...Playtest for Malhavoc!

The following spells are slated to appear in Book of Eldritch Might II: Songs and Souls of Power, due out as an electronic release in mid-February (print version in May). While they serve as an early preview for the sort of material you will find in the book, what we'd really like is for some of you to take this opportunity to put them into play.

Here's what we'd like you to do. Insert one or more of the following spells into your next game. See how it works out, and then let us know. If your feedback proves insightful, valuable, and timely, we'll list your name among the playtester credits.

To provide playtest feedback, email me at this address. [Sorry, playtesting now over.] You must use this address, or your comments will get lost in the shuffle. Include your name with your feedback if you want to be listed in the credits. Here's the really hard part, however: We need to hear from you by February 6.

Keep in mind that you don't have to find something wrong to provide valuable information. A brief discussion of your analysis or play experience with a spell is what we're looking for, regardless of the ultimate results.

So, with all that understood, here are the spells:

Gestalt
Transmutation
Level: Wiz/Sor 6
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Area: Two living creatures, both of which are no farther apart than 10 feet
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw: Fortitude and Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

This strange spell fuses two creatures together for a time. If either creatures (or both) is not willing, they must make both Fortitude and Will saving throws. The effects of the spell depend on which saving throws fail.

All four saving throws fail: The two subjects fuse into one creature. It has a bizarre appearance, with all the limbs of both creatures, a two-sided head with both faces (if applicable), and the rest a strange amalgam. It is the size of the larger of the two subjects. This new creature has the higher of the two subjects' hit points, ability scores, saving throw bonuses, Armor Class, and skill bonuses. It has all the special abilities, spells, feats, and knowledge of both creatures. Redundant abilities, such as both creatures possessing the feat Cleave, produce no special effect beyond the fact that the gestalt creature has the feat. The new creature has all the gear of both subjects, although in the case of redundancy (two sets of armor, two rings of protection or two cloaks, for example) only the better of the two remains, while the other becomes subsumed into the creature's form for the duration. Since the gestalt creature has multiple arms, multiple weapons are not redundant.

When the spell ends, spell effects placed on the single creature end with it, whether beneficial or detrimental. Damage dealt to the single creature is evenly divided between the two creatures where possible. Damage that cannot be equally divided (such as 1 point of drained Strength) is ignored. Each creature remembers some details of the other's thoughts and memories (DM's discretion).

If the gestalt creature dies, both individuals are dead.

One Fortitude saving throw fails and all others succeed: The creature failing the saving throw suffers 4d6 points of damage. The other creature remains unaffected.

One Will saving throw fails and all others succeed: The creature failing the saving throw suffers 4d6 points of damage. The other creature remains unaffected.

One creature fails just the Fortitude saving throw, one fails just Will save: The creature failing the Fortitude saving throw disappears, his mind transported into the other creature. The mind of the creature that failed the Fortitude save now controls the other creature's body for the duration. The controller keeps its Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. For example, a fish's body breathes water and a troll's body regenerates. A body with extra limbs does not allow the controlling creature to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal. The controlling creature can't choose to activate the body's extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The controlled creature's spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.

Both Fortitude saving throws fail: The creatures fuse into one creature, as described above, but they have no control over the new body. They spend the entire duration of the spell paralyzed.

Both Will saving throws fail: Both creatures are stunned for the duration, their minds fused together in a confusing jumble. When the spell ends, both creatures remember some details of the other's thoughts and memories (DM's discretion).

One creature fails both saves, other succeeds at both: The creature failing the saving throws suffers 8d6 points of damage. The other creature remains unaffected.

Jevicca's Fourfold Ostracism
Enchantment
Level: Wiz/Sor 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Targets: One to four creatures or objects
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

You send one to four creatures or objects into the Ethereal Plane for a very short time. At the end of the duration, the subjects return to the exact location from which they left, unless that spot is no longer safe (if it has been filled with stone, a fire has been set there, and so on); in that case, they appear in the nearest safe spot. During their time on the Ethereal, creatures can take whatever actions are available to them -- if they have the power on their own, they can even return to the Material Plane. Unless the creatures ostracized to the Ethereal take actions against each other, however, they should be assumed to be safe on that plane for the duration. The point of the spell is to simply get rid of them for a short while, so that actions can be taken in their absence.

Unattended objects gain no saving throw unless they are magical. The object must be smaller than a 10-foot cube to be affected. Creatures, however, can be of any size.

Due to the "fourfold" nature of this spell, if the caster chooses to affect fewer than four targets, she can force one or more of the subjects to make multiple saving throws. If any of them fail, the spell affects the subject. For example, if the caster affects three targets, one (caster's choice) must make two saving throws while the others make one, as normal. If two targets are chosen, both must make two saving throws, or one target must make three and the other just one. If this spell is cast upon a single target, that creature or object must make four saving throws and succeed at all of them or experiences the spell's effects.

