Eyebite Spell
The eyes change first. Their colour drains into impossible darkness, and anyone who meets that gaze understands—often too late—that looking back was the mistake.
Eyebite turns sight into a weapon of dread. Warriors break and flee, victims collapse where they stand, and the caster can move through a confrontation with the quiet menace of someone who needs only to be seen.
Eyebite Rules
Choose the rules set actually in play. The three versions share a name and visual identity, but their saving throws, conditions, durations and action economy are not interchangeable.
Rules boundary: the current spell uses Unconscious, Frightened and Poisoned. Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e instead use an HD-based ladder of Sickened, Panicked and Comatose. Do not transfer condition text or repeat-save rules between them.
Eyebite — D&D 5.5e / 2024
Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
- Level
- 6th
- School
- Necromancy
- Casting Time
- Action
- Range
- Self
- Creature Selection
- One creature you can see within 60 feet
- Components
- V, S
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Saving Throw
- Wisdom
- Later Targets
- Magic action on later turns
Effect
For the duration, the caster’s eyes become an inky void. Choose one creature within 60 feet that the caster can see. The creature makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, choose one of the following effects.
Asleep
The target has the Unconscious condition. It wakes if it takes any damage or if another creature takes an action to shake it awake.
Panicked
The target has the Frightened condition. On each of its turns it must take the Dash action and move away from the caster by the safest and shortest route available.
If it reaches a space at least 60 feet from the caster where it cannot see the caster, this effect ends.
Sickened
The target has the Poisoned condition.
On each later turn until the spell ends, the caster can take a Magic action to target another creature. A creature that has already succeeded on a saving throw against this casting cannot be targeted again by it.
No imported repeat save: the current Sickened option applies the Poisoned condition. It does not contain the older end-of-turn repeat Wisdom save used by the earlier fifth-edition spell.
Resolution
- Cast Eyebite and begin Concentration.
- Choose one visible creature within 60 feet.
- The creature makes a Wisdom save.
- On failure, choose Asleep, Panicked or Sickened.
- On later turns, spend a Magic action to select another eligible creature.
- Track each affected creature independently until its effect ends or Concentration ends.
Tactical use
- Asleep can remove an enemy from active participation, but damage or an ally’s waking action can end it immediately.
- Panicked is strongest when forced movement, separation or abandoning a defended position matters.
- Sickened is useful against creatures vulnerable to the Poisoned condition.
- Every later target consumes another Magic action.
D&D 5.5e / 2024 rulings
Why is the range Self if the victim can be 60 feet away?
The spell changes the caster’s eyes and then establishes its own 60-foot creature-selection distance.
Does targeting someone else free the previous victim?
No. Selecting another creature does not itself end an existing effect.
Can a creature that succeeded on its save be targeted again?
No. It cannot be targeted again during the same casting.
Can a failed target be selected again after its effect has ended?
The text expressly bars creatures that succeeded on a save, while “another creature” leaves this narrower situation less explicit. Treat it as a GM adjudication.
Does Sickened receive another Wisdom save every turn?
No. The current option imposes Poisoned without the older repeating-save procedure.
What if the target is immune to Poisoned?
Condition immunity applies normally.
Does loud noise wake an Asleep target?
The spell specifies damage or another creature spending an action to shake the victim awake; it does not supply a generic loud-noise clause.
Does Panicked end simply at 60 feet?
No. The victim must be at least 60 feet away and unable to see the caster.
Eyebite — Pathfinder 1e
Direct spell-list access: Alchemist 6, Arcanist 6, Bard 6, Investigator 6, Mesmerist 6, Skald 6, Sorcerer 6, Spiritualist 6, Witch 6, Wizard 6
- School
- Necromancy [emotion, pain]
- Casting Time
- 1 standard action
- Components
- V, S
- Range
- Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
- Target
- One living creature
- Duration
- 1 round/level
- Saving Throw
- Fortitude negates
- Spell Resistance
- Yes
- Later Targets
- Swift action
Each round, the caster can target one living creature. The result depends on the target’s Hit Dice. The effects are cumulative.
| Target HD | Effect |
|---|---|
| 10 or more | Sickened |
| 5–9 | Panicked + Sickened |
| 4 or fewer | Comatose + Panicked + Sickened |
Sickened
The creature remains Sickened for 10 minutes per caster level.
Remove Disease and Heal do not remove this particular effect. Remove Curse can remove it.
Panicked
The creature is Panicked for 1d4 rounds. It then remains Shaken for 10 minutes per caster level.
Seeing the caster during that later period makes the victim Panicked again. This is a fear effect.
Comatose
The creature falls into a catatonic coma for 10 minutes per caster level.
The coma is explicitly not a sleep effect.
After the first round, selecting another foe requires a swift action. Individual effects can continue after the spell’s targeting window ends.
Pathfinder 1e rulings
Do the conditions end when the spell’s targeting duration expires?
No. Individual effects use their own stated durations.
Does every target suffer all three effects?
No. Hit Dice determine which cumulative effects apply.
Does Remove Disease remove the Sickened effect?
No. Neither Remove Disease nor Heal does so. Remove Curse can.
Does magical-sleep immunity stop Comatose?
No. The coma is not a sleep effect.
How can the coma be ended early?
The effect can be dispelled where the normal rules permit, including through Dispel Magic.
