101 9th Level Spells

By Thilo Graf

This installment of the 101-series is 40 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of advertisements and 1 page SRD, leaving 35 pages of content for the spells.

The pdf kicks off with 3 pages of spell-lists for clerics, druids and Sorcerors/wizards.

9th-level spells. The apex of magical might. The stuff arcane dreams are made of, the signature of the archmages. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time, so let’s take a look at the spells and check out whether they have the iconic potential I expect of 9th-level spells.

The spells are:

1. Accursed Rot (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): A plague spell that dispels foils to it and is very hard to cure. Nice.
2. Aid Item, Greater (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Grant an item your caster level and special charges that enable you to use it faster.
3. Behind the Curtain (Sor/Wiz 9): Get a clear, non-cryptic response from the DM, but be unable to relay it in any way to others without being blasted from reality. AWESOME spell. I usually HATE metagaming spells, but this one has great potential and e.g. explains why powerful figures don’t simply tell everyone about a certain fact/problem.
4. Bestow Malediction(Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): A curse of the grandest kind.
5. Black Blizzard (Clr 9, Drd 9): You conjure a violent prone-knocking, people-burying sandstorm.
6. Blightfire Ray (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Devastating, 5-round lasting Con-draining ray that grants you temporary HP.
7. Block and Pit Trap (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Open an extradimensional pit trap and let a block of stone fall on it. Nice idea.
8. Blood Protectors (Clr 9): Create up to 5 constructs from your shed blood.
9. Boiling Sea (Drd 9): Either boil a large amount of water or conjure forth a devastating geyser.
10. Brain Drain (Sor/Wiz 9): Drain Intelligene and drive target insane, use skills of target for a limited amount of time.
11. Burbling Blast of the Jabberwock (Drd 9): Sonic damage and permanent confusion.
12. Call of the legendary Jewel (Sor/Wiz 9): Force a creature to steal a certain item you crave.
13. Call of the Obsidian (Sor/Wiz 9): Force a creature to kill a certain enemy of yours.
14. Cast Out (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Permanently banish a creature to another plane, deals damage instead on a successful save.
15. Chain Gang (Sor/Wiz 9): Bind a group of people together so that when they leave each others sight, they are teleported back.
16. Change the Path (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Bend Reality to change the course of one path.
17. Cleansing Light (Clr 9): Deal massive damage and inflict negative conditions on evil creatures.
18. Convert Foe (Clr 9): Makes a former enemy your cohort, up to the point of e.g. making a paladin an anti-paladin.
19. Curse Community (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Curse a whole community – great idea!
20. Curse of the Albatross (Clr 9): Prevent a creature from travelling ever again.
21. Curse of the Pyrrhic Victory (Sor/Wiz 9): Go out with a devastating blast.
22. Darkest Night of Winter (Drd 9): Spehere of darkness and heavy snowfall negates almost all senses and can counter light spells like prismatic sphere.
23. Deadly Tempest (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Conjure a devastating vortex to destroy your foes.
24. Defensive Sphere(Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Very powerful sphere makes you practically impervious to harm and attacks for the duration.
25. Defile (Clr 9, Drd 9): Destroy a piece of land, deal damage to people, let them rise as undead and poison water. Includes a quick and dirty mini-template.
26. Downdraft (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Force flying creatures, vessels, etc. to the ground.
27. Dreamstealer (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Stealing dreams of a target imposes massive, cumulative penalties. VERY cool spell.
28. Duplicate(Sor/Wiz 9): Create an exact duplicate of yours under your control.
29. Endless Enemies (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Turns EVERYONE against the targets. Nice!
30. Engulfing Doom (Sor/Wiz 9): Shrieking maelstrom of negative energy deals damage and expands when it kills foes.
31. Entwined Fate (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): While your archenemy is alive, you cannot die. Iconic & cool.
32. Eruption (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Volcanic eruption, complete with flow of lava, fire and subsequent PC- death.
33. Fist of Raging Energy (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Bigby-like hand-spell that comes in variants for energy-types.
34. Fly on the Wall (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Makes an insect a powerful scrying sensor.
35. Flying Flaming Corpse, Greater (Sor/Wiz 9): Immolate a target and use it to telekinetically batter foes.
36. Form of the Swarm (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Take the form of an insect swarm. Great escape spell.
37. Glacial Slide (Clr 9, Drd 9): Slow-moving glacier destroys immovable objects.
38. Globe against the Arcane (Clr 9): Antimagic Field for arcane casters.
39. Glyph of warding, Superior: Warding glyph that deals a lot of damage.
40. Guardian’s Tomb (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): A kind of imprisonment-like spell for people to act as eternal guardians.
41. Heart of the Volcano (Drd 9): Teleport target into the heart of a volcano. Ouch.
42. Illusory World (Sor/Wiz 9): Superior form of mirage arcana.
43. Immortality (Sor/Wiz 9): Makes a target immortal, but comes with a risk.
