The Cause

The Cause is a force to be fought for. Those who fight in favour of the Cause are known as Allies of the Cause, those who seek to oppose it are enemies of the Cause, and those who are neither for nor against it are Neutral to the Cause.

What exactly the Cause is, or should be, is a source of great controversy. The Cause is specific to each individual. For example, the Smite Enemy of the Cause ability of a paladin works only against enemies of that particular paladin's Cause.

## Choosing a Cause

Causes can include doing the work of your deity, protecting your fellow creatures, exploring new lands, or protecting your reputation. They should not include simple self-interest - if almost everyone you fight is an Enemy of the Cause, your cause is probably too broad.

## Changes

Any effect which mentions alignment-based DR uses "Aligned" instead - a spell that would treat your weapons as good and give you DR/evil now treats your weapons as "Aligned" and gives you DR/aligned.

All spells which would work based on alignment work depending on whether the creature in question is an Ally, Enemy, or Neutral to the Cause. Any class with *detect alignment* spells on its list can *detect Allies of the Cause* and *Detect Enemies of the Cause*, although those are two different spells. Other spells protect against, or damage, Enemies of the Cause, or aid Allies of the Cause, as appropriate.

### Spells Unchanged or Removed

The spell *Righteous Blood* works as listed, using the alignment subtypes a creature has on its entry.

The spells *Damnation* and *Sacred Space* do not exist at all.

### Spells Redesigned

The spells *Arbitrament, Ardour's Onslaught, Arrow of Law, Blasphemy, Chaos Hammer,* *Dictum,* *Dread Bolt, Holy Smite, Holy Word, Order's Wrath, Shard of Chaos, Spear of Purity, Unholy Blight,* and *Word of Chaos* are replaced with a single spell of each relevant level. These spells appear on the same lists that have at least one of the spells it replaces on, and where not specified, their parameters (such as targets or areas) are the same as those of the spells they replace.

**Chord of the Cause:** Replaces *Arrow of Law, Dread Bolt, Shard of Chaos, Spear of Purity.* The damage is 1d8/2 levels (max 5d8) to Enemies of the Cause, half that to creatures Neutral to the Cause, and 1d6 per level (max 10d6) to outsiders who are Enemies of the Cause, and confuses them for 1 round. Will half and negate the confuse effect.

**Song of the Cause:** Replaces *Ardour's onslaught,* *Chaos Hammer, Holy Smite, Order's Wrath, Unholy Blight.* As Chord of the Cause, except 1d6 rounds instead of 1.

**Requiem of the Cause:** Replaces *Arbitrament, Blasphemy, Dictum, Holy Word, Word of Chaos.* Works much like these spells except that it harms non-Allies of the Cause of up to your caster level. The four conditions are deafened for 1d4 rounds (save negates), staggered for 2d4 rounds (1d4 on save), paralysed for 1d10 minutes (1 round on save), klled/destroyed (3d6 + 1/level (max +25) damage on save).

### Spells Changed to Use the Cause

The spells *Blaze of Glory, Bless Weapon, Burst of Radiance, Challenge Evil, Crusader's Edge, Detect Evil, Detect Good, Dispel Evil, Eaglesoul\*, Early Judgment, Holy Aura, Holy Javelin, Holy Sword\*\*, Holy Whisper, Magic Circle against Evil, Malediction\*\*\* Protection from Evil, Rally Point, Sacred Nimbus\*\*\*\*, Wake of Light, Weapons Against Evil* affect Allies of the Cause as they affected good creatures, Enemies of the Cause as they affected evil creatures, and creatures Neutral to the Cause as they affected neutral creatures.

\*Ignore the last line of rules text (that would sicken or stagger you if you weren't allied to your own Cause).

\*\*Ignore the reference to being a holy weapon, but the weapon does deal 2d6 more damage vs Enemies of the Cause.

\*\*\*Remove "Evil" from each of the three alignments.

\*\*\*\*Ignore the reference to magical attacks with the evil descriptor.

### Others

The following spells are altered specifically:

**Celestial/Infernal Healing:** Both of these spells now last 1 round/2 levels, to a minimum of 1 minute (or 1 minute, plus 1 round per 2 levels after 20th). Ignore the change in how the creature is detected. The same is true of the greater versions.

**Litany of Righteousness:** Change the text to "If the target is an Enemy of the Cause, it takes double damage from attacks by Allies of the Cause who have levels in a divine spellcasting class. While subject to this spell, the target cannot be the target of another spell that has the word “litany” in the title.

## Renaming Spells

Just for consistency:

Changing individual alignments to "Enemy of the Cause" or, occasionally, "Ally of the Cause" isn't done here because there are too many of them and it's obvious. "Holy X" or "Sacred X". becomes "X of the Cause." Two more spells are renamed, *Bless Weapon* as *Weapon of the Cause* and *Righteous Blood* as *Bleed for the Cause*.