[PF] New Spell for low level petrification

[Desril]

I like petrification as an effect, but my group always ends up playing low level campaigns, so I never get to the requisite 6th level spells to get Flesh to Stone, so I'm trying various custom spells as an alternative, this is the most complete of the ones I'm working on currently:



Winter's Bite
Transmutation [Cold]
Level: Magus 2, Sorc/Wiz 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Duration: 1 round/caster level
Saving Throw: None (See Text)
Spell Resistance: No

Any attack while Winter's Bite is active causes the flesh of the target of the attack to freeze and harden—multiple strikes can cause a living creature to freeze solid. Each time a creature is damaged by the caster's attacks with natural or martial weapons, it must succeed on a Fortitude save or take 1d4 points of Dexterity damage as its flesh and bones stiffen and freeze. (This slow petrification does not alter a bitten creature's natural armor.) A creature that is reduced to 0 Dexterity by a Winter's Bite immediately turns completely to ice, as if petrified by a flesh to stone spell, but made of ice rather than stone, reducing hardness and hp of the statue. Every day, a creature petrified in this manner can attempt a new Fortitude save to recover from the petrification, at which point the victim returns to flesh with 1 Dexterity (and thereafter can be restored to full Dexterity by natural healing or magic as normal)—but after a petrified creature fails three of these Fortitude saves in a row, the petrified state becomes permanent. A creature restored to flesh via magic has its Dexterity damage caused by cockatrice bites removed, but not any existing Dexterity damage from other sources.



The spell is basically a refluffed version of a Cockatrice's petrification ability turned into a buff. Does this work as a 2nd level spell, or is it too powerful? I figure since they're CR 3, a spell that emulates their ability for 1 round/level would be about 2nd level.

[TuggyNE]

Note that there's no obvious provision to negate natural healing of ability damage in ice statue form, so it will never last more than a day. That should be fixed.

Lesser restoration is a level 2 spell, so this is probably workable.

One further point: fluff-wise, [cold] creatures at the very least should be immune to this freezing, but again the spell does not mention that.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

Very nice, I like this a lot.

As tuggyne noted, you should change the duration to "1 round/level (see text)". I would also change it to affect a touched weapon instead of any attack the caster makes, though it's probably best to add a note that the spell ends if the caster lets go of the weapon (this could be scary if you gave it to your Rapid Shot archer buddy).

I would also note that creatures with cold resistance or cold immunity are immune.

You should specify what happens if the frozen creature melts. I assume that it cannot be restored to flesh if this happens.