esteem of his colleagues, losing 1d2 facet ranks from his highest-ranked facet. This also causes twice as many of his agents to abandon his cause.

EFFECT

The primary caster begins by placing the a unique mantle atop a specific sarcophagus.

She then anoints three concentric semicircles around the sarcophagus, arraying seven candles along each of the semicircles, and then lighting the incense in a censor. While gently swinging the lit censor, the primary caster then recounts the deeds of an ancient emperor and performs a series of measured steps.

Upon completion, an apparition appears, channeling his spirit from beyond to converse with those in attendance, though he focuses on addressing the primary caster’s questions. The conjured spirit possesses great judgment and charisma, but not all of his memories; he is more a counselor than a historical resource.

In addition to providing conversation, the apparition can provide any two of the following benefits at the primary caster’s request:

  • Provide military advice for an upcoming military engagement, treating all of the casters as though they had 5 additional ranks of Profession (soldier) when serving as commanders in mass combat for the next week.
  • Provide political insights that grant the primary caster a +4 insight bonus on one check attempted during the caster’s next two persona phases. Any secondary casters gain a +2 insight bonus on one check during their next two persona phases.
  • Grant a blessing upon one relic. The selected relic gains additional abilities as though its wielder had experienced a triumph, though this triumph cannot activate either of a relic’s last two abilities. In effect, this allows a PC to make up for missing an earlier triumph.

After providing these benefits and advice, the apparition bids any observers farewell and fades away. The apparition strongly prefers that others lead by example and not rely on him, so he is loath to answer this ritual more than once per decade; performing it again increases the skill check DCs by 10, minus 1 for every year that has passed since it was last performed successfully.

Performing the ritual a third time in a decade automatically fails.

Invisible Aegis

Source PAP140

School abjuration; Level 4

CASTING

Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, M (a clear glass marble), F (an iron key)
Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 30, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 30, 1 success; Use Magic Device DC 30, 1 success

EFFECT

Range touch
Target one object no larger than 1 cubic foot in size
Duration 1 month
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance yes (harmless, object)
Backlash The caster takes 4d6 points of damage.

Failure The caster can’t touch or use the target object for 24 hours.

DESCRIPTION

The invisible aegis occult ritual is one of the simpler occult rituals to learn and perform. It produces a small, unbreakable barrier of force that protects a single item.

The caster begins by rolling the marble around the target object, tracing complex occult patterns. The caster then touches the iron key to the target object four times. The caster repeats the process of rolling the marble and touching the key to the target object three more times, though with each iteration, the marble becomes harder and harder to move, as if it were being pushed through thickening cement. Upon successful completion of the ritual, the marble disappears, and a small, invisible sphere of force surrounds the target object. Any creature holding the iron key used as the focus can pick up and move the target object. Any other creature attempting to touch the target object meets a solid, immovable surface similar to a wall of force. The protective sphere dissipates after 1 month, but it ends immediately if a creature holding the iron key taps it to the object four times in quick succession.

Invariability

Source PCS:CoR

School transmutation [lawful]; Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (chalk, four intricately carved cogs worth 125 gp each), SC (up to the Intelligence modifier of the primary caster)

Skill Checks Craft (clockwork) DC 28, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 28, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 28, 2 successes
Range touch
Target one willing or helpless creature
Duration 1 hour
Saving Throw none; SR yes

Backlash All casters take 4d6 points of damage.
Failure The primary caster is exhausted and the target gains the benefit of a magic circle against law effect (CL equal to the primary caster’s character level) for 1 hour.

EFFECT

The caster carefully places the four cogs around the target and traces chalk lines connecting them. As the chalk lines must be as close to perfectly square as possible, the caster typically uses a guide or straight edge to draw the lines, although these components aren’t strictly necessary if the caster can draw the lines freehand with exceptional precision. As the caster recites certain mathematical formulae, the cogs slide slowly along the chalk lines and closer to the target, redrawing the chalk lines across the floor as they move. As the cogs approach the target, the target’s skin and clothing become more metallic-looking, and the target’s gaps and joints appear to contain rapidly whirring clockwork mechanisms, as though the target were a quasi-mechanical creature like an inevitable. If the ritual is successful, the target is infused with the essence of Axis and can act only with rigid precision. The first ability check, attack roll, caster level check, saving throw, or skill check the target makes each round throughout the ritual’s duration is automatically treated as though the natural d20 roll resulted in an 11. When the duration ends, the target’s appearance returns to normal.

Invoke the Nemesis

Source PPC:BotC

School conjuration [calling, curse]; Level 7

CASTING

Casting Time 7 hours
Components V, S, M (a treasured possession of the target), F (a depiction of the nemesis creature worth at least 5,000 gp)
Skill Checks Bluff DC 30, 2 successes; Diplomacy DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 30, 3 successes Range touch; see text
Target one creature; see text
Duration a year and a day; see text
Saving Throw Will partial, see text; Spell Resistance yes, see text
Backlash The nemesis creature feeds on a portion of the primary caster’s life force, inflicting a permanent negative level that cannot be healed until the nemesis creature is dismissed.
Failure The nemesis creature is offended and harries the primary caster for a year and a day.

EFFECT

This ritual conjures forth a restless spirit or otherworldly entity to harass and sabotage a target of the caster’s choice.

The ritual must take place in an environment pleasing to the nemesis creature (an allip must be called in an asylum, a gremlin must be called in a clocktower or site of misfortune, etc.). The caster supplicates before a representation—usually a statue or tapestry—of the nemesis creature, reciting a long litany of the target’s real or imagined sins and how deeply the target deserves to suffer.

Success conjures up the nemesis creature chosen from the list below, which goes forth to harass the victim to the best of its abilities. A pugwampi will hide and subject its victim to bad luck, while a lovelorn will stalk the victim and undermine his relationships.

Nemesis creatures do not kill their victims, and they avoid doing anything that might result in their victims’ deaths (though they have no rules against killing others).

