Calm Chaos (Priest Spell)

This spell temporarily calms a chaotic situation involving a group of people. The situation may involve any range of emotions from violence (as in a barroom brawl) to joy and merrymaking (as in a festival or carnival).
Unlike the emotion spell, calm chaos does not cause a change in the emotions of affected creatures—anger, fear, or intense joy remain in each individual. The emotion is simply restrained rather than released. Thus, an angry character intent on attacking someone will still feel the desire to do so, but he will withhold his action as long as the spell remains in effect.
Creatures to be affected are allowed a saving throw vs. spell at a -4 penalty to avoid the effects. If more creatures are present than can be affected, creatures nearest the caster are affected first.
After casting the spell, the priest makes a Charisma check. If successful, all characters affected by the spell are compelled to stop what they are doing. They are filled with the sensation that something important is about to occur. At this time, the priest or a character of his choosing must gain the attention of the affected creatures by giving a speech, performing for the crowd, or casting spells with intriguing visual effects (such as dancing lights). The attention of the crowd is then held for as long as the distraction continues. A character could filibuster and maintain control over the affected characters for hours or days.
Two conditions will cause the group to resume its original actions. In the first, the method of entertaining the crowd ceases for one round—the speech ends or the spell expires. If this action is not replaced with another distraction within one round, the crowd is freed of the spell.
In the second condition, if an event occurs that is more immediate than the distraction, the crowd will divert its attention to that event. Thus, if the spell were used to stop a barroom brawl and the building caught fire or was attacked, the crowd's attention would be diverted and the individuals could act freely.
Creatures whose attention is held by the spell cannot be instructed to attack or perform any action. Such creatures will ignore suggestions of this nature. Depending on the nature of the request, the DM may deem that the suggestion causes a distraction that ends the spell.
Notes: Common for priests with access to the sphere of Law (ToM).
Category:Priest Spells
Category:Spells from Tome of Magic
Category:Spells
Category:Spells from Priest's Spell Compendium