Chain Madness (Priest Spell)

This spell allows a priest to create insanity in the mind of a target creature, which then becomes contagious. A creature must have an Intelligence score of 5 or above to be subject to the effects of chain madness. When the priest casts the spell, the target creature is allowed a saving throw vs. spell with a -4 penalty to avoid the effects. These effects are not immediately obvious; there is a minimum latency period of 48 hours. After this time, the af­flicted creature must make a daily Wisdom check and, when this fails, the creature develops the symptoms of a fevered, agitated, severe depression.
An affected creature has a -3 penalty to all attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and ability checks. The creature must also make a successful Wisdom check to perform any premeditated action (as decided by the DM). For example, a creature fights as best it can to defend itself if attacked, but a Wisdom check is required to initiate an aggressive action of its own, plan a trap or ambush, and so on.
The duration of the madness is 1d4+4 days, but at the end of this time the creature must make a system shock roll. If this fails, the insanity contin­ues for a further 1d4+4 days. This continues until a successful system shock roll is made or the creature dies. A creature that fails an initial system shock roll loses 1 point of Constitution permanently for each subsequent system shock roll failure. A crea­ture reduced to 0 Constitution dies.
The great danger of chain madness lies in its contagion. Each affected creature can infect up to six other creatures per day. The effect spreads through physical contact, including during the orig­inal latency period. Even a shake of a hand is enough to convey the madness. Each potential sec­ondary victim is permitted a saving throw vs. spell to negate the effect. If affected, secondary victims develop the same madness after the same latency period and are themselves contagious. However, tertiary victims save vs. spell at +1, later victims save at +2, and so on along the chain.
Chain madness can be cured by a successful dispel magic spell, a remove curse, or a heal spell. Detection spells that read a creature's nature (for ex­ample, know alignment, detect good/evil) have a 5% chance per level of the caster to reveal that some­thing is subtly wrong in the mind of an affected crea­ture. This may be crucial to containing the outbreak when the malady is still in its latency phase.
This spell is rarely used, for it is hazardous to the priest casting it. If the casting priest rolls below his Wisdom score on d 100 when casting the spell, then he suffers the effects of chain madness, but without becoming contagious.
The material component for this spell is a small vial of brain tissue from an illithid.
Notes: Granted by Iuz the Evil of the World of Greyhawk setting.
Category:Priest Spells
Category:Spells from Priest's Spell Compendium
Category:Spells