Beyond defining the nemesis creature’s target, the ritual casters have no special control over or connection to the conjured beast.

A nemesis creature always knows its victim’s location, but it must travel to the victim under its own power (or its creator’s power). A victim can conceal itself from the nemesis creature’s senses for 24 hours by succeeding at a Will saving throw each day at dawn. Should the nemesis creature be discovered and slain, its spirit returns to the depiction used to conjure it, where it re-forms after 1d4 days per Hit Die. Once re-formed, the nemesis creature emerges from its depiction to resume its campaign of subterfuge.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a miracle or wish spell. If the depiction of the nemesis creature is destroyed or if it is targeted with a remove curse or break enchantment spell, the nemesis creature is immediately destroyed and the curse ends.

The following creatures can be summoned as nemesis creatures: allip, gremlin (any), hellhound, imp, lovelorn, poltergeist, quasit, or tooth fairy.

Labyrinthine Wilds

Source PZO1140

School illusion (glamer); Level 5

CASTING

Casting Time 50 minutes

Components V, S, M (the bones of local wildlife carved into divining runes and daubed in specially treated wildlife blood worth 2,000 gp), F (a compass using a highly sensitive magnetic needle worth 10,000 gp), SC (at least 4 and up to 10)

Skill Checks Knowledge (geography) DC 30, 2 successes; Survival DC 30, 3 successes

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)

Area a 2-square-mile region/character level of the primary caster

Duration permanent (D)

Saving Throw Will disbelief (if interacted with); Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster gains 1 temporary negative level.

Failure All casters gain 2 temporary negative levels and are permanently blinded (the blindness is a curse effect, and it can be removed with remove curse and similar effects).

EFFECT

The primary caster must prepare for this ritual by walking a path along the outer edge of the desired area—an act that likely takes longer than the ritual casting time. As the primary caster walks this path, she must periodically mark the area with tiny runes. Once the primary caster returns to her starting point, and assuming the area she outlined is less than 2 square miles per character level she has, the actual casting of the ritual can begin. At this point, all casters cross the threshold to enter the region and then begin following a series of erratic paths, each using the material component divining runes as they wander aimlessly. Completing this ritual creates a powerful obfuscating effect, affecting creatures entering the area surrounded by the primary caster’s initial walk.

The area within the border becomes an illusory replica of the local terrain that is difficult to navigate. In order to successfully travel to a desired location within the labyrinthine wilds, a creature must succeed at a DC 20 Intelligence check or a DC 30 Survival check. Success at this check allows a creature to reach its destination as normal. Failure at this check indicates the creature (and any allies it guides) spends 2d6 hours traveling along the path, only to return the starting point with no memory of its wanderings and fatigued from the journey.

Manifest Manifestation

Source PRG:BotD

School divination; Level 9

Casting Time 90 minutes

Components S, F (the complete Book of the Damned or the diabolic Book of the Damned)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 33, 3 successes; Linguistics DC 33, 4 successes; Perception DC 33, 2 successes (these checks take a –4 penalty if the diabolic Book of the Damned is used as the ritual’s focus)

Range touch

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster becomes exhausted.

Failure The caster’s own true name appears somewhere in a random document in a library located somewhere on Abaddon, in the Abyss, or in Hell. Once per year, at a time chosen by the GM (invariably at a time that is inconvenient to the caster), there is a percent chance equal to the number of times the caster’s true name has appeared in such a document (1% per failed attempt to perform the manifest manifestation) that some other force discovers the caster’s true name and uses it. Typically, this results in the caster being conjured elsewhere via powerful magic to perform services—at the GM’s discretion, this could be played out, or the caster could simply return to his point of origin 4d6 hours later with 1d6 points of ability drain, 1d3 negative levels, a strange curse, or some other affliction but with no memories of how this affliction came to be. Removing one’s name from these locations can be accomplished only via a significant quest.

EFFECT

When the caster begins the manifest manifestation ritual, he must have in mind a specific type of fiend to learn the true name of. If he seeks to learn the true name of a specific individual fiend or unique fiend, the DC of the skill checks for manifest manifestation increase by 5, and if he seeks to learn the true name of a fiendish demigod or quasi deity, all skill checks for manifest manifestation increase by 10. (In the latter case, the fiendish demigod or quasi deity’s true name changes once the caster learns it, so this information is useful only once, and in the event of a failure, the demigod or quasi deity learns the caster’s true name instead.) Once a creature’s true name is divulged by the manifestation of the Book of the Damned’s list of true names, the caster can use that information how he sees fit, but abuse of the information will likely have repercussions. For example, a caster who gains a reputation for spreading a powerful fiend’s true name far and wide could find himself hunted by a wide range of powerful fiends, all eager to see the caster destroyed. Such reprisals rise not out of any sort of familial devotion to the inconvenienced fiend but purely from self-defense, for who is to say which fiend’s true name might next be publicized by such a careless caster?

Multiversal Knowledge

Source PCS:CoR

School divination; Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (a spool of silver wire), F (a compendium, encyclopedia, or similar book related to knowledge worth at least 5,000 gp), SC (up to 5)

Skill Checks Linguistics DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 30, 2 successes
Range primary caster
Duration 10 minutes/character level of primary caster
Saving Throw none; SR no

Backlash All casters take 2d6 points of damage.
Failure All casters gain a temporary negative level (DC = 14 + primary caster’s Intelligence bonus to remove after the first day), and the primary caster is confused for 24 hours.

EFFECT

The ritual allows the primary caster to tap into the multiversal connection shared by all aeons. The primary caster weaves complicated occult patterns around herself with the silver wire; if secondary casters are involved in the ritual, they stand around the primary caster and the primary caster wraps the silver wire around their outstretched limbs to form these patterns. If successfully performed, the primary caster can utilize the envisaging ability as though she were an aeon to communicate with other creatures, can attempt Knowledge checks untrained, and gains an enhancement bonus on Knowledge checks equal to half her character level or twice the number of secondary casters, whichever is greater. Although the primary caster can communicate with aeons themselves across vast gulfs of distance and even planar boundaries, they are unlikely to respond except to profess amusement or mild annoyance.

