Fleshy Facade is a second-level spell found in the Ghoul section of last year's Monster Codex.
Fleshy Facade:
School transmutation (polymorph); Level alchemist 2, bard 2,
inquisitor 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target corporeal undead creature
touched
Duration 10 minutes/level (D)
Saving Throw yes (harmless); Spell
Resistance yes (harmless)
The target’s flesh fills out and gains a healthy, natural color. This gives the target the appearance of a living creature of the type it was when it was still alive (if applicable). Creatures casting spells such as detect undead must succeed at a saving throw (with a DC equal to the spell’s save DC) to detect the target’s presence, and if the target is intelligent, it gains a +10 bonus on Disguise checks to appear alive or recently deceased. If the undead has any features different from those of the type of living creature it most resembles (such as a ghoul’s elongated teeth and claws), those features shrink and become less prominent, and the subject deals damage as though it were one size smaller. This spell has no effect on creatures that are skeletal or otherwise lack flesh.
TLDR: it makes a corporeal undead creature appear like a healthy living creature.
This has so much potential! The Monster Codex gives one pleasantly creepy example: a ghoul with bard levels, pretending to be human, wandering from town to town, and basically acting as a mobile freelance serial killer. But I can think of at least a couple of others offhand:
-- the wizard's loyal retainer died of old age. One Animate Dead spell later, the wizard has her faithful servant back! When he goes out shopping and does the errands, a quick Flesh Facade keeps the local townsfolk from getting too upset. Unfortunately, the wizard isn't really a necromancy specialist, and doesn't realize that her zombie is becoming free-willed... and hungry.
-- some liches are perfectly okay with spending their unlife in a cave or a crypt. Lord Willis doesn't play that way. As a living man, he was a wealthy who enjoyed art, literature, and the company of his fellow aristocrats. Why should a little thing like becoming an undead horror interfere with that? As a 12th level sorceror, Lord Willis can cast Extended Fleshy Facade for a four-hour duration, and re-up it whenever time runs short. And when troublemaking adventurers show up to investigate Lord Willis' dealings with the underworld, they're likely to get a surprise...
Oh my. :D
I just remembered one fun comic...
...
(went to search)
...
Here http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch01/ch01_01.html
Unsounded, a zombie magic escorting a wild daughter of major criminal into cross the continent. Well, he does not use disquise all the time...
Anyway, it is hilarious and I'm sure it will give some inspiration.
Only an idiot in a story opens the door to a half-rotted wight. It makes a lot more sense to use a human-looking infiltrator. I suspect that's the intended use.
If you want to spread terror rather than death the fact that the spell runs out in an hour or so could work wonders as Aunt May or Greymalkin reverts while sitting in the kitchen.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
avr wrote:
If you want to spread terror rather than death the fact that the spell runs out in an hour or so could work wonders as Aunt May or Greymalkin reverts while sitting in the kitchen.
Only an idiot in a story opens the door to a half-rotted wight. It makes a lot more sense to use a human-looking infiltrator. I suspect that's the intended use.
Well, one intended use... I'm hoping clever people will come up with others.
The short duration is a constraint. But you could have creatures that are seen by the public regularly, but only for short periods of time -- messengers, say, or porters. They're actually something horrible, but the spell hides their nature. Then when the time is right...
-- One of the Ruby Pharaoh's more discreet servants is the priest Toth-Set. He travels across the northern world, collecting items and information -- rather like a Pathfinder, except that he's reporting directly to the Exalted One. That's because (1) Toth-Set is a very powerful cleric, and (2) he's been dead for over a thousand years, so he forms a direct link to earlier dynasties. Toth-Set is a mummy lord.
When he uses the spell, he appears as a tall, healthy Osirian male in middle age. (An appropriate Knowledge check will show that his outfit is some centuries out of date.) Toth-Set is Lawful Evil: on one hand, he's a cruel, arrogant xenophobe who is convinced of the inferiority of all non-Osirians, but on the other he's utterly loyal to the restored kingdom and the current Pharaoh. (Okay, privately he considers the Ruby Pharaoh naive and a bit of a parvenu. But he's the lawful Pharaoh, and not a heretic or a weakling, so the path of duty is clear.) He especially enjoys showing upstart foreigners the folly of their pretensions. So if a group of adventurers get between Toth-Set and something he wants to acquire... well, duty before pleasure, but isn't it nice when both come together?
-- Bleekins never wanted to be a necromancer in the first place: he wanted to be a librarian. So the magical accident that transformed him into a juju zombie was arguably the best thing that ever happened to him: Bleekins is now the librarian at the Magical Academy. He doesn't need to eat, sleep, drink or breathe, and he's immune to many -- not all, but many -- of the nasty magical effects that some of the more dangerous books can throw around. He's not even evil: he's as Lawful Neutral as they come. Bleekins prefers to spend most of his time in the stacks, but when he encounters a visitor or researcher -- or on the rare occasions he must venture outside the library -- he quickly casts the spell.
Unfortunately for the librarian, he has somehow attracted the attention of a Marut Inevitable. The Magical Academy isn't prepared to fight such a powerful outsider, and they've reluctantly given Bleekins his walking papers. Now, with the Inevitable closing in, the desperate zombie turns to the PCs: if they can help him, he knows the location of an incredibly valuable volume of forgotten lore. Of course, "help him" means somehow defeating a CR 15 outsider...
-- Lord Zoth is a graveknight, and frankly he hates using this spell. But his nameless, faceless master wants Zoth's true nature kept a secret until the moment is right. So he's given Zoth a pendant that can cast the spell up to three times per day. The graveknight doesn't like it, but he acknowledges the tactical importance of surprise, so he submits. And, hey -- he's still the terrifying lord of a horde of monsters, clad all in spiky black armor, and radiating an aura of death and fear. It's just that everyone thinks he's an antipaladin or something.
-- Von Zandt's unlife was changed forever when, flipping idly through some scrolls owned by one of his victims, he found this spell. Up to then, the nosferatu had lived through endless miserable centuries as a shriveled and hideous and hateful thing, skulking and hiding in the shadows. Now... well, he's still in the shadows, of course. But he's no longer an obvious monster. The sheer shock of this transformation has temporarily shaken von Zandt out of century-long habits. He's wandering the night streets of the city now in wonder, almost innocent, like a thing new-born. He still has to prey on the living, of course, but his malice and loathing have been suppressed... at least for the moment.
PCs who encounter him will see an ordinary-looking old man, dressed in somewhat formal and old-fashioned clothes. Von Zandt will be a bit shy at first, but if given any encouragement will be eager to interact with living creatures who are not terrified of him. He'll be friendly, and will ask oddly naive questions about the simplest aspects of life and society. He'll be happy to follow along with the PCs for a while, especially if they're going someplace where there are many people. Of course, underneath he's still the same withered, loathsome monster as ever, and he still needs to feed. This temporary period of near-human behavior will surely end soon, and the backlash afterwards is likely to be terrible...
The recent Horror volume has a spell -- Appearance of Life -- that's very similar to this one; it's 3rd level and can be cast on multiple creatures, but otherwise it's much the same.
