Phantasmal Revenge

7th-level illusion

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Classes: warlock, wizard

When you cast this eerie spell upon a recently slain creature, you cause a ghastly, spectral image of it to rise up from its corpse, shrieking for vengeance before it vanishes in a burst of unnatural light. This phantom then unerringly seeks out the creature that killed it, as long as that creature is on the same plane and tries to slay its killer in turn, arriving there instantaneously and plunging into the target’s heart in a terrifying phantasmagoria of doom. The target takes 8d10 psychic damage, or half as much with a successful Wisdom saving throw. If the target fails its saving throw, it is also frightened for 1 round and must make an additional Wisdom saving throw each round at the end of its turn. A successful Wisdom saving throw ends the phantasmal revenge, while a failed saving throw causes the target to be frightened 1 additional round and to take an additional 4d10 psychic damage, requiring it to save again each turn until it either succeeds (ending the spell) or dies. Once the creature succeeds on its save, it is immune to further phantasmal revenge spells for 24 hours. The target corpse must have died no more than 1 week prior to casting the spell. If the corpse’s death was not caused by a creature, or if its killer is already dead or on another plane, the spell fails. A corpse can only be targeted once with phantasmal revenge, though a creature returned to life and slain again can be targeted after each subsequent death. Phantasmal revenge does not require murder or foul play; it can affect any killer even if they did not intend the death or it was a fair fight on equal terms.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 8th level, you can cast this spell on yourself. If you die before the next time you complete a long rest, the phantasmal revenge spell takes effect and attacks the creature that killed you (or dropped you to 0 hit points, if you later died from failed death saves). If you have a 9th-level spell slot available when you are killed or dropped to 0 hit points and you have this spell prepared, you can cast it on yourself as a reaction (even if you are otherwise prevented from taking actions).