Opening the Third Eye

School transmutation; Level 5
Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, M (incense), SC (up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 34, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 34, 1 success; Perception DC 34, 1 success
Range touch Target primary and secondary casters
Duration 1 day (D)
Saving Throw Fort negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

Backlash All casters take 2d6 points of damage.
Failure All casters gain a temporary negative level (DC = 16 + primary caster’s Charisma bonus to remove after the first day), and the primary caster is afflicted with a more potent version of the mindfire disease (DC 17; 2 saves; 1d4 Int; 1/day).

EFFECT

Through a ceremony of meditation and recitation, the casters of this ritual become psychically attuned. Casters who don’t have levels in an occult class gain the following benefits.

  • Each caster can choose one knack from the psychic class’s spell list and an additional knack for every 5 character levels that caster possesses (to a maximum of 5 knacks at 20th level). The casters can cast these knacks at will.
  • If a caster is trained in a skill with an occult skill unlock, she can use that skill’s occult unlock. Casters who do have levels in an occult base class gain the following benefits.
  • If a caster is trained in a skill with an occult skill unlock, she gains a +4 insight bonus on checks with that skill when using its occult skill unlock.
  • If a caster is untrained in a skill with an occult skill unlock, she can still use that skill’s occult unlock.

Each of the ritual’s casters can choose to dismiss this ritual’s effects for themselves individually.

Ouroboros Blood Ritual

Source PRG:B6

School conjuration (healing); Level 9

CASTING

Casting Time 90 minutes
Components V, S, M (a gallon of blood harvested from an ouroboros within the previous month), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Heal DC 34, 4 successes; Knowledge (arcana) DC 34, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 34, 2 successes
Range touch
Target one dead creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster and secondary casters become exhausted.
Failure All casters are affected by the ouroboros’s ruinous blood special attack. The dead body can’t be the target of the ouroboros blood ritual in the future.

EFFECT

The caster uses the ouroboros blood to paint complex mathematical equations on the ground surrounding a dead body (or if lacking a body, in the area where the body was slain).

Upon the ritual’s completion, the dead body is restored to life, as per true resurrection. Unlike that spell’s limitation, there is no limit as to how long the body has been dead before it can be restored to life in this manner, but bodies whose souls have been judged and sent on to the afterlife (GM’s discretion) cannot be restored to life via this ritual. A creature can be restored to life via an ouroboros blood ritual only once through all time.

Paired Suffering

Source PZO1135

School necromancy; Level 6
Casting Time 6 hours
Components V, S, F (an ornate ceremonial dagger worth at least 1,000 gp)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 30, 4 successes
Range touch; see text
Target two creatures; see text
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster is staggered for the next 24 hours.
Failure The primary caster is affected by slay living (using the ritual’s save DC and caster level).

EFFECT

The caster prepares a ritual site no more than 100 feet long by 100 feet wide by 20 feet high, including sigils that prevent souls from escaping the perimeter. At the culmination of the ritual, the caster forces two spiritually close humanoid creatures experiencing a transitional state of their lives into ritual combat to the death. Among most humanoids, only teenage twins (fraternal or identical) young enough that they haven’t gained a level in a PC class can be targets of this ritual; other pairings work only at the GM’s discretion. One of the targets must slay the other with the ceremonial dagger focus for the ritual to succeed; even if all the checks succeed, if either target leaves the area while the other lives, or if someone else slays one of the targets, the ritual counts as a failure, and the primary caster suffers the failure effects.

If the ritual succeeds, the soul of the creature slain by the ritual dagger is trapped within the ritual site. The surviving target has a choice either to allow the soul into her body, or to bar it from doing so. If the surviving target allows the soul inside her, she becomes a spiritualist, with the slain target as her phantom. If the surviving target chooses not to allow the spirit entry, it instead becomes an unfettered phantomB5 and eventually a malevolent ghost, haunting the ritual site. This ghost cannot directly attack the surviving target, but in order to overcome its rejuvenation, someone must provide proof of the surviving target’s death (false evidence is not sufficient; that target must actually be dead).

Psychic Shielding

School abjuration; Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (diamond dust worth 500 gp), F (mithral mirrors worth a total of 10,000 gp and a lit lantern)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 33, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 33, 3 successes
Range touch
Target one creature
Duration 1 day/character level of the caster
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

Backlash The caster takes 2d6 points of damage and is exhausted.
Failure The caster takes 1 permanent negative level.

EFFECT

The caster must begin this incantation at dusk or dawn, in a windowless room with the intended target (if it is not the caster), surrounded by mithral mirrors pointed inward. As the ritual concludes, the caster blows out a lantern using the diamond dust, leaving her and the target in the darkened room.

While in the darkness, the caster must touch the ritual’s target before exiting the room. Then, for a number of days equal to the caster’s character level, the target gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against psychic spells and abilities, but can’t use any psychic magic abilities, can’t cast psychic spells or use psychic magic, and can’t be engaged or engage in a psychic duel.

Quartern Disjunction

Source PRG:BotD

School transmutation; Level 9

Casting Time 90 minutes

Components V, S, M (9 doses of holy water), F (the complete Book of the Damned)

Skill Checks Craft (books) DC 35, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 35, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 35, 3 successes

Range touch

Target the complete Book of the Damned

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster becomes exhausted.

Failure The caster is drawn into the Book of the Damned’s demiplane and affected by feeblemind (CL 20th); the Book of the Damned is transported to a random location on a random Material Plane world.

EFFECT

The first step in destroying the Book of the Damned is to divide the book into four sections—one each for its daemonic, demonic, and infernal portions, and one for its apocrypha. Separating the book into these four parts is both difficult and dangerous.

