These are inspired by
Modify Memory. And yes, the base spell has three footnotes, and a single sentence makes up ~95% of the importance of the main body its description.
Secret Business, Least Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind Affecting]
Level: Assassin 1, Bard 1, Blackguard 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: 1 willing creature*
Duration: 5 rounds/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will Negates (Willing Only)**
Spell Resistance: Yes (Willing Only)***
*Charm, Domination, torture, blackmail, etc still count, they just autopass on any saving throw attempted. Pro Tip: You can target yourself!
**The save only matters for stuff like "any spell that allows a will save"-type mechanics.
***So if the target has spell resistance, by R.A.W. it has a chance to stop the spell if the target doesn't take the action to drop their resistance.
When this spell ends by the duration expiring, or being dismissed (but NOT by
Dispel-ing or other such means) the target forgets all that occurred while it was active.
Note that this does NOT cause a loss of levels, experience, skill ranks (except, at the GMs discretion, those that represent very secret knowledge), etc gained during the duration, just that the character can't remember he has those skills until they are in an appropriate situation to use the specific one, and can't remember how they learned them.
Explaination: The above paragraph is fairly pointless for THIS spell... slightly less so as you get into its higher-level sequels, and very important for the highest level spell in this series.
Also note that a given instance of this spell can't erase the memory of its own casting.
Secret Business, Lesser Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind Affecting]
Level: Assassin 2, Bard 2, Blackguard 2
Duration: 5 minutes/level (D)
This spell functions like
Secret Business, Least except for the increased duration.
Secret UnpleasantnessEnchantment (Compulsion) [Mind Affecting]
Level: Assassin 3, Bard 3, Blackgaurd 3
Target: 1 creature*
Duration: 10 minutes/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will Negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
*Note the removal of the word "willing".
This spell functions like
Secret Business, Least except for the changes in the header above.
Especially note that a given instance of this spell can't erase the memory of its own casting.
Secret BusinessEnchantment (Compulsion) [Mind Affecting]
Level: Assassin 4, Bard 4, Blackguard 4
Duration: 1 day/level (D)
This spell functions like
Secret Business, Least except for the increased duration.
Secret Unpleasantness, GreaterEnchantment (Compulsion) [Mind Affecting]
Level: Bard 5
Target: 1 creature*
Duration: 2 days/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will Negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
*Note the removal of the word "willing".
This spell functions like
Secret Business, Least except for the changes in the header above.
Especially note that a given instance of this spell can't erase the memory of its own casting.
Secret LifeEnchantment (Compulsion) [Mind Affecting]
Level: Assassin 4 (self only), Bard 6, Blackgaurd 4 (self only)
Duration: Permanent (D)
This spell functions like
Secret Business, Least except for the increased duration and that the target may spend 1 minute to dismiss it as if they were the caster.
These are great for secret societies. Which makes them more likely to fit in with the villains than the heroes, but there is no reason a heroic character couldn't use them. They have use for doing interviews regarding crimes while keeping the course of investigation secret even from the most important of witnesses/suspects. I've seen something like the 6th level version of this in some fiction although that mind-wipe usually removes skills along with memories.
With the fact that most of them function very much like each other a bard character very focused on this sort of magic might end up using a lot of his "swap spells when leveling up" on this. Is that a bad thing?
Note that the duration increases are a smaller multiple for the ones that can work on an unwilling target. Should there be NO duration increase relative to the previous spell level for those two?
Are there any other changes I should make or implications I should be aware of?
Notes to self:
Add material component of one drink's worth of alcohol, but possibly change this to absinth or
nepenthe specifically for the 9th level version? Maybe.
Add option for reversion via a command phrase or (as a drawback)
Dispeling (add both if I do this, just that either one works in any specific case) to 2nd and higher level versions of
Business, but NOT any version of
Unpleasantness? Probably.
Explicitly state that
Modify Memory can recover 5 minutes per casting.