Level: c3
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 round/level
Area of Effect: Special
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 6 segments
Saving Throw: None

By calling
upon his or her deity, the cleric casting
a holy flail spell temporarily
transforms his or her own holy symbol,
or any non-bladed weapon which the
cleric touches wielded by another
being, into a magical holy flail.

For one
round per experience level of the cleric,
the holy symbol or transformed weapon
becomes a snakelike, flexible field of
force attached to a rigid hand-hold; an
invisible, crackling spectral flail that is
+ 2 to hit when wielded in battle, and is
considered a magical weapon for hitting
purposes. A strike from a holy flail
does 2-7 points of damage and, if wielded
by a cleric, an additional 1 hit point
per experience level of the cleric damage
damage
per strike to all undead, and to any
creature of a greatly different alignment
than that of the cleric (see below).
If a holy flail spell is cast upon a bladed
weapon, nothing will happen and
the spell will be lost. If it is cast upon a
weapon held by a creature of a greatly
different alignment than that of the
casting cleric (i.e., good vs. evil; lawful,
chaotic, and neutral considerations do
not matter in this case), the flail will not
form. A holy flail will always vanish if it
is transferred from one creature to
another, unless the being receiving it is
the spellcaster or another cleric of the
same deity. A holy flail does not need
continued concentration on the part of
the cleric to maintain it, and can be
dropped to enable spellcasting (or
thrown as a weapon) without vanishing.

A holy flail created from a holy symbol can only be wielded by a cleric
of the same deity as the symbol, or it
will vanish.

MC: The holy symbol or
weapon (which is not consumed or
damaged in any way by the spell) and a
pinch of powdered gemstone (of any
type).



Flail followup
Dear Dragon,
In the clerical spell holy flail (issue #100), it
states that ?any non-bladed weapon? is transformed
by the spell into a magical flail. Does this
include any weapon that is much larger than a
flail that is non-bladed like a javelin, staff, spear,
or even a lance? Does it work on magical nonbladed
weapons or not?

If the answer to the preceding question is yes,
can the spell be used to an advantage? For instance,
if a cleric fights someone who is using a
+ 5 lance, can?t he cast the spell to transform the
lance into the less powerful holy flail? Does the
weapon transformed by the spell have to be listed
as a weapon, or can anything that can be used as
a weapon (rock, bottle, etc.) be transformed?
    Joey Garcia
    Bronx. N.Y.
    (Dragon #103)
 

Instead of using the term “non-bladed
weapon,” we should have specified that the spell
only works on weapons usable by a cleric. That
rules out everything except a club, flail, hammer,
mace, staff. lasso, sap, or staff sling — no lances,
spears, rocks or bottles allowed.

The spell will not fail to function when it’s cast
upon a magic weapon, but it won’t offset or
reduce any powers the magic weapon already
had. However, the spell will bestow upon the
weapon any special powers that are part of the
magic. If it’s used on a horseman?s mace + 4, for
instance, the weapon is still + 4 to hit and on
damage, and for the duration of the spell the
mace will do extra damage to undead and “any
creature of a greatly different alignment than that
of the cleric,” as it says in the text. This extra
damage is 1 point per level of the cleric who cast
the spell, not per level of the character wielding
the weapon — and note that the extra damage
only applies when the magicked weapon is
wielded by a cleric. Thus, it’s pointless to cast the
spell on a enemy’s weapon — and it’s downright
dumb to even try doing it if the enemy is a cleric
“of a greatly different alignment.” — KM
 
 

The Red Book of War

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Books of the Forgotten Realms