SacrificeSource Book of the Damned pg. 185, Book of the Damned - Volume 1: Princes of Darkness pg. 47
School enchantment (charm) [mind-affecting]; Level arcanist 4, cleric 4, oracle 4, sorcerer 4, warpriest 4, wizard 4CastingCasting Time 1 minute
Components V, S, M (see text)EffectRange close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one summoned elemental or outsider (see text)
Duration instantaneous, 1 hour, or 1 day (see text)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance noDescriptionYou make a sacrifice to aid in conjuring and commanding a creature called with planar ally, planar binding, or a similar spell. A sacrifice can be used in a variety of ways.
Bargain: Making a sacrifice directly to the conjured being grants you a bonus on opposed Charisma checks made to compel the creature into service for the next hour.
Enticement: Making a sacrifice the round before conjuring increases the DC of the Will save an outsider must attempt to resist being conjured.
Payment: Making a sacrifice directly to the conjured being allows you to pay for one service from the creature in commodities other than gold.
Reinforcement: Making a sacrifice the round before creating a magic circle and preparing a summoning diagram amplifies the power of its warding magic, increasing the DC of Charisma checks the creature might attempt to escape. This lasts 1 day.
Multiple sacrifices can be made to affect a single conjuring, but the bonuses provided by this spell do not stack. Therefore, while you can make sacrifices to aid in conjuring and bargaining with a creature, you cannot make multiple sacrifices (even of varying types) to enhance the same effect for a particular conjuration. A sacrifice can consist of any kind of commodity the target creature favors, including living creatures, treasures, or more ephemeral offerings. While this spell is not fundamentally evil, good-aligned creatures are more selective in what offerings they accept, typically scoffing at blood sacrifices. Many sacrifices are fundamentally evil acts, such as murdering a pious innocent to conjure a fiend. Any creature might reject certain types of sacrifices, thus denying you the benefits of this spell, as the offering must appeal to the target—few outsiders would care for 2,000 gp worth of parchment, while 2,000 gp of diamonds would be widely coveted. The GM determines what sacrifices creatures find appealing.
The table below lists a number of likely offerings, along with the bonus such gifts provide and the offering’s equivalent value in gold pieces for the purposes of planar ally. Several of these sacrifices involve the loss of ability scores, levels, or lives, and some can cause changes in alignment. Any change wrought by such sacrifices (loss of ability score or level, or change in alignment) cannot be recovered, cured, or undone by any spell or effect short of miracle or wish. The same is true of creatures killed as a sacrifice; such creatures cannot be resurrected by any magic less powerful than these spells. Any object sacrificed with this spell is effectively destroyed or removed to an extraplanar holding of the conjured creature’s choice. The bonuses and values noted on the sacrifice effects table are guidelines for offerings; certain types of treasures or lives might prove especially valuable to specific creatures, with extraordinary sacrifices (such as a potent artifact or the life of a high-level paladin) garnering increased bonuses.
You cannot make greater sacrifices than those noted on the table to gain increased bonuses or gold values. For example, you could not gain 2 permanent negative levels to gain a +16 bonus, nor gain increased benefit from slaying 20 Hit Dice worth of creatures to pay for a 10-HD creature’s service. | Type | Sacrifice | Granted Bonus | GP Value | | Treasures | 100 gp/HD of target | +1 | Equal | | Lives1 | One living creature with HD equal to target | +2 | 200 gp/HD | | Body/Mind1 | Reduction of ability scores by 1 reduced | +4 | 500 gp/point | | Morals2 | Alignment shifts one step toward target's | +6 | 1,000 gp/step | | Soul1 | One permanent negative level | +8 | 2,500 gp | 1 When used to sacrifice a life, body, mind, or soul other than the caster's own, this is an evil act.
2 A character can sacrifice only her own morals, and can do so only once per lifetime.
|