New Spells

Flux Blade †

Evocation
Level: Votary 2, Warden 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Weapon touched
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You pour flux into a weapon until it glows with a radiant edge. For the duration, the weapon deals an extra 1d6 points of damage to living creatures. This damage comes from raw life energy, has no type, and doesn't affect constructs, objects or undead. A wielder who isn't you must be human to benefit. Flux won't flow through a runekar's hand.

Flux Bolt †

Evocation
Level: Votary 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Ray
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

You compress life force into a warbling bolt and hurl it with a ranged touch attack. The ray deals 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6) to a living creature. It has no effect on constructs, objects or undead. Most votaries go their whole lives without casting it. The Covenant calls it the clearest proof that flux was meant for something else.

Flux Shield

Abjuration
Level: Votary 2, Warden 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 10 ft.
Area: 10-ft.-radius hemisphere centered on you
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Light gathers between your hands and swells into a bubble like thin glass. Nonmagical arrows, bolts, bullets, thrown weapons and other projectiles fired into or out of the hemisphere deflect off its surface and fall to the ground around its edge. Magical projectiles and ranged spells that require an attack roll have a 50% miss chance. Creatures, melee attacks and area effects pass through normally. The hemisphere doesn't move with you. If you move out of it, the spell ends.

Rite of Transition

Necromancy
Level: Votary 1, Warden 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: One corpse
Duration: Instantaneous (see text)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You pose the body with its eyes open to face the gods and hum the old rhythm of the rite, easing the last of its flux back into the world. The soul passes peacefully to the pool. The corpse can't be used as a host by an exspiratis, and it can't be the subject of speak with dead. Each mourner present who knew the dead gains a +1 morale bonus on Will saves for 24 hours. The rite doesn't prevent raise dead or similar spells. Soldiers are given the rite where they fall, and performing it in a town for a soldier is considered a disgrace.

Sense the Flow

Divination
Level: Votary 1, Warden 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Cone-shaped emanation
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 min./level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You feel the current of life around you. You sense how many living creatures are in the area and, after 2 rounds, how healthy each is (as deathwatch). After 3 rounds, you learn which of them can use flux, including the gifted who have never been trained. Ashen and creatures bound to an exspiratis feel like a second current fighting the first, and you can tell them from humans. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it. Wardens use it to find heretics.

Sever the Flow

Abjuration
Level: Votary 3, Warden 3
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

You pinch off the current between a creature and the flow of life. For the duration, the target can't cast divine spells or use supernatural or spell-like abilities that draw on flux. An ashen affected by the spell immediately ends any Manifestation and can't manifest or use Gifts for the duration, as the exspiratis loses its grip. Wardens train with this spell before any other.

Stabilize

Conjuration (Healing)
Level: Votary 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One living creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

You steady the flow in a dying creature. A creature with –1 or fewer hit points automatically stabilizes. It doesn't regain any hit points.

Kindle the Grain

Transmutation [Fire]
Level: Aetherian 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: One 10-ft. square of wood (floor, wall, door or furniture)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: No

You link the threads of the wood in a tight pattern and set them vibrating until the grain heats from within and bursts into flame. Creatures in or on the area take 1d6 points of fire damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6). The wood burns normally afterward. The spell affects only wood and other plant matter that is no longer alive.

Shockwave

Evocation [Force]
Level: Aetherian 3
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area: 10-ft.-radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

You snap a thread taut and release it, and the air itself slams outward. Creatures in the area take 1d4 points of force damage per caster level (maximum 10d4). A Medium or smaller creature that fails its save is also pushed 10 feet away from the center and knocked prone. Unattended objects of up to 50 pounds are scattered.

Stone Snare

Transmutation
Level: Aetherian 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One Medium or smaller creature standing on stone or earth
Duration: Concentration + 1 round
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: No

Long, slender stone spindles slither up from the ground like snakes and weave a net around the target. A creature that fails its save is entangled and can't move from its square. Each round on its turn, it can try to break free with a Strength check or Escape Artist check against the spell's save DC. Each struggle that fails tightens the stone. The net works on constructs and souldriven as well as living things, because it never touches the flesh beneath. It holds a creature, it doesn't harm it.

Wooden Grasp

Transmutation
Level: Aetherian 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: One 10-ft. square of dead wood (a floor, wall or table)
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: No

Wooden tendrils burst from the boards and rise like vipers. Each creature in or adjacent to the area when the spell is cast must make a Reflex save or be entangled for the duration. An entangled creature can break free with a DC 15 Strength or Escape Artist check as a full-round action, and a creature can cut a neighbor free by dealing 10 points of damage to the tendrils (hardness 5).