44. Inescapable Shackles (Sor/Wiz 9): Super-force shackles.
45. Judgment Day (Clr 9): Very powerful curse that entraps a victim in its former sins.
46. Khan’s Sending (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Powerful madness-inducing spell.
47. Lash of Sin (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Create a lash attuned to the 7 deadly sins.
48. Lifefire Ray (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Minor, but almost unhealable, continuous damage.
49. Lord of the City (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Know almost all about a city.
50. Maelstrom (Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Create a devastating maelstrom.
51. Magic Castle(Sor/Wiz 9): Instantly create a magical castle. How cool is that?
52. Mark of the Avatar (Clr 9, Drd 9): Enables you to give one creature of your choosing an avatar-like form. Cool one.
53. Mark of the Prismatic (Sor/Wiz 9): Either pass prismatic effects once or shoot all 7 effects at once as a ray.
54. Meteorite, Superior (Clr 9, Drd 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Three months after the casting, an annihilating, terrible meteorite comes down. Great plot-device spell.
55. Nigh Indestructible (Sor/Wiz 9): Makes an item almost indestructible.
56. Occlude (Clr 9): Disrupt other divine spell-casting.
57. One Step beyond (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Stay ahead of divinations.
58. Pandemonium (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Force of damaging chaos with several 50%-chances.
59. Petrify (Sor/Wiz 9): Wave of petrification.
60. Phantasmal Opposition (Sor/Wiz 9): Duplicates try to kill the enemies.
61. Phantasmal World (Sor/Wiz 9): Trap foes in a phantasmal world.
62. Phoenix from the Ashes (Clr 9): Resurrect a target and transform it into a phoenix.
63. Psychic Clone (Sor/Wiz 9): Transform enemies thought pattern into your own.
64. Purge Recollection (Sor/Wiz 9): Erase an event from memory.
65. Purify (Clr 9, Drd 9): Damage undead and mass-ressurect destroyed undead.
66. Rain of Blood (Clr 9): Rain of poisonous blood.
67. Ray of Ramming (Sor/Wiz 9): Ram enemies, deal damage, knock them prone etc.
68. Reforestation (Drd 9): Mass transform enemies into trees. Creepy.
69. Relive (Sor/Wiz 9): lets subject relive past injuries, dealing a lot of damage.
70. Resonance (Sor/Wiz 9): Emit a destructive resonance, choose between three resonances.
71. Revelation (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Super-detect/analyze spell.
72. Ruin Structure (Sor/Wz 9): Destroy a structure.
73. Script of the Lost (Sor/Wiz 9): Amnesia-causing script. Cool one.
74. Scry Ward (Sor/Wiz 9): Prevents scrying and summons monsters to would-be scryers.
75. Shadowy Cohort (Sor/Wiz 9): Create a lethal, shadowy force to help you.
76. Shunting Ward (Sor/Wiz 9): Ward a place and send potential interlopers away with greater teleport.
77. Signify (Sor/Wiz 9): Duplicate 8th-level or lower divination spells sans material components.
78. Silent Ruination (Sor/Wiz 9): Silent destructive pulse.
79. Siphon Life (Clr 9): Deal damage and heal you.
80. Sphere of Decay (Sor/Wiz 9): Sphere of damage that becomes more destructive each round.
81. Spirit of Victory (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): +10 luck bonus to attack rolls, damage, saving throws, checks and AC.
82. Splinter Storm (Drd 9): Sphere of deadly splinters.
83. Sunfire Tomb (Clr 9, Drd 9): Entomb an enemy in the sun.
84. Symbol of Destruction (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Superior form of Symbol of Death.
85. Teleport Lair (Sor/Wiz 9): Teleport a whole location.
86. Thunderstorm’s Fury (Drd 9): Summon a lightning-storm of terrible power.
87. Time Undone (Sor/Wiz 9): Destructive ray that may make past misdeeds of a slain character undone.
88. Touch of Divine Insight (Sor/Wiz 9): Learn the name of a deity and thus change spells for divine spells.
89. Toxic Breath (Sor/Wiz 9): Gain a terrible acid-based breath weapon.
90. Triggered Agent (Sor/Wiz 9): Subtle, triggered chain of suggestions.
91. Ultimate Insight (Sor/Wiz 9): Either become a great fighter or create a certain task.
92. Undo (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Reverse something that happened last round.
93. Unending Torment (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Applies massive penalties to an enemy.
94. Unmind (Sor/Wiz 9): Remove the intelligence from a creature, reverting it to instinctive behavior.
95. Vials of Wrath (Clr 9): Create up to 7 destructive vials.
96. Vorpal Scythe (Sor/Wiz 9): Create a deadly scythe made of force that can behead enemies.
97. Wake the Forest Primeval (Drd 9): Super-entangle, enemy-damaging effect.
98. Waves of Weakness (Sor/Wiz 9): Deal massive Str-damage.
99. Weapon of Death (Clr 9, Sor/Wiz 9): Deadly weapon.
100. Web of Fate (Sor/Wiz 9): Divide damage among all linked characters.
101. Zoanthropy (Sor/Wiz 9): Either makes target rabid or creates the delusion of being a monster.

Conclusion:

Layout adheres to the two-column RiP-standard, editing is good, I only noticed two minor glitches. Formatting is top-notch. I’ve made clear that I expect iconic spells at this level and the pdf delivers – a lot of the spells make you come up with adventure or even campaign ideas and mechanically they are interesting, too – even if you manage your saves, you often will experience minor damage/negative conditions, rendering this file absolutely awesome. If you as a DM need some good ideas, check these spells out – they are not only appropriately cataclysmic, but often downright brilliant. Due to the top-quality content, I’m going to let the two glitches I encountered slip and rate this the full 5 stars – a great purchase.

101 9th Level Spells is available from: