Limp Lash

You create a dark whip-shaped field of energy that wraps around an enemy's neck, leaving everything except his head paralyzed until you let go of the whip or it is destroyed.

You must make a ranged touch attack with this spell. If you strike your target, he takes a 1d6 penalty to his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution each round. This penalty cannot reduce any attribute to less than 1, and once any of these attributes reaches 1 the target collapses and his body, except his head, becomes paralyzed. While paralyzed in this way, the target retains full use of his senses, including the ability to feel pain, and can speak (including casting spells with only verbal components). The whip has a maximum length of 20 feet, 15 hit points, and a hardness of 5. The spell ends immediately if you let go of the whip or it is destroyed. When the spell ends, all penalties the target took from this spell also end.

FAQ How does this spell work?

Limp lash suffers a bit from using game terms as general descriptive text. Here are some clarifications.

1. You strike the target with the whip, he start taking ability penalties, is he paralyzed or hindered in any other way?

He is not paralyzed until the ability penalty reduces the victim's effective Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution to 1 (the minimum to which this spell can adjust a score). Once one of these 3 scores is reduced to 1, the victim becomes paralyzed--he is not paralyzed before this point.

2. The whip has a maximum range of 20 ft. If the target is not paralyzed or otherwise prevented from moving, what happens when he moves out of the 20 ft range? The spell dissipates or...?

If the target moves out of range, the spell ends. (This is similar to what happens if you let go of the whip.) This does mean it's relatively easy for a victim to escape from the spell--that is by design, since otherwise the fact that there's no save to resist the penalties is pretty powerful.

3. Can you take any actions while holding the whip?

You can take any action you want, but if any action requires you to release your hold on the whip, the limp lash spell immediately ends.

4. What happens if some effect attempts to displace the whip (e.g. wall of stone between you and the target), or some effect moves the target away (e.g. bull rush)?

The spell effect ends if something moves the target out of range or completely breaks the line of effect between you and the target.

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