The ritual requires scrubbing the pages with holy water and reciting potent magical words while reading key phrases hidden throughout the text. Upon the successful completion of the ritual, the Book of the Damned tumbles apart into its four components, each of which must be swiftly separated from the others, for should all four components of the Book of the Damned be within 30 feet of each other at any point in time once 1 minute has passed following their separation, they immediately reform into the complete Book of the Damned as if the quartern disjunction had never been performed.

Reconsecrate Altar

Source PCS:OR

School evocation [chaotic, evil, good, or lawful; see text]; Level 5
Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, M (holy or unholy water), F (a holy symbol of the altar’s deity worth at least 300 gp), SC (up to 4)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 27, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 27, 3 successes
Range touch
Target broken altar
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster is exhausted.
Failure For a period of 1 month, none of the casters can be targeted by divine magic that draws its power from the deity previously tied to the altar. (This is a curse effect, and can be removed with remove curse and similar effects.)

EFFECT

Most altars spend some time as mundane edifices of metal, stone, or wood before being blessed with the attention of the deities they honor. Once invested with power from their deities, the altars become magic items that can grant temporary blessings to faithful who pray at them.

Through neglect or vandalism, altars can lose their deific connections, becoming useless beyond displaying the faintest of magical auras. Such damaged altars must be reconsecrated by faithful worshipers of the altar’s patron deity. A ritual for reconsecrating altars revitalizes such damaged magical fonts with holy (or unholy) purpose.

This ritual works only on inoperative divine altars, rendered powerless through damage or other ways, and must be performed on a holy day of the deity to which the altar is dedicated. In order to repair a broken altar, the primary caster and all secondary casters must be worshipers of that same deity. The exact process of revitalizing altars varies by religion, but such rituals require a dose of holy or unholy water when dealing with good- or evil-aligned deities, as well as a masterfully wrought holy symbol regardless of the deity’s alignment. By speaking numerous prayers and conducting the required religious ceremonies, the primary caster can restore the altar to its previous function, effectively restoring its capabilities as a magical item.

A reconsecrate altar ritual has the chaotic, evil, good, or lawful descriptors depending on the alignment of the altar’s deity. For instance, a reconsecrate altar ritual performed to restore the altar of a lawful good deity has the lawful and good descriptors. A ritual tied to a nonlawful, nonchaotic neutral deity has no descriptor.

Reinforce Campsite

Source PZO1140

School abjuration; Level 4

CASTING

Casting Time 40 minutes

Components V, S, M (flint and steel, tent), F (a set of magically attuned stones to encircle the campfire, worth at least 500 gp), SC (up to 5)

Skill Checks Knowledge (nature) DC 24, 2 successes; Survival DC 24, 2 successes

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Effects a 30-foot-radius area

Duration 1 hour/character level of the primary caster

Backlash The primary caster is exhausted.

Failure The campfire extends 200 feet into the air for 1 round, followed by a near-deafening booming noise. In addition to alerting any nearby creatures, this results in an 80% chance of attracting a random encounter if the ritual was performed in an outdoor environment.

EFFECT

This ritual is cast as part of constructing a campsite. The primary caster and any secondary casters work to secure a 30-foot perimeter around a central campfire. The fire is ringed with ritualistic warding stones, which are required as foci to complete the ritual. These warding stones can be used only once every 7 days, though the primary caster can purchase additional sets of stones if she wishes to create multiple campsites during that time. If the ritual is successful, several effects occur for the duration of the ritual or until the primary caster decides to dispel the ritual (a full-round action).

Alarm: If a living creature that was not within the area at the time of the ritual’s completion crosses into the affected area, an audible alarm sounds. The alarm lasts for 2 rounds and is sufficient to wake any creature resting in the campsite.

Defensive Ring: The outermost 5 feet of the area take on a roughened texture, counting as caltrops for any creature not within the area of the ritual when the ritual was cast.

Shelter: Creatures within the area of the ritual gain the benefits of endure elements (CL = character level of the primary caster). They also gain a +4 circumstance bonus on saving throws against weather effects.

Return To Dormancy

Source PZO1140

School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level 8

CASTING

Casting Time 80 minutes

Components V, S, M (a bone, piece of skin, or scale belonging to the target), SC (at least 4 and up to 20)

Skill Checks Diplomacy or Intimidate DC 36, 2 successes; Knowledge (nature) DC 36, 2 successes; Perform (any) DC 36 (see text), 4 successes

Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./character level of the primary caster)

Target one Colossal creature (minimum 20 HD)

Duration instantaneous, see text

Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters are exhausted.

Failure The primary caster becomes the sole focus of the target, which attacks the primary caster to the best of its ability for the next hour.

EFFECT

Numerous variants of this ritual exist, though the intent is always the same: to lull the rage within a gigantic, rampaging threat. The target is usually a unique creature with a specific Perform check is required to affect it.

The successful completion of this extensive ritual forces the target, which must be a Colossal creature with at least 20 HD, to attempt a Will save. On a failed save, the affected creature stops its current actions and retreats away from civilization for a period of no less than 1 year. Should the target succeed at this save, the ritual fails and its failure effect occurs immediately.

Creatures with the kaiju subtype cannot use their recovery ability to attempt a new saving throw against this ritual’s effect. If a creature affected by this ritual is attacked and damaged, the effects of return to dormancy immediately end and the ritual’s failure effect takes place.

Ritual Exorcism

School abjuration; Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (vial of holy water), F (silver holy symbol), SC (up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (religion) DC 28, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 28, 2 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one helpless possessed creature or a restrained possessed object
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes

Backlash All casters become exhausted.
Failure All casters gain 1 temporary negative level (DC = 16 + primary caster’s Charisma bonus to remove after the first day), and the primary caster takes 4d6 points of damage.

