Breakerbox is used under last ditch attempts to revive a fallen ally, companion, or even enemy.
If a creature dies (fails death saves), Breakerbox can be used upon them within one minute to forcibly revive them - with a catch. Due to the forcible reboot of the creature's brain - reversing brain death - the creature may come back highly changed, weakened, or incapacitated; having forgotten even key memories of itself or spells. Upon the casting of Breakerbox, the creature is revived at 1 HP and it's Intelligence score must be set to 0. After this, the creature immediately rolls an Intelligence check (afterwards the Intelligence can be put back to where it was beforehand).
For a Nat 1, the creature forgets everything about it's life, self, where it is and the world (including factions, magic, and different races). It retains the ability to speak it's main language (if it had one). It forgets every spell it knows, and gains an Intelligence score modifier of -10. The intelligence score modifier ticks up by one per session; but all other things will have to be relearned by the creature (spells can be relearned upon the next level up).
For anything between a Nat 2 and a Nat 5, the creature will forget everything about itself, the world and the creature's previously known languages, but will only forget the two highest level spells it knows and gain an Intelligence score modifier of -5 that will tick up by one per session.
For anything between a Nat 6 and a Nat 10, the creature will forget only who it is and about it's life. It will still know all previously known languages and anything it knew about the world before it died, but will not recall it's friends, family, or personal memories. It will have a permanent Intelligence score modifier of -1 and will lose 3 spells of the player or DM's choosing.
For anything between a Nat 11 and a Nat 15, the creature will remember it's name and anything it knew about the world around it, but forget it's family, friends, and any other notable people it met. It will not remember anything that occurred in the past 24 hours, including it's own death. It gains an Intelligence score modifier of -3 that will tick up by one per session. It will not lose any spells.
For anything between a Nat 16 and a Nat 19, the creature will come back as it was before it's death, with it's memories, spells and Intelligence all the same. However, the creature will gain the Blinded, Incapacitated and Frightened conditions for one in-game hour. It will remember it's death and how it felt to die.
For a Nat 20, the creature comes back brighter and better than it was before, becoming enlightened. It gains a level (if it can), and a permanent Intelligence score modifier of +5.
"The darkness consumes you. Somehow, a split second falls into what feels like hours. You feel, one by one, parts of yourself going dark and fuzzy. Dying. Lights going out, memories fading away into an inky black. It's nothing, but somehow, it's pleasant. Like warm water sapping you bit by bit into a greater ocean. Time moves slowly, and in those fractions of a second that you die, you are forced to feel it all. But inevitably, you take your last breath.
Then you are hit with a spell. And you take another. Then another.
That pleasant feeling is replaced immediately. It feels as if a thousand million tiny lightning bolts have stuck your mind, overloading it with the electricity that had just gone out and left your brain dead. It hurts. It hurts like Hell. Like a migraine beyond any migraine you've ever felt. Suddenly, time is moving faster to you than it should've, not slower, as parts of you - core parts of you, are lit up like a blaze of fire, burning, frying, dying all over again. It is as if someone exhausted all the power in your body only for someone to fill you up with a new power. It follows the same paths, lights the same corridors of your mind, and yet it is not the same. It is different- you are different. You feel as if you are a copy of someone else, and perhaps you are indeed a replication of what you were - although, what even are you now? Parts of yourself are likely still missing, never to be found again, lost in the inferno of power that has revived you - but you are, for better or worse, alive. Breathing. And burning. The lights in your head are all on at once, every memory overlaid, lightbulbs breaking around you; and yet your house still stands."
This spell was inspired by Brennan Lee Mulligan's description of how a killing spell would work - found on YouTube under the short name 'How "Avada Kedavra" Would Actually Work" -, to which after watching it I simply said to myself, 'what if I flipped the breaker box of the home... and turned the lights on again?'
Comments