This spell has no effect if cast on the Ethereal Plane.

Material Component: A bit of copper wire bent four times into a square shape.

Sudden Wave
Conjuration (creation)
Level: Drd 6, Wiz/Sor 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet/level)
Effect: A wave of water 20 feet high, 20 feet wide, and 3 feet thick
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

You summon a tall wave of water that rests on the ground and immediately moves away from you at a speed of 50 feet (so it moves 100 feet in a given round). If a part of the wave strikes a secured object that it does not destroy, that portion of the wave falls away. In other words, the wave conforms to the shape of its surroundings. For example, if the wave moves across a room toward a corridor 10 feet wide and tall, it becomes a wave 10 feet high and 10 feet wide, and retains its 3-foot thickness. (The wave's remaining mass splashes to the ground and goes wherever that much water normally would go in the particular situation.) If the entire wave crashes into a solid object it cannot move or destroy (like a wall), the water splashes to the ground and the wave stops. The wave leaves a light trail of water wherever it goes.

The wave deals 10d6 points of damage to anything it strikes as it moves, and those creatures of Large size or smaller failing their Reflex saving throw must also make a Strength check (DC 20) or be swept along with the wave. Each round, those swept up in the wave can attempt Swim checks (DC 20) to break free. Unattended, unsecured objects of Large size or smaller automatically get swept along. The wave may strike an object and fail to destroy it or sweep it along; should this occur while the wave is carrying one or more creatures, they each suffer 5d6 points of damage from the impact (Reflex save for half) and have a 50 percent chance of being knocked out of the wave. If the entire wave strikes an object it cannot move or destroy, all within suffer 5d6 points of damage (no save). If given room, in the right circumstances, this spell can leave a swath of destruction unlike most others.

If the wave suffers at least 40 points of cold damage in 1 round, it freezes solid, becoming a wall of ice with the sudden wave's dimensions. Otherwise, only spells that can stop it (such as a wall of iron or wall of force) or completely destroy it (like disintegrate) have any effect. Physical attacks of any kind accomplish nothing. Fire elemental creatures suffer double damage from this spell.

Material Component: An ounce of sea water.

Threatening Weapon
Evocation [Force]
Level: Wiz/Sor 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet/level)
Effect: A magical weapon of force
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

A melee weapon made of pure force springs into existence and attacks opponents when they provoke attacks of opportunity, dealing 1d8 points of damage per hit. The weapon takes the shape of any normal-sized simple or martial weapon you desire and has the same critical threat ranges and multipliers as a real weapon of its form. It uses your base attack as its attack bonus. It strikes as a spell, not as a weapon, so, for example, it can strike incorporeal creatures.

The weapon threatens the 5-foot area around it (unless it is a reach weapon) and makes attacks of opportunity to any within this area that provoke them. There is no limit to the number of attacks of opportunity the weapon can make in a round, but otherwise it takes no actions. If in a position where it flanks an opponent with another combatant, it provides a flanking bonus for the other attacker and gets one itself, should the opportunity to strike arise. Your feats (such as Weapon Focus) or combat actions (such as charge) do not affect the weapon. If the weapon goes beyond the spell range, if it goes out of your sight, or if you are not directing it, the weapon returns to you and hovers.

Each round after the first, you can use a standard action to move the position of the weapon to threaten a new target. If you do not, the weapon remains where it is. The threatening weapon cannot be attacked or damaged.

If an attacked creature has SR, check for resistance the first time the threatening weapon strikes it. If the creature successfully resists the weapon, the spell is dispelled. If not, the weapon retains its normal full effect for the spell's duration.

Warding Globes
Evocation [Force]
Level: Wiz/Sor 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 5 feet
Effect: One 2-inch globe/2 levels (maximum 6)
Duration: 1 minute per level or until discharged
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

You create a number of small globes of force energy that float around your body, within 5 feet of you. To the ignorant, they might even be mistaken for ioun stones. These globes hover protectively around you, each granting a +1 defection bonus to AC. Further, whenever a foe attempts to make an attack of opportunity against you, a globe intercepts the attack (foiling it) and explodes, dealing 2d6 points of force damage to the attacker (a Reflex saving throw reduces this damage by half). This action discharges and destroys the globe. If the foe makes the attack with reach greater than 5 feet, the attack is still foiled, but no damage is inflicted, as the foe is out of the globe's range.

Material Component: A small glass sphere for each globe to be created, each worth 10 gp.

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