EFFECT

You force the life force of a possessing creature to leave its host. Upon the completion of this ritual, the possessing creature attempts a Will saving throw. If it fails the save, the possessor is expelled, as if the duration of the spell or effect it used to possess the target had expired. If the possessing creature succeeds at the save, it continues to stay within the host creature or object, though the ritual can be attempted anew as long as the possessed creature is helpless or the object restrained.

Ritual of Benediction

Source PPC:HotHC

School transmutation; Level 4

CASTING

Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (enough green tea leaves of exceptional quality to brew a pot of tea), F (a tea ceremony set worth at least 150 gp), SC (at least 1 and up to 4)

Skill Checks Diplomacy DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (nobility) DC 30, 2 successes
Range touch
Duration 24 hours; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster takes a –4 penalty to Strength and Dexterity for 24 hours.
Failure All casters can’t benefit from morale bonuses for 1 week.

EFFECT

The primary caster brews a pot of tea and serves it to the secondary casters in a formal ceremony. Everything, from the amount poured into each cup to the tea’s temperature, must be precise. During this time, the casters can either remain silent or speak politely to one another, but never of anything crude. If the tea ceremony is interrupted in any way, the ritual fails, no matter how many successes the casters have accrued. When the casters have finished drinking the tea and successfully completed the ritual, they are filled with a sense of serenity.

Each caster receives a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects for the next 24 hours.

Any caster can dismiss the ritual’s effect for herself as an immediate action and gain one of the following benefits.

  • The caster gains 2d10+4 temporary hit points that last for 4 hours.
  • The caster is immediately cured of a single poison affecting her.
  • The caster can reroll a failed Will saving throw, taking the better result. If this saving throw is against a fear effect, the caster still gains the +4 morale bonus on the reroll.
  • The caster can cast a single spell of 3rd level or lower as if it were a silent and still spell.

Scarlet Vigil

Source PCS:OR

School necromancy; Level 7
Casting Time 7 hours
Components V, S, M (a giant mantis claw), SC (at least 2, up to 4)

Skill Checks Heal DC 30, 2 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 30, 3 successes; Perception DC 30, 2 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one corpse and secondary casters; see text
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All secondary casters take 2d6 points of damage.
Failure The primary caster is stunned for 1d6 rounds (no save). The targeted corpse is immediately revived, as if via the spell resurrection.

EFFECT

This ritual serves as an advanced initiation rite for the novices who are deemed worthy to participate. The neophytes who partake in this vigil are tasked with ensuring that the target never returns to life—a holy mission that takes priority above all other assignments. By participating in this ritual, these novices also get a glimpse into the resurrection sense ability that they will learn should they continue to survive and advance in their training.

This ritual requires the intact corpse of a target slain by the primary caster, who must possess at least 5 levels in the crimson assassin prestige class. Each of the secondary casters must possess exactly 1 level in the crimson assassin prestige class. During the ritual, the primary caster reveals meticulous details about the victim’s demise to the secondary casters, describing in anatomical detail the damage done to the individual and pointing out visual cues on the corpse, all while connecting the methods of execution to the teachings of the mantis god, patron of the crimson assassin order. During the ritual, the secondary casters must use a giant mantis claw to draw blood from themselves in a place where the corpse was damaged; in the case of poisons and similar effects, the location can be symbolic.

If the corpse took damage in many different locations, the secondary casters must draw blood from themselves in the place where the victim sustained the most damage.

If the ritual is successful, the secondary casters gain an intrinsic link to the deceased individual; from that moment on, the secondary casters know if the assassinated creature is returned to life, as per the crimson assassin resurrection sense class ability. An assassinated body used in a failed scarlet vigil occult ritual cannot subsequently be used in another such ritual. Since failing to correctly perform this ritual unravels the primary caster’s assassination and puts all casters at risk, high-level members choose their secondary casters carefully, sometimes watching them for months to determine whether they are worthy of participating, as well as seeking guidance from senior leadership concerning which novices are the best choices.

Second Sight

Source PZO1135

School divination; Level 4
Casting Time 40 minutes
Components V, S, M (an eyedropper filled with water from the Elemental Planes of Water), SC (at least 2, up to 6)

Skill Checks Heal DC 32, 1 success; Knowledge (arcana) DC 32, 1 success; Perception DC 32, 2 successes
Range long (400 ft. + 40 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one living humanoid of the same size as the primary caster
Duration 10 minutes/character level of the primary caster
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster’s movement speeds are all reduced by 15 feet, to a minimum of 5 feet, for the next 24 hours.
Failure The target and primary caster have their vision permanently reversed, so the primary caster sees only what the target sees and vice versa. This effect can be removed only by greater restoration, limited wish, miracle, or wish.

EFFECT

The primary caster carefully applies specially prepared water to the target’s eyes. Following this application, one or more secondary casters paint the primary caster’s closed eyes, creating lifelike eyes overtop of the closed eyelids.

When the primary caster’s eyes are closed, she sees through the eyes of the target. This vision only works while the target is within range of the primary caster, and only if the ritual is successful. While seeing through the target’s eyes, the primary caster is susceptible to gaze attacks, patterns, and other sight-based and visual attacks as if she were the target.

Seeded Doom

Source PZO1135

School transmutation [evil]; Level 8
Casting Time 8 hours
Components V, S, M (internal organs of an aberration), F (the crystallized brain of an aberration worth at least 7,500 gp and a book, painting, or section of sheet music), SC (up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana or history) DC 37, 2 successes; Knowledge (planes or religion) DC 37, 2 successes; Spellcraft DC 37, 4 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 character levels of the primary caster)
Target one object
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw see text; Spell Resistance see text

Backlash The primary caster is reduced to –1 hit point and is exhausted, and all secondary casters are exhausted.
Failure The ritual fails to affect the object, and all casters are afflicted by the seed’s effect with no saving throw.

