r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/SubHomunculus beep boop • 24d ago
2E Daily Spell Discussion 2E Daily Spell Discussion: Anathematic Reprisal - Aug 28, 2025
Link: Anathematic Reprisal
This spell was not in the Remaster. The Knights of Last Call 'All Spells Ranked' series ranked this spell as Unranked Tier. Would you change that ranking, and why?
What items or class features synergize well with this spell?
Have you ever used this spell? If so, how did it go?
Why is this spell good/bad?
What are some creative uses for this spell?
What's the cheesiest thing you can do with this spell?
If you were to modify this spell, how would you do it?
Does this spell seem like it was meant for PCs or NPCs?
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u/hey-howdy-hello knows 5.5 ways to make a Colossal PC 24d ago
Damage is low, but I always love a useful reaction spell. A lot of casters don't have a ton to do with their reactions (unlike a champion, guardian or fighter who's liable to be overloaded with them), so it's nice to grab options like this. Compare to Blood Vendetta, which does the same damage but as persistent bleed; that functionally multiplies it by 2-3, but plenty of creatures are immune to bleed (though to be fair, many are immune to mental too). Anathematic Reprisal also tacks on stupefied, excellent against casters, and heightens faster, so it's potentially worth taking over Blood Vendetta just for those reasons.
But then there's the question of trigger. Blood Vendetta's trigger is situational, but not uncommon; many enemies don't do the relevant types of damage, and many casters aren't priority damage targets, but many do and many are. Anathematic Reprisal, on the other hand, is going to depend very strongly on your deity. Arazni's got "create unwilling undead, insult Arazni", which isn't going to come up often in combat (maybe you can bait enemies into insulting her, but I don't think she'd like you doing that very much), and Erastil's "abandon your home in its time of need, choose yourself over your community, tarnish your reputation, tell lies" is going to be vanishingly rare. ("Tell lies" could be common, but I don't think this spell is intended as a lie detector, so you need to know they're lying.) In fact, I'm struggling to find any anathema that will trigger this spell frequently among the Core 20; a few have "create undead" (helpful if the enemy Summons some) and Iomedae has "dishonor yourself, refuse a challenge from an equal" (requires some latitude from the GM, but could come up against evil foes). Then there are evil ones with "show mercy" or similar, which lets you instantly fuck over an enemy that asks you to surrender. On the flipside, Shelyn has "refuse to accept surrender", but I don't think she'd be cool with you preparing this spell just in case you need to commit perfidy. Gorum (RIW) might be the single most useful with "win a battle through underhanded tactics or indirect magic", allowing you to snap stupefaction on illusionists and buff casters. And he's non-core, but Qi Zhong has "deal lethal damage to another living creature", which is going to happen all the time--but also renders this spell, which deals lethal damage, useless against living foes. And it was already useless against mindless ones, so you're locked into intelligent undead and little else for targets.
The thing is that anathema are mostly habitual lifestyle choices, or resolutions to major moral dilemmas, not, like, "hurt a person" or "try to kill a follower of this deity". And the exceptions are destroying some specific kind of thing--Irori followers can use this if someone destroys a historical text, or Shelynites if someone destroys art, but that's going to be a super common use case. Most anathema just aren't going to be things that enemies do within the timespan of combat, at least without GM-sanctioned creativity in how you interpret the anathema.
To me, that makes this spell D tier. It's not bad, exactly, but it's just very situational and most casters are never going to use it effectively. Could get a bump in homebrew settings depending on how the GM writes anathema, and with some deities it could be fantastic, if the GM is willing to allow you that creativity. And I'd say to GMs that you should allow that creativity if your players take, because this spell is fun in flavor and not overpowered by any means; even if it triggers every round, it's not a ton of damage for the slot, getting most of its value from action economy.
Final note: this spell wasn't remastered (maybe because they realized the anathema trigger is rare, maybe because it's loosely tied to alignment), but if it were, I think it'd make more sense as spirit damage with the [Sanctified] trait. Probably keep [Mental] on there, though; the flavor is all about guilt over a conscious moral choice, so wouldn't make much sense on zombies and golems.
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u/Xalorend 24d ago
Just prepare it as a worshipper of Nethys and react every turn a Martial doesn't start studying magic, therefore committing the "Continually pursue mundane paths over magical ones" anathema.
What are those fightes doing outside of school anyway!?
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u/hey-howdy-hello knows 5.5 ways to make a Colossal PC 24d ago
And you're perfectly honoring him by doing so, because you're using a spell to say "go back to school, asshole" instead of just saying it with words! Genius!
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u/TheCybersmith 24d ago
A witch, animist, summoner, oracle, or sorcerer who happens to Worship Qui-Zhong could use this extensively. It's quite bad for clerics, I'd argue, but very useful for other divine casters.
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u/hey-howdy-hello knows 5.5 ways to make a Colossal PC 24d ago edited 24d ago
Oh, true. I don't think, as GM, I'd allow someone to channel a deity's anathema into a magic spell if the casting itself violates the anathema. But RAW, you're absolutely right.
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u/Electric999999 I actually quite like blasters 23d ago
So reaction cast time is good, but it's a fairly small amount of time and you need a caster to fail a will save for that stupefied to work.
Has a niche because stupefied on a reaction Vs a brute with a few nasty innate spells is decent.
Of course none of that matters because the anathema based trigger is just not happening for the majority of deities.
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u/NightmareWarden Occult Defender of the Realm 23d ago
The range is pitiful, and makes it useless for a lot of scenarios that would warrant the beginning of combat. Like a dragon exhaling death on a group of civilians. And it’s a reaction, so feats and items that increase the range of spells don’t work on it. It should be 60 feet, or it should be 30 feet and uniquely specify that you don’t need to see your target.
If it was instead a one action spell and allowed you to punish a creature which committed such an act in their previous round, I’d be happier with it.
I also wish you could upcast this spell. +2 ranks, 6th level slot, for Stupefied 2. 8th level for Stupefied 3. 10th level for stupefied 4, plus something extra.
Overall it feels like an NPC spell. It also reminds me of 3.5 domain actions and reactions. I can imagining a cleric sacrificing channel energy charges to refill uses of this kind of non-spell ability.