Bind Scarecrow

Before casting this spell, you designate a mount and a haunting grounds.

This mount can be a high pole or stake, a tree, a fencepost, a wooden frame, or a similar structure from which the scarecrow can survey the area it guards. This mount serves as the scarecrow’s permanent post. You place the inert scarecrow upon its mount, and the corpse of the Evil humanoid beneath it, marking an arcane circle around them with the silver dust. Reaching into the dark pits of the universe, you find the soul of your chosen victim, stripping them of their individuality and binding their malice to the straw effigy. In doing so, you create a scarecrow permanently under your command.

Up to a radius of 120 feet from the scarecrow's mount, you designate an area to serve as the haunting grounds for the scarecrow to guard. It can leave its mount at will and move around its haunting grounds to execute any orders you have given it, but it cannot willingly venture beyond the haunting grounds unless it is physically forced to cross the perimeter. At the end of such an encounter, the scarecrow returns to its haunting grounds, or if it has no way to return, falls prone and is permanently incapacitated until it is moved back within the perimeter.

On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command the scarecrow you made with this spell if both you and it are within the haunting grounds. You decide what action the scarecrow will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as forbidding it from attacking a certain creature or group of creatures. If you issue no commands, the scarecrow simply remains stationary upon its mount and will attack any creature other than you that enters its haunting grounds. Once given an order, the scarecrow continues to follow it until its task is complete.