EFFECT

The casters grind the organs into paste and use it to paint their lips and tongue. Anointed by madness, they chant profane blasphemies into the focus brain, causing it to throb and glow. The primary caster releases this energy as a foul sludge, which trickles onto the other focus before seeping into the paper or paint. A successful ritual corrupts the targeted piece of art, planting a metaphysical seed into it, which propagates itself into any copies of the work later created based on the corrupted original; this includes book copies or matched painting duplicates, but not art, literature, or music that is merely derivative. A living creature subjected to the seeded piece of art, typically by hearing or seeing it, must succeed at a Will save or be afflicted by the seed (Spell Resistance applies).

By default, the seed causes insanity or a madness, but numerous types of seeds exist, from different variants on this ritual with slightly different components, foci, and ritual DC. A few examples include becoming blind or deaf, contracting a disease, or rising as a zombie after death.

Seek Astral Insights

School divination; Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (a number of candles made of pure beeswax equal to the number of wandering stars in conjunction when the ritual is attempted), F (a mithral chain worth 5,000 gp), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Knowledge (arcana) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 31, 3 successes
Range primary caster
Duration 1 hour/character level of the primary caster

Backlash The primary caster is rendered speechless for 1 week (if the ritual fails, this duration begins after the end of the feeblemind effect).
Failure The primary caster’s Intelligence and Charisma scores drop to 1 and she gains the other effects of a feeblemind spell for 24 hours.

EFFECT

This ritual can be cast only at midnight on a night when no fewer than three wandering stars (planets) are in conjunction and within view of the casters. The ritual must be performed at the top of a hill, mountain, or other natural vantage point.

The primary caster is first wrapped in the focus chains, and the candles are lit in the pattern of the stars in conjunction. The primary caster must sit in complete silence, concentrating on the light of the candles, while the secondary casters circle, chanting the occult incantation. If the ritual is successfully completed, the primary caster’s mind is allowed to wander the Astral Plane unhindered, and she can ask one question each hour her mind wanders. The spirits of the Astral Plane answer the caster truthfully, though there is usually only a 60% chance that they will have the answer the primary caster seeks (the chance may be higher or lower at the GM’s discretion, depending on the nature of the information sought). If they don’t have the answer, the spirits admit that they lack the knowledge the caster seeks rather than trying to deceive her.

Sever Spirit

Source PZO1140

School abjuration [curse, evil]; Level 6

CASTING

Casting Time 60 minutes

Components V, S, M (salt mixed with the cremated remains of a family member or former friend), F (a set of 43 holy symbols belonging to at least 10 different deities), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 34, 2 successes; Knowledge (local) DC 34, 3 successes; Sense Motive DC 34, 1 success

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)

Target one animal companion, eidolon, kami ward, or phantom (see text)

Duration permanent

Saving Throw Will negates, see text; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters take 3d6 points of damage and are sickened for 1 hour.

Failure The primary caster requires twice as much food and water as a normal creature of its species for 1 year (this is a curse effect, and it can be removed with remove curse and similar effects).

EFFECT

By reciting false litanies associated with the various deities represented among the holy symbol foci, the primary caster shakes the unseen spiritual pillars of the mortal world. This ritual has no visible effect to mortal eyes, but it creates a powerful rending cut in the world of spirits. By successfully completing this ritual, the caster can achieve one of two goals: severing a kami from its ward, or untethering a bound companion.

Sever Kami Ward: Successfully completing the ritual forces the ward’s kami to attempt a Will save (use the kami’s Will save in the case of targeting its ward). On a failed save, the kami loses its connection with its ward. This functions as if the kami’s ward were destroyed: the kami cannot merge with its ward, it loses its fast healing, and it is permanently sickened. Many kami suffering from this cruel fate transform into malicious oni.

Untether Companion: Successfully completing the ritual forces the creature whose animal or spiritual companion, such as an eidolon or phantom, was targeted to attempt a Will save. Failing this save causes the creature to lose its bond with the targeted animal companion or spirit. An animal companion severed in this manner retains its abilities and statistics, but it gains an intense loathing for its former master. In the case of eidolons or phantoms, the severed companion gains the unfettered eidolon template or becomes an unfettered phantom with the appropriate Hit Dice. For creatures with animal companions, this functions as if the creature’s companion had been slain, allowing the target to gain a new companion. For creatures with bonded spirits (such as spiritualists), the means of gaining a new companion are left to the GM’s discretion.

Song of the Kami’s Gift

Source PZO9488

School conjuration (summoning); Level 5

CASTING

Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, M (an offering of food, artwork, or clothing valued at 100 gp), F (a handcrafted shrine worth 500 gp), SC (up to 20)
Skill Checks Knowledge (nature) DC 32, 3 successes; Knowledge (planes) DC 32, 2 successes

EFFECT

Range 100 ft.

Effect one summoned kami manifestation
Duration 1 day (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Backlash The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage and becomes exhausted. The secondary casters become fatigued.
Failure A zuishin appears and attacks all of the casters until the zuishin or the casters are destroyed. Afterward, all kami completely ignore the casters for 1 year and will not answer to any ritual in which any of those casters are involved.

DESCRIPTION

The primary caster appeals to a local kami to ask for assistance in battle. The casters must assemble a shrine within 100 feet of the kami’s ward. Once the ritual begins, the casters each utter a unique prayer to the kami, complete with devotionals and explanations about why the kami’s help is needed. If the casting is successful, the kami manifests (as per summon monster V) and fights alongside the casters. This kami uses the statistics for a kodama and refuses to move farther than 1 mile from its ward.

Soul Trap

Source PRG:BotD

School necromancy (evil); Level 9

Casting Time 90 minutes

Components V, S, F (a crystal lens worth at least half the value of the soul to be trapped), SC (up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 31, 3 successes

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./level of the primary caster)

Target one living or recently dead creature

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw Will negates; SR no

Backlash The primary and secondary casters each gain 1 temporary negative level.

