Ghosts of Christmas Magic
Today’s Obscure Arcana has a decidedly ghostly flair to it, as I’ve brought you a trio of ghost-themed spells to add a little ectoplasmic oomph to your spiritualist or necromancer.
SPECTRAL PROJECTION
School necromancy; Level psychic 8, spiritualist 6
Casting Time 1 minute
Components V, S, M (special incense and oils worth 1,000 gp)
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
You cause your spirit to separate from your body, allowing you to project your consciousness in a state similar to a ghost. While under the effects of this spell, your body is unconscious and helpless. You take the form of an incorporeal version of yourself, which is vaguely translucent but otherwise just as visible as your physical form. You gain the incorporeal subtype and universal monster abilities. Unlike a naturally incorporeal creature, however, you still suffer half damage from non-magical attack forms. Additionally, while your spectral form is separated from your body, it is damaged by positive energy as though you were an undead creature. While affected by this spell, your spectral form gains an incorporeal touch attack similar to that of a ghost, which inflicts 1d6 points of damage per 2 caster levels. This is treated as a natural attack, and so you cannot make more than one such attack as part of a full-attack action.
Your physical body and your spectral form have separate hit point totals. When the spell is cast, each has hit points equal to the number of hit points you had when you cast the spell. If your spectral form is reduced to 0 hit points, you die immediately. If your body suffers sufficient damage to die, you die when the spell ends, unless your body is returned to life in the meantime (in which case you do not suffer any negative levels, even if the means of resurrection would normally leave you subject to them). When the spell ends for any reason, your spectral form returns to your body, regardless of range, as long as you are on the same plane. When you return to your body, your hit point total becomes the lower of your body’s hit point total or your spectral form’s hit point total. Any ability damage, afflictions, or negative status effects from both your body and your spectral form apply once you return to your body. If your body and your spectral form are on different planes when the spell ends, you die.
SPIRIT SUMMONS
School necromancy; Level cleric 8, druid 7, shaman 7, spiritualist 6, summoner 6
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level (D)
You attune yourself to the spirit world, allowing you to use summoning spells to summon ghosts instead of living creatures. For the spell’s duration, whenever you cast a spell of the summoning subschool, apply the ghost template to each creature summoned. The summoned creatures remain ghosts even after the duration of spirit summons ends.
WAILING BLADE
School necromancy; Level antipaladin 1, bloodrager 1, magus 1, medium 1, occultist 1, psychic 1, sorcerer/wizard 1, spiritualist 1, witch 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target piercing or slashing weapon touched
Duration 1 minute (D)
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance yes (harmless, object)
When you cast this spell, as part of the action of casting it, you must plunge the target weapon into an adjacent corpse, which must have died sometime in the last minute. You draw out the deceased creature’s spirit, which whirls around the weapon’s blade as a visible, spectral form, screaming in audible anguish. The weapon deals an additional 1d6 points of sonic damage. Additionally, whenever an attack with the weapon misses by less than five, it still deals 1 point of sonic damage to the target.