Strahd's Frightful Joining (Wizard Spell)

This spell is the reverse of Bloodstone's frightful joining. The original spell enables the caster to merge his mind with the body of an undead crea­ture. This spell enables an undead creature, such as a vampire or lich, to merge its mind with the body of a living person. Since Strand Von Zarovich is a vampire, this variation is much more useful to him than Bloodstone's original spell.
The target of the spell must be a living, intelli­gent humanoid. A target creature that is not a human or demihuman (such as a goblin, ogre, or werewolf) receives a +2 bonus to its saving throw. If the saving throw vs. spell succeeds, the undead wizard is forced back into its original body. No system shock roll is necessary. If the target creature's saving throw fails, the undead wizard joins its mind to the creature's body.
While in the creature's body, the caster can use all of the creature's special abilities except memorized spells. Meanwhile, the wizard's undead body remains lifeless and is vulnerable to attack. Once in the body, the wizard can travel any distance, so long as the wizard remains in the same domain as his or her true body.
Once in the body, the undead caster fills the target creature's mind with ghastly thoughts. At the beginning of each hour during the joining, the target creature must roll a madness check. Failure means that the undead caster's mind overcomes that of its victim. No further checks are necessary and the undead wizard can remain in control of its mortal victim effortlessly for the duration of the spell. A successful madness check means that the undead wizard must make a successful saving throw vs. death magic to remain in the body. A successful saving throw means the mental battle goes on. Failure means the undead wizard's mind is cast from the body and the victim regains con­trol. However, a creature that successfully ejects the undead wizard from its body must still roll a horror check.
One interesting side effect of Strand's frightful joining is that while in the mortal body, the caster can do things that he cannot do in his own undead body. For example, a vampiric caster can walk in the sunlight and see his reflection in a mirror. For Strahd, this spell can have very potent ramifica­tions. Of course, the victim is likely to be a raving lunatic when the darklord is through with him, but Strahd cares little about that.
Notes: Common in the Ravenloft setting; very rare elsewhere. This spell can be researched only on the Demiplane of Dread.
Category:Wizard Spells
Category:Spells from Wizard's Spell Compendium
Category:Spells