Failure The primary and secondary casters become staggered for 10 minutes. Unless the ritual was performed in an area that bars dimensional travel, this feedback draws the attention of a psychopomp or psychopomps of a total CR equal to the CR of the creature whose soul the casters were attempting to trap, and the magical feedback allows the psychopomps to manifest at the location of the ritual to punish the casters for meddling with souls.

EFFECT

The body of the creature whose soul is to be trapped must be within the ritual’s range for the duration. If the body is removed from this area before the ritual is completed, the ritual immediately fails (triggering the failure result detailed above). If the target creature is alive, it must be killed at some point during the ritual’s casting time; traditionally this occurs at the end of the ritual, so that if the victim resists having its soul trapped with a successful saving throw, the casters could potentially try to capture the soul a second time by immediately starting a second ritual. If the target creature was already dead, it must have been dead no longer than 1 minute before the soul trap ritual begins, and in this case, the creature’s soul can still attempt a Will save to resist the effects as if it were still alive.

If the ritual is a success, the creature’s soul is transformed into a glittering soul gem. This gem is a fragile Fine object that has hardness 2 and 1 hit point. In this state, the soul cannot be returned to life by any means; the soul gem must first be destroyed, at which point methods of restoring life to the creature function normally.

Trial of the Sixteenth Step

Source PCS:OR

School necromancy [evil]; Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, F (a ring or amulet worth at least 5,000 gp), SC (up to 4)

Skill Checks Bluff DC 29, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 29, 3 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Target one creature; see text
Duration 1 week; see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster takes 2d6 points of damage.
Failure The primary caster takes 2d6 points of force damage for each use of channeled energy being siphoned. All secondary casters take 1d6 points of force damage per use of channeled energy being siphoned.

EFFECT

Outwardly, the trial is described as a grueling ordeal wherein the faithful earn the ability to channel divine power. The reality is far more mundane: the “clerics” undertaking the trial are kept hidden in luxurious surroundings for several days and then are provided with a focus, typically in the form of an extravagant amulet or ring, which the ritual charges with magical energies.

The true ritual is performed in hidden compounds and prisons. The divine connections of imprisoned worshipers of outside faiths are subverted, siphoning the worshipers holy power into the foci provided to those deemed worthy of undergoing the false trial. Through this perversion of faith, the clergy are able to channel small, stolen acts of divine healing.

In order to enact this ritual, the primary caster must interact with at least one creature capable of channeling positive energy to heal living creatures. This subject must have at least one use of channel energy remaining for the day. The primary caster then engages in a ritual of deception, eroding the subject’s faith and siphoning it away into the focus item.

This requires equal amounts of subterfuge and religious knowledge on the part of the primary caster, who ensures the subject willingly concedes matters of faith without entirely forsaking her deity.

If the ritual is successful, the subject loses a number of uses of channel energy equal to the primary caster’s Charisma modifier. These charges are stored in the focus for up to 1 week. The wearer of the focus can release the channeled energy as a standard action to heal living creatures in a 30-foot burst centered on the wearer. The amount of damage each use of channeled heals is equal to the amount it would have healed if coming from the target creature.

Unmaking Touch

Source PCS:CoR

School transmutation; Level 5
Casting Time 50 minutes
Components V, S, F (a chaos emerald), SC (up to the Charisma modifier of the primary caster)

Skill Checks Knowledge (planes) DC 32, 2 successes; Sleight of Hand DC 32, 1 success; Use Magic Device DC 32, 2 successes
Range primary caster
Duration 1 hour/character level of the primary caster (D)

Backlash The primary caster takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage and becomes fatigued.
Failure All casters gain a temporary negative level (DC = 16 + the primary caster’s Charisma bonus to remove the negative level after the first day) and are also exhausted until this negative level is removed.

EFFECT

The primary caster juggles the chaos emerald back and forth between his hands, under his clothing, and between any secondary casters involved in the ritual. As the ritual progresses, the primary caster’s actions with the chaos emerald become increasingly improbable (putting it into his mouth and pulling it out of his ear, for example, or placing it into the cupped hands of one secondary caster and removing it from the cupped hands of a different secondary caster).

If the ritual is successful, the chaos emerald disappears entirely, and the primary caster gains the ability to inflict warpwaves like a protean for the ritual’s duration. The primary caster can inflict a warpwave on a creature within 100 feet as a standard action.

The target can negate the effects of the warpwave with a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + half the primary caster’s character level + the primary caster’s Charisma modifier).

When the duration expires, the chaos emerald reappears in the primary caster’s possession—usually in a hidden place, such as the bottom of a backpack or inside a hat.

Untangle Ley Lines

Source PAP142

School transmutation; Level 9
Casting Time 9 hours Components V, S, M (incense ground from Fey World plants), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Knowledge (nature) DC 35, 1 success; Knowledge (planes) DC 35, 1 success; Perception DC 35, 3 successes; Spellcraft DC 35, 1 success; Sleight of Hand DC 35, 3 successes
Range touch
Target one witchgate
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters take 1 permanent negative level.

Failure All casters suffer a curse or spell effect determined by the specific witchgate (if not specified, use finger of death, using the ritual’s spell DC and caster level). Secondary casters can attempt a saving throw (primary casters automatically fail their saving throws).

EFFECT

The primary caster burns the incense in a perimeter around the witchgate to soothe the site, then peels back the dimensional fabric, finds the knotted ley lines, delicately unwinds them, steadies their energies, and closes the rift. If the ritual is successful, the ley lines return to normal, forcing the witchgate that tangled them to collapse. All casters automatically become attuned to the unraveled ley lines, gaining a +5 bonus on skill checks to cast occult rituals until they leave a 1-mile radius of the destroyed witchgate.

