Hello everyone, and welcome to the next installment in a series of articles focusing on the Cleric Domains in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The goal for each of these is to provide you with a quick overview of your domain powers, spells, and introduce you to a god or goddess from real-Earth mythology who could be a deity using this particular domain.
All that said, welcome to this week’s article on the domain of Evil.
The Evil domain is described as “You are sinister and cruel, and have wholly pledged your soul to the cause of evil.” – Well, if you’ve dedicated yourself to this domain, or a god that embraces this domain, then you’re definitely not a nice person. You’re in it for yourself, regardless of what everyone else might think, and while your methods might change depending on the circumstances, you’re only looking out for number one, and you’re likely to go out of your way to cause harm to others, if it doesn’t distract from your own goals. Quite simply, you ENJOY causing misery to others.
So, what powers do you get?
First, you get Touch of Evil, which causes creatures to be sickened, for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your level. And just to be clear, sickened causes the target to take a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Not a bad ability for something that doesn’t even come with a saving throw. In effect lesser curse as a touch attack.
Secondly, you get the “Scythe of Evil” – this allows you to apply the unholy weapon special property on any weapon that you wield. And just to be clear, that bypasses all damage reduction that’s overcome by evil weapons and causes 2d6 extra points of damage to Good creatures. While you can only use it a limited number of times per day, it does last 1/2 your cleric level in rounds. And as unholy is normally a +2 bonus cost, it’s worth taking, as you’re likely to face a number of Good creatures, if you’ve taken this domain.
Spells:
The spells you get with the Evil domain are as follows:
Protection from Good
This is a bit of an odd spell… On the one hand, it’s a good choice if you know what you’re facing alignment-wise (rather obviously, if your opponents are Good), but it’s useless if you don’t. EXCEPT for one detail, the protection against mental control. That part of the spell applies regardless of the alignment involved, so it is possible for you to gain a second saving throw, suppressing the effect of the mental control for the duration of the Protection From Good spell, which could potentially be a life-saver in situations where you or your allies get confused, dominated or otherwise controlled. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be in effect when the control takes place, so you can cast it as a reaction to your opponent’s actions or preemptively if you know what you’re facing. This particular section of the spell could also come in very handy if it’s not Good creatures that you’re facing.
Align Weapon (Evil only)
This allows you to make your weapon evil, allowing it to bypass the damage reduction of some creatures. In many ways it’s a lesser effect that your “Scythe of Evil” ability, though you get access to this spell much earlier.
Magic Circle against Good
Same effects as for the Protection From Good spell mentioned earlier, except this has a 10-foot radius.
Unholy Blight
This summons up a cloud of greasy darkness that does 1d8 points of damage per 2 levels, or up to 10d6 to good outsiders. Critically, it only affects good and neutral creatures, so if you’re in an evil party, then you can dump it right in the middle of the group, without worrying about the consequences.
Dispel Good
This has a number of effects, in that it grants you a +4 deflection bonus to AC against good creatures, and you can discharge it against good outsiders, to drive them back to their plane, as well as dispel any enchantment cast by a good creature or any one good spell. Quite handy when you’re the villain.
Create Undead
Create Undead is a double-edged sword. The reason for this is that the undead you create are free-willed, so unless you have some other means of controlling them (Command Undead feat or Control Undead spell) then you run a certain risk using it. Further, and this is a personal thing admittedly, I do not think the spell is powerful enough. That is because the undead that it creates are not as powerful as those of the Conjuration spell of the same level. Allow me to show you what I mean:
| Caster Level | Undead Created | Challenge Rating |
| 11th or lower | Ghoul | 1 |
| 12th – 14th | Ghast | 2 |
| 15th – 17th | Mummy | 5 |
| 18th or higher | Mohrg | 8 |
For the same 6th level spell slot you ALWAYS gain a monster of Challenge Rating 7-8 – unfortunately, that does mean that unless you have some way of bolstering the undead created (like the Charnel Soldiers feat for example), then it will pretty much always be inferior to Summon Monster VI. – Nonetheless, for a free spell as a domain spell, it is quite handy for generating some quick backup.
Blasphemy
This has a number of effects, depending upon your targets. Any target with HD up to your level are dazed unless they save. However, the lower they are, the more effects they take. Creatures that are 10 HD less than your caster level (for example a level 14 caster surrounded by 1-4 HD creatures of non-evil alignment, is basically a living bomb of death and chaos). It’s important to note that it doesn’t affect evil creatures, so again it can be used without much in the way of thought if you’re in an evil party.
Unholy Aura
Basically an upgraded version of Dispel Good or Protection From Good, this gives similar effects but also gives you spell resistance, causes strength damage to the attackers and gives the immunity to possession and mental influence, though it doesn’t give you the ability to banish good creatures.
Summon Monster IX
This is the “I need back-up” spell of choice. While you can only summon the evil monsters here, it’s not much of a limitation, since they’re all CR 13 or 14. It comes in very handy if you’re alone, or if you need some quick menace to take the heat off yourself.
New Deity
Set
The Usurper, the Mutilator, Lord of Storms, Lord of the Red Land
Alignment CE
Worshipers the power hungry, the jealous, those who live in the desert and who crave better
Cleric Alignments LE, NE, CE
Domains: Air, Death, Evil, Fire, Sun, Trickery
Sub-domains: Deception, Greed, Hatred, Lightning, Murder, Thirst
Favored Weapon: Sceptre (light mace)
Symbol: a broken ankh
Set is the usurper. Nothing matters to him, except his own well-being and his own power. Church myth claims that he killed his own brother, in an attempt to take over the cosmos, and that it’s only a matter of time before he takes over for eternity. Only when it comes to fighting other gods that threaten the destruction of the fabric of reality itself, does he work together with the rest of the pantheon (such as when fighting off the depredations of Apep, who we covered in the article on the Destruction domain).
The church of Set is a strange organization. In each individual area, they’re highly organized, working together under the directions of one priest, but on a national level, they do not get along at all, as the individual leaders of each cell believe that they should be the ones in control.
Set demands absolute obedience from his clergy, and they’re instructed to pray 3 times a day. Once at sunrise, once at the midday meal, and once at sunset. At each prayer time, they must offer up a drop of blood from themselves or another intelligent creature. The more blood is offered, the more favorably Set looks upon the priest, leading some to commit incredible atrocities in his name.
Set has 2 holidays, winter and summer solstice. Winter solstice where the clergy celebrate the inevitable victory of Set, complete with feasts, and bragging of their own accomplishments over the year, as well as the (rather frequent) murder of superiors in order to advance oneself. The summer solstice is held in solitude for each priest, as they worship the sheer power of the lord of the Red Land, where his strength with the sun is at its highest.
Next week, we look at the Fire domain. Let us know in the comments if you have anything you wish to add or see addressed.
Kim Frandsen
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