Necromancy
Animate (dead): The spell restores movement to dead creatures.
At base difficulty (25), the spell animates one Hit Die of skeletons or
zombies for each level of the caster’s experience. Doubling the base difficulty (50)
doubles the Hit Dice of creatures animated, tripling the difficulty (75)
triples the Hit Dice of creatures animated, and so on. All the remains to be animated
must be intact and within the spell’s area of effect. See the 5th-level wizard
spell animate dead for details.
The current condition of the remains can affect the spell. If the remains have
been scattered, but not destroyed, the spell’s base difficulty increases by
25. If the remains are scattered and ancient, such as buried and broken up by
time and natural forces, the difficulty increases by 75.
Slay: The spell destroys life, utterly and irrevocably slaying living creatures.
At base difficulty (50), the caster can slay a single creature whose Hit Dice
do not exceed his own. If the spell is extended over an area, the total Hit
Dice of the creatures slain cannot exceed the caster’s level.
A touch-delivered slaying requires an attack roll, but ranged slayings do not.
Targets with 9 Hit Dice or more gain saving throws vs. death to negate the
effects. For every five points of additional difficulty, the Hit Dice affected
increases by 1 die. There is no maximum.
Tap: The spell manipulates a creature’s life force. Priests (and only priests) use
this spell to heal injuries.
At base difficulty (40), this spell drains 1d8 hit points from living targets
by touch. A touch-delivered tap requires an attack roll, but ranged taps do
not. Targets with 9 Hit Dice or more gain a saving throws vs. spells to negate the
effects. For every five points of additional difficulty, the damage increases
by one die to a maximum of 30d8. A damage-inflicting tap always has an
instantaneous duration which cannot be increased.
At double difficulty (80), a tap can transfer hit points drained from a victim
to the caster for the duration of the spell or until the caster loses the hit
points through combat or other means. Any damage the caster suffers is deducted
from the stolen hit points first. In any case, the target does not
automatically regain the lost points when the spell ends, though the damage can be
restored through rest or magical healing just as most other forms of damage.
Alternately, the caster can employ a tap at double difficulty (80) to drain
one point from an ability score. The loss persists for the duration of the spell
(the ability score is suppressed, not drained away). At a difficulty of 160,
the caster can transfer the stolen ability score to himself for the duration of
the spell.
At triple difficulty (120), the caster can drain one energy level for the
duration of the spell. At a difficulty of 240, the caster can transfer the stolen
level to himself.
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