Utterings of the Wendo

Source PCS:OR

School conjuration (calling); Level 6
Casting Time 60 minutes
Components V, S, M (crushed animal bones and two smooth stones), SC (up to 8)

Skill Checks Diplomacy DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (nature) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 28, 1 success
Range primary caster
Duration concentration of the primary caster
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters are exhausted and gain 1 temporary negative level (DC = 16 + the primary caster’s Charisma bonus to remove the condition after the first day).
Failure The primary caster is immediately afflicted with malaria with no onset time (disease—save DC 18; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Str and 1d3 Con/day plus fatigue; cure 2 saves). At the GM’s discretion, a particularly powerful hostile wendo may possess the primary caster (as per possession). This persists for the following 24 hours.

EFFECT

This ritual allows a supplicant to become a temporary vessel for a specific wendo, who speaks through the petitioner.

By using finely crushed animal bones to mark her own skin with symbols associated with a specific wendo, the primary caster readies herself for possession by that wendo. After lying prostrate and placing smooth stones over her eyes, the primary caster negotiates with the wendo to convince it to inhabit her body.

An unwilling wendo can resist the summons by succeeding at a Will saving throw. If the wendo succeeds at the saving throw, it doesn’t enter the primary caster, but the ritual is still considered a success. A wendo that fails or forgoes this save is summoned into the primary caster’s body, where it speaks by way of the caster’s voice, which takes on elements associated with that wendo (a gravelly quality for a wendo tied to the earth, for example). The wendo has no further control of the caster’s mind or body, and it must leave the primary caster when that caster ceases to concentrate. While the wendo speaks through the caster, secondary casters can ask it questions, at a maximum rate of 1 question per round (regardless of the number of secondary casters). The wendo speaks in a language the primary caster knows and can refuse to answer questions, can answer them cryptically, or can lie using Bluff with a +16 bonus on the attempt. The wendo is not otherwise beholden to the ritual casters.

Veil Structure

School illusion (glamer); Level 8
Casting Time 80 minutes
Components V, S, M (a half-gallon of water from a fresh spring and a potion of invisibility), F (a pair of mithral pitchers and two golden aspergillums, worth 25,000 gp total), SC (at least 4 and up to 12)

Skill Checks Knowledge (nature or local; see below) DC 32, 4 successes; Spellcraft DC 32, 2 successes; Sleight of Hand DC 32, 2 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./character level of the primary caster)
Area one 20-ft. cube/character level of primary caster
Duration permanent (D)
Saving Throw Will disbelief (if interacted with); Spell Resistance no

Backlash The primary caster takes 1 permanent negative level.
Failure All casters cannot be targeted by any beneficial glamer effects (such as invisibility) for 1 year (this is a curse effect, and can be removed with remove curse and similar effects).

EFFECT

The primary caster starts this ritual by placing the fresh spring water in one of the mithral pitchers and the potion of invisibility within the other. The caster then mixes the components of the two pitchers by pouring the water into the pitcher that holds the potion and then transferring the mixed contents back into the pitcher that initially held the water. She then repeats this transference between pitchers six more times, before handing one of the pitchers to one of the secondary casters. In complete silence, the primary caster and the chosen secondary caster use the aspergillums to splash the mixture on a building or structure they wish to veil, which must be no larger than the ritual’s area.

If the building or structure is in a natural environment, the casters must attempt Knowledge (nature) checks for the ritual. If the building or structure is in an urban environment, they must attempt Knowledge (local) checks.

Upon the successful completion of the ritual, the building is veiled, and it appears as if the area were devoid of anything but its natural or urban setting. All of the ritual casters are still able to see the faintest outline of the building and interact with it normally. The primary caster also gains the ability to grant up to 10 creatures per day that she touches the ability to see the faintest outline of the building for a 24-hour period.

Voice of the Damned

Source PZO9446H

School necromancy; Level 4
Casting Time 30 minutes
Components V, S, M (a blade worth 150 gp and a parchment), SC (up to the Intelligence modifier of the primary caster)

Skill Checks Diplomacy DC 31, 2 successes; Intimidate DC 31, 2 successes
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one neutralized haunt
Duration 1 minute/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance no

Backlash All casters take 1d6 points of Constitution damage.
Failure All casters take 1d6 points of Constitution drain.

EFFECT

The caster rouses the lingering consciousness of a neutralized haunt. Upon the ritual’s completion, a spirit resembling the entity that empowered the haunt manifests before the caster and scrawls a message of 25 words or less onto the provided parchment, using the caster’s blood. This message provides a cryptic clue regarding how to permanently destroy the haunt, acting much like the information granted by a divination spell, except that there is no chance that the information will be incorrect because the haunt hopes to end its suffering.

Welcome The Blighted Soul

Source PRG:B6

School necromancy [evil]; Level 9

Casting Time 9 hours (only during a new moon)
Components V, S, F (ring of standing stones empowered with necromancy that cost 25,000 gp to create via Craft Wondrous Item), sacrifice (18 living intelligent beings of the same type as the caster, sacrificed every 30 minutes during the ritual’s casting time)

Skill Checks Intimidate DC 31, 2 successes; Knowledge (nature) DC 31, 3 successes; Knowledge (religion) DC 31, 4 successes
Range touch
Target caster
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

Backlash The caster is reduced to –1 hp.
Failure The caster is immediately slain.

EFFECT

After sacrificing 18 lives (traditionally, these lives are those of unwilling druids who would have tried to stand against the blasphemy the caster is attempting), the caster sacrifices himself and immediately rises from death as a siabrae.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Robert Brookes, Jason Bulmahn, Ross Byers, John Compton, Adam Daigle, Jim Groves, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Brandon Hodge, Ben McFarland, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas M. Reid, Alex Riggs, Robert Schwalb, Mark Seifter, Russ Taylor, and Steve Townshend.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Robert Brookes, Jason Bulmahn, Ross Byers, John Compton, Adam Daigle, Jim Groves, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Brandon Hodge, Ben McFarland, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas M. Reid, Alex Riggs, Robert Schwalb, Mark Seifter, Russ Taylor, and Steve Townshend.

scroll to top