Necromancy [Arcane, Possess]
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 hour/Power point or until you return to your body
Saving Throw: Will negates; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes
Minimum Power Points: 5
When you cast this spell, you place your soul in a specific object (called
the vessel), leaving your body lifeless. Then you can attempt to take control
of a nearby body, forcing its soul into the vessel. You may move back to the
vessel (thereby returning the trapped soul to its body) and attempt to possess
another body. The spell ends when you send your soul back to your own body,
leaving the vessel empty. To cast the spell, the vessel must be within spell
range and you must know where it is, though you do not need line of sight or
line of effect to it. When you transfer your soul upon casting, your body is,
as near as anyone can tell, dead.
While in the vessel, you can sense and attack any life force within 10 feet
per Power point expended that is not ethereal. You do need line of effect from
the vessel to the creatures. You cannot determine the exact creature types or positions
of these creatures. In a group of life forces, you can sense a difference of
4 or more Hit Dice between one creature and another and can determine whether
a creature has a soul. (Constructs, skeletons, and zombies do not have souls.)
You could choose to take over either a stronger or a weaker creature, but which
particular stronger or weaker creature you attempt to possess is determined
randomly.
Attempting to possess a body is a full-round action. It is blocked
by protect from arcane or a similar
ward. You possess the body and force the creature's soul into the vessel
unless the subject succeeds on a Will save. Failure to take over the host leaves
your life force in the vessel, and the target automatically succeeds on further
saving throws if you attempt to possess its body again.
If you are successful, your life force occupies the host body, and the host's
life force is imprisoned in the vessel. You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom,
Charisma, level, class, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength,
Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities.
A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous
two-weapon attacks) than normal. You can't choose to activate the body's extraordinary
or supernatural abilities. The creature's spells and spell-like abilities do
not stay with the body.
As a standard action, you can shift freely from a host to the vessel if within range, sending the trapped soul back to its body. The spell ends when you shift from the vessel to your own body.
If the host body is slain, you return to the vessel, if within range, and the life force of the host departs (it is dead). If the host body is slain beyond the range of the spell, both you and the host die. Any life force with nowhere to go is treated as slain
If the spell ends while you are in the vessel, you return to your body (or die if your body is out of range or destroyed). If the spell ends while you are in a host, you return to your body (or die, if it is out of range of your current position), and the soul in the vessel returns to its body (or dies if it is out of range). Destroying the vessel ends the spell, and the spell can be dispelled at either the vessel or at the host's location.
Restriction: as an arcane spell, only arcane spellcasters can
learn and cast this spell.