Anathema

9th-level enchantment (ritual) (Cleric,Druid)

  • Casting Time: 1 action
  • Range: Special
  • Components: V, S, M (a special consecrated book or scroll inscribed with the target's name, detailing the crimes for which the target is being condemned and requiring 10,000 gp worth of special metallic inks and rare mineral dusts to inscribe, which is consumed in the casting of the spell)
  • Duration: Instantaneous

You can permanently exclude a creature from the benefits of your faith. The chosen creature suffers the following effects:

  • It can no longer cast any cleric, druid, paladin, or ranger spells gained from the worship of your deity.
  • It can no longer use the Channel Divinity feature if it is derived from the worship of your deity.
  • It cannot benefit from any of your faith's services, such as spellcasting provided by a temple of your faith, or naming, marrying, or burial services.
  • If it dies, its soul is barred from entry into your deity's plane, just as if it had never declared allegiance to your deity.

If you target a higher-level spellcaster than yourself with this spell, the spell fails. A creature targeted with this spell is instantly aware of all of its effects, and that you are the caster. You can pronounce an anathema effect upon any creature, even if it is on a different plane. You cannot pronounce an anathema against someone who is already dead. Some deities do not allow an anathema to be pronounced against the innocent or against their chosen, while others grant their most powerful servants free use of this most terrible of divine curses.

The anathema spell marks the subject as accursed to others of your faith. If they are aware that a creature is anathema, members of your faith feel instinctively that they will displease their deity if they speak to that creature, look at it, or even acknowledge its existence. Clerics, paladins, druids, and rangers of your faith automatically detect an anathema effect simply by looking at the subject.

The effect is permanent until lifted, either by you or another member of your faith of higher level who can cast this spell. This spell is unaffected by dispel magic or counterspell, and it can be neither copied nor undone by a wish spell.

In campaigns featuring less traditional faiths (such as worship of whole pantheons or sub-groups of gods, gods with multiple aspects, a non-personal sacred philosophy, etc.), the DM determines the effects of this spell relative to such beliefs and explains them when you acquire this spell.