A Matter of
Life and Death
Hello ladies and gents, and welcome to this week's Obscure Arcana, where I am proud to showcase some new and (hopefully) interesting spells to you! This week I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to come up with some spells geared towards both druids and witches. What I came up with should appease those of you that enjoy just a dash of morbidity in your casting, something we are very capable of providing here at Necromancers of the Northwest. So without further ado, let's chat about the cycle of life and death.
Carnivorous Vine
You bury a thorn in the ground, and it rapidly sprouts into a large carnivorous plant. This plant is not intelligent, but can move slowly as its roots slither through the dirt and pull it forward towards its prey. It is covered in thorns, has a mouth-like feature, and two thorny arm-like vines that attempt to grapple a creature you designate as its target.
The plant has a movement speed of 10 feet, and its vines can reach creatures up to 10 feet away. Once it is within reach of its target, the plant will attempt to grapple and constrict it until the creature dies or you designate a new target. You can change the designated target as a move action.
When determining the plant's CMB, the plant uses your caster level as its base attack bonus and receives a +4 bonus due to its Strength and a +1 size bonus. Whenever the plant makes a successful grapple attempt (including the first check made to establish the grapple), it constricts its prey, dealing 2d4 points of bludgeoning and piercing damage.
The plant has 10 hit points per caster level (maximum 100) and an AC of 10 + 1/2 your caster level + your primary spellcasting ability score modifier.
Death From Life
You channel your own life force into a deadly ray. Make a ranged touch attack. If the attack hits, it deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage for every 2 hit points you sacrifice when casting this spell. Hit points sacrificed in this way are not subject to damage reduction or any other defensive abilities, and anything that would reduce or negate this damage causes the spell to fail. You are not required to make a concentration check due to this loss in hit points; however, you may not reduce your hit points below 0 in this way.
Death of a Thousand Maggots
You conjure ravenous maggots, which appear on and begin devouring the target. If the creature is made of an inorganic material such as stone, metal, or glass, the maggots fall to the ground and squirm uselessly. Each round, the maggots deals 5d6 points of piercing and slashing damage and 1 point of Constitution damage. Creatures of the undead or plant type are decomposed faster and take an extra 2d6 points of piercing and slashing damage.
For every two levels that the caster possesses, she may target an additional creature, no two of which may be more than 30 feet apart. A creature may spend a full round action to rid themselves of the maggots.
Lay of the Land
You place your hand on the ground and instantly familiarize yourself with the surrounding area. You get a mental map of the terrain within the spell’s area. The mental map shows major natural land features (such as mountains and rivers,) but nothing created by creatures (such as temples or cities). You become aware of rough distances between these land features, though this does not improve your ability to draw an accurate map. Additionally, you get a +10 insight bonus to Survival checks.
Life From Death
Upon touching a recently deceased corpse, you are able to absorb its lingering life force into your own body. You gain 1d10 temporary hit points for each point of Constitution that the target possessed when it died. These temporary hit points do not stack with temporary hit points gained from other sources, and last for 1 hour before fading.