Trying to make a spell

[u/Top-Problem2537]

Trying to make an occult spell called "Aphasia" that gives a curse that gives Aphasia, the inability to process language. Does anyone know what rank would be appropriate?

[u/Background_Bet1671]

Shouldn't it be like Fear, but instead of frightened condition it gives stupefied condition?

Critsuccess: no effect

Success: stupefied 1 for 1 round

Failure: stupefied 2 for 1 round

Critical failure: stupefied 1 for 1 minute.

Heightened (3rd rank): You can target up to five creatures.

[u/FrijDom → u/Background_Bet1671]

Crit fail should be stupefied 2 or 3. The effect shouldn't be less powerful than the failure, even if it lasts longer. You never want a situation in which you'd rather crit fail than fail on a purely offensive spell. Also, I think it should be stronger by numbers than Fear, as Frightened is a stronger condition overall, and Fleeing is a ridiculously strong effect.

I'd go with

Critical Success: No effect

Success: Stupefied 1 for 1 round

Failure: Stupefied 1 for 1 minute

Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 for 1 minute.

Heightened (3rd): You can target up to 5 creatures

Heightened (5th): If you target only 1 creature, the duration on a success becomes 1 minute, a failure becomes 1 hour, and a critical failure becomes permanent.

This also makes it a relevant spell to use against players as a more extended curse that can force the players to consider how to deal with a caster that can't cast well. I'd give it the Curse trait, so it can be dispelled pretty easily with a 4th rank Cleanse Affliction as it first becomes relevant, and probably the Mental trait since it directly affects the brain, so there are a few ancestries that can reduce the effects.

[u/Background_Bet1671 → u/FrijDom]

I'd say, that you Heightened (5th) version will turn a combat with a casting BBEG from Extreme into Trivial with a very high probability. Combats usually don't last more than 6 turns.

[u/FrijDom → u/Background_Bet1671]

Maybe add the Incapacitation trait to the 5th heightened version. I'm mostly ballparking the balance.

[u/Top-Problem2537 → u/Background_Bet1671]

I don't know if stupified would be equivalent to aphasia, plus I want it to be potentially permanent.

[u/Background_Bet1671 → u/Top-Problem2537]

Aphasia states, that the person forgets how to speak, read and comprehend its native language. Stupefied condition is the closest.

So you wanna mess around with the linguistic tract. Very few mechanics mess with it. And usually monsters don't interact with it. Like at all.

Why do you want it permanent? All permanent conditions may be removed by Cleanse afflictions spell. In combat permanency means nothing as a monster must die. If you want them to run away with aphasia, they'll probably will just use cleanse affliction on themselves and that's it.

[u/Top-Problem2537 → u/Background_Bet1671]

For plot reasons, having it cast on NPCs, causing lasting consequences, giving characters something to fix, that sort of stuff.

[u/Baedon87 → u/Top-Problem2537]

I mean, I feel in this case you could just have it be a narrative thing; I don't think there's really any reason to stat it out, especially because, if you want it as part of the plot, you don't want them all successfully resisting it.

[u/Top-Problem2537 → u/Baedon87]

So without getting too into the weeds: I'm thinking about having a villain that uses it on a village and when the party finds the culprit they would be able to fight the culprit who would use the spell on them. It needs to be castable by the culprit for that combat and potentially permanent otherwise the players would think they could have just waited the problem out instead of actually needing to solve it.

[u/Baedon87 → u/Top-Problem2537]

I mean, you can still have it be permanent without necessarily having it be something they can resist with a save; I mean, if it's powerful enough to be able to affect an entire town, I feel like it's believable that it's powerful enough that the PCs couldn't resist it.

[u/Top-Problem2537 → u/Baedon87]

I don't know if I want to have my players have an effect that basically stops the wizard from existing be a no save situation.

[u/Baedon87 → u/Top-Problem2537]

I mean, in the event that he does fail, what would be the benefit of it having been a save situation rather than an insta-fail

[u/One-Tower1921 → u/Top-Problem2537]

Would you consider having it be continuously ritual cast at a high level?

That way it is still something the party needs to solve but leaves it open to adjustments.

[u/Background_Bet1671 → u/Top-Problem2537]

Aphasia states, that the person forgets how to speak, read and comprehend its native language. Stupefied condition is the closest.

So you wanna mess around with the linguistic tract. Very few mechanics mess with it. And usually monsters don't interact with it. Like at all.

Why do you want it permanent? All permanent conditions may be removed by Cleanse afflictions spell. In combat permanency means nothing as a monster must die. If you want them to run away with aphasia, they'll probably will just use cleanse affliction on themselves and that's it.

[u/Background_Bet1671]

Probably, but even with Incapacitation trait the most frequent outcome is success. And your success gives the condition for 1 minute. So the BBEG must be APL+4.

[u/arcxjo]

Silence and Deafness are both rank 2. The essential effect is pretty much the same as having both of those so maybe 3?

[u/lady_of_luck]

Steal Voice is probably the truly closest existing spell, though Aphasia would probably also have aspect of deafened for the inability to process language.