So I was looking at the occult rituals. Some are interesting, but I came across this one and I just can't figure out the benefits of it. Can someone explain this to me and what it could/would be used for in even simpler English?
Here it is spoiler'd for easy access.
School enchantment (compulsion); Level 6
Casting Time 6 hours
Components V, S, F (a receptacle urn worth at least 1,000 gp per level to be stolen; see below), SC (up to 4)
Skill Checks Bluff DC 35, 3 successes; Heal DC 35, 3 successes
Range close
Target one living creature
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Will negates; SR yes
Backlash The primary caster can’t form short-term memories for the next 24 hours.
Failure The primary caster must succeed at a Will save or suffer the effects of the amnesia greater madness (see page 182). The amnesia lasts until removed, but can’t be removed, even by magic, until 2d6 days have passed.
Effect
The casters weave the target’s name into a chant of nonsense rhyming stories for 6 hours, as they slowly extract the target’s memories into the urn as a purple mist. The target loses all but the first class level she ever gained (if any; this ritual doesn’t affect racial hit dice), immediately reducing or removing all level-dependent abilities as if the target were a 1st-level character. In addition to the loss of her class levels, the target suffers from total amnesia of the time in which she accrued those levels. The target can gain experience and accrue new levels, though she must adhere to all the same decisions she made previously with her missing levels (class, archetype, skills, feats, and so on), even if she can’t explain why she now makes such decisions. In some cases, she might do so without meeting the requirements, such as if her amnesia blocked an alignment change and she gained levels in a class with an alignment restriction she no longer met; in this case, she would gain the abilities but retain only those she would have as an ex-member of the class. The rule that she must adhere to all previous decisions has one exception: if the target is a psychic, she can gain the amnesiac archetype as long as she could otherwise take it.
Destroying the receptacle instantly returns the lost levels to the target and reverses any amnesia. If the target became an amnesiac psychic, she loses the archetype as normal.
So for the purposes of this, is this just basically stripping someone's levels? For example, I summon some enemy barbarian lvl 15 and hold him prisoner, then perform this ritual, making him a level 1?
Is so, then he is an amnesiac, meaning we could maybe convince him to live a life of good and he can go out from there right? As long as his jar doesn't get smashed?
What then does the highlighted section mean when it says they have to adhere to all the same decisions? Is it just basically saying that then he could decide to become one of the worlds strongest barbarians again by following in the same path?
i think this is mostly used aa plot hook.
a way to start the game with a character who can't remember sh-it but every1 else call him "the great savor\hero etc"
on other occasions it would be a very spicy punishment to a nemesis (can also be a part of the first idea. as in the character's nemesis used it on her as punishment).
this could also be used for some1 who need to get a 2nd chance. say a fallen paladin who did great things for goodness but then did terrible things for evil. and is now as part of his atonement need to go back and relearn how to do good. it will be a test as if he's evil his levels of paladin would be turned into ex-paladin but if he is now good (and part of falling was going into anti-paladin) his levels of anti-paladin would turn into ex-anti-paladin.
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Punishment/plot device. Sentence someone to lose the power they have spent years gaining and put them in a different environment. Maybe a society that doesn't believe in execution or long imprisonment. Or send a chosen one out, knowing exactly what she will become as she levels up. (Hiding her from the forces of darkness.) A great warrior who has lost his memory and skills but is still occasionally recognized by others is a fairly common fiction trope.
For your barbarian, you could try to convince him to do a life of good. Or evil for that matter.
The highlighted section means he has to make the same decisions when gaining levels that he did the first time he leveled up. If he was a straightforward barbarian 15, then when he gains his second level he has to choose barbarian again (can't choose to be a barbarian 1/fighter 1). If he chose Roused Anger as his second-level rage power, he has to choose that again. He has to put his skill points in the same places. When he reaches 4th level he has to take the same stat bump. And so on.
Thanks for the help everyone