Consume Life

You violently rip years from another creature’s existence and bind them to your own soul.

Choose one creature you can see within range. The target must make a Constitution saving throw.

• On a failed save, the target takes 18d6 necrotic damage, and its maximum hit points are reduced by the same amount.

• On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and suffers no reduction to its hit point maximum.

If the target is reduced to 0 hit points by this spell, its body rapidly withers, and it cannot be revived by any means short of wish.

Stolen Lifespan

If the target is a living creature with a natural lifespan (DM’s discretion), you steal a portion of its remaining life:

• You gain 1 year of life for every 10 hit points of necrotic damage dealt by this spell (rounded down).

• While you possess stolen life, you do not age naturally.

• Once the stolen lifespan is fully expended, you immediately resume aging normally from your true chronological age.

This stolen lifespan does not:

• Make you immune to magical aging

• Restore lost youth or reverse aging already suffered

• Prevent death from anything other than old age

Limitations

• You cannot possess more than 100 years of stolen life at one time. Excess years are lost.

• Casting this spell while already at the maximum causes the spell to deal damage normally but grants no additional lifespan.

• Creatures that are constructs, undead, or otherwise ageless are immune to the lifespan-stealing effect (though not the damage).

Corrupting Consequence

Each time you cast Consume Life, your soul bears the weight of what you’ve taken.

• After casting the spell, make a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw.

• On a failure, your alignment shifts one step toward evil, and the DM may introduce lingering narrative consequences (visions, whispers, divine attention, planar interest, etc.).

“Why rot in a tomb when the living world is so generous?”