Eyebite — D&D 3.5e
Classes: Bard 6, Sorcerer 6, Wizard 6
- School
- Necromancy [Evil]
- Casting Time
- 1 standard action
- Components
- V, S
- Range
- Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
- Target
- One living creature
- Duration
- 1 round per 3 levels; see text
- Saving Throw
- Fortitude negates
- Spell Resistance
- Yes
- Later Targets
- Move action
Each round, the caster can strike one living creature. The victim’s Hit Dice determine which cumulative effects apply.
| Target HD | Effect |
|---|---|
| 10 or more | Sickened |
| 5–9 | Panicked + Sickened |
| 4 or fewer | Comatose + Panicked + Sickened |
Sickened
The victim remains Sickened for 10 minutes per caster level.
Remove Disease and Heal do not remove the effect; Remove Curse does.
Panicked
The victim becomes Panicked for 1d4 rounds and then remains Shaken for 10 minutes per caster level.
Comatose
The victim falls into a catatonic coma for 10 minutes per caster level. This is not a sleep effect.
The caster can select victims for only 1 round per three caster levels. After the first round, selecting another target costs a move action.
D&D 3.5e rulings
Do the longer conditions end when the targeting duration expires?
No. They use their own stated durations.
Does a 10-HD creature become Panicked?
No. It receives only Sickened.
Does a 4-HD creature suffer all three effects?
Yes. The effects are cumulative.
Does sleep immunity prevent the coma?
No. Comatose is explicitly not a sleep effect.
What action is required after the first round?
A move action.
Edition Comparison
| Rule | D&D 5.5e / 2024 | Pathfinder 1e | D&D 3.5e |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level | 6th | 6th | 6th |
| Defence | Wisdom save | Fortitude + SR | Fortitude + SR |
| Targeting | Visible creature within 60 feet | Living creature, Close range | Living creature, Close range |
| Main duration | Concentration, up to 1 minute | 1 round/level | 1 round per 3 levels |
| Later targeting | Magic action | Swift action | Move action |
| Effect model | Choose effect | HD ladder | HD ladder |
| Fear state | Frightened + compulsory movement | Panicked then Shaken | Panicked then Shaken |
| Sickness state | Poisoned | Sickened | Sickened |
Important distinction: Eyebite’s “Sickened” option does not mean the same thing in every rules set. The current spell imposes Poisoned, while the other versions use the actual Sickened condition.
Rules Sources & Licensing
- D&D Beyond — Eyebite
- System Reference Document 5.2.1
- Archives of Nethys — Eyebite
- Revised D&D 3.5 System Reference Document — Eyebite
This page includes adapted material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
Pathfinder First Edition and D&D 3.5e rules material is presented as Open Game Content under the Open Game License v1.0a. Original SpiralWorlds explanations, rulings, comparisons, setting material, artwork and editorial material are not designated as Open Game Content.
Open Game License v1.0a & Copyright Notices
Open Game License Version 1.0a
The complete Open Game License Version 1.0a governing the Open Game Content used on this page is available from the following source:
Open Game License Version 1.0a
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The applicable copyright notices for the Open Game Content used here are contained in the source documents below.
The Gaze in Battle
Eyebite is most frightening when the caster has time to remain in the fight rather than spending everything on one explosive moment. The first victim proves what the gaze can do. Every later exchange becomes a question of who dares to meet those blackened eyes next.
Break a defended position
Fear is often more valuable than injury when a doorway, stair, bridge, breach or gate matters. A defender forced away from the place it was meant to hold may leave an opening that raw damage would not have created.
Remove one dangerous opponent
A fallen or helpless enemy changes the action economy even when nobody is killed. Allies must decide whether to protect the victim, wake them, withdraw or keep fighting.
Exploit divided attention
The spell becomes more threatening as a battle spreads out. Foes who cannot easily support one another are less able to answer a gaze that can move from one victim to the next.
Make the caster visible
The drama lies in recognition: the victim sees the caster, the caster sees the victim, and something terrible follows.
Eyebite in SpiralWorlds
In 1454, stories of the destructive gaze sit uneasily between learned magic, medicine and folklore. Natural philosophers may argue that the eye is merely the visible focus of a deeper necromantic operation. Charm-workers insist that sight itself can carry hostile influence. Soldiers and magistrates usually care less about the theory than the witnesses who swear that a man’s courage vanished the moment a stranger looked at him.
That makes the spell dangerous far beyond a battlefield. A courtier who can ruin a witness without drawing steel, an interrogator whose prisoners fear eye contact, or an assassin whose victim simply collapses can destabilise institutions built around visible evidence of violence.
Practical countermeasures develop accordingly. Suspected gaze-workers may be questioned from behind screens, watched through polished reflections, forced to wear hoods, or surrounded by guards trained to recognise the moment a victim’s behaviour changes.
Once a person is believed capable of killing courage with a glance, people begin avoiding their eyes before the spell is ever cast.
The Dangerous Gaze
The evil eye and protective objects
Belief that hostile or envious sight could bring harm appears across many historical cultures, though those traditions were never one universal system. Objects intended to avert such danger frequently used eye-like marks, amulets or other apotropaic forms.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves a Roman-period Egyptian amulet with an abstract eye motif associated with protection against the evil eye. Comparable eye-like designs appear in other historical traditions.
The protective eye
Not every supernatural eye is harmful. The Egyptian wedjat provides the opposite image: an eye restored after injury and associated with protection, recovery and regeneration. The Met’s gold Wedjat Eye Amulet represents the healed Eye of Horus.
The contrast is useful in fantasy: one gaze carries affliction, another eye wards affliction away.
Medusa and the gaze that kills certainty
Greek tradition provides one of the most famous supernatural gazes in the story of Medusa. Direct sight of the Gorgon could petrify the viewer, forcing Perseus to approach the danger indirectly.
Read more at Theoi — Gorgons and Medusa, or continue into the SpiralWorlds Medusa entry.