False Life Spell
A few drops mark the skin. The signs fade almost as soon as they are traced, but something remains: a cold second vitality wrapped around the caster, ready to be spent before their true life is touched.
False Life Rules
False Life — D&D 5.5e
You gain 2d4 + 4 Temporary Hit Points.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot: you gain 5 additional Temporary Hit Points for each spell-slot level above 1st.
Higher-Level Scaling
| Spell Slot | Temporary Hit Points |
|---|---|
| 1st | 2d4 + 4 |
| 2nd | 2d4 + 9 |
| 3rd | 2d4 + 14 |
| 4th | 2d4 + 19 |
| 5th | 2d4 + 24 |
| 6th | 2d4 + 29 |
| 7th | 2d4 + 34 |
| 8th | 2d4 + 39 |
| 9th | 2d4 + 44 |
5.5e False Life Rulings
Instantaneous does not mean the Temporary Hit Points vanish
The spell creates the Temporary Hit Points instantaneously. The resulting Temporary Hit Points then follow the general rules for that resource and remain until they are depleted or you finish a Long Rest unless another rule says otherwise.
Temporary Hit Points do not stack
If you already have Temporary Hit Points and gain another pool, the two amounts are not added together. You choose whether to keep the existing amount or replace it with the new amount.
Temporary Hit Points are not healing
Temporary Hit Points are separate from actual Hit Points. Healing does not restore expended Temporary Hit Points, and gaining Temporary Hit Points does not itself restore lost Hit Points.
A creature at 0 Hit Points does not regain consciousness merely because it receives Temporary Hit Points.
No Concentration
False Life does not require Concentration. Casting another Concentration spell does not remove its Temporary Hit Points.
False Life — Pathfinder 1e
Class Access
Alchemist 2, Arcanist 2, Bloodrager 2, Investigator 2, Medium 2, Mesmerist 2, Occultist 2, Psychic 2, Shaman 2, Sorcerer 2, Spiritualist 2, Witch 2, Wizard 2.
You gain 1d10 + 1 Temporary Hit Point per caster level, with the caster-level contribution capped at +10.
The spell lasts for 1 hour per caster level or until its Temporary Hit Points have been exhausted.
Pathfinder 1e False Life Rulings
It does not restore lost Hit Points
The spell creates a separate pool of Temporary Hit Points rather than repairing existing damage.
Damage uses the temporary reserve first
When damage is taken, Temporary Hit Points are lost before actual Hit Points.
The duration can end early
The spell ends when its hour-per-level duration expires or when the Temporary Hit Points granted by the spell have been exhausted.
Mythic False Life
The Temporary Hit Points increase to 2d8 + 2 per caster level, with a maximum caster-level contribution of +20.
As an immediate action, you can dismiss the remaining duration of the spell to prevent 1 point of Strength, Dexterity or Constitution damage for every 10 Temporary Hit Points remaining from the spell.
This takes effect after the attack hits and its damage is rolled but before the ability damage is applied.
False Life, Greater
Class levels: Alchemist 4, Arcanist 4, Bloodrager 4, Investigator 4, Medium 3, Mesmerist 3, Occultist 4, Psychic 4, Shaman 4, Sorcerer 4, Spiritualist 4, Witch 4 and Wizard 4.
Greater False Life functions as False Life except that it grants 2d10 + 1 Temporary Hit Point per caster level, with the caster-level contribution capped at +20.
The effects of False Life, Greater do not stack with False Life.
False Life — D&D 3.5e
You gain 1d10 + 1 Temporary Hit Point per caster level, with the caster-level contribution capped at +10.
Material Component
A small amount of alcohol or distilled spirits is used to trace sigils upon the caster’s body during casting. The signs can no longer be seen once the alcohol or spirits evaporate.
D&D 3.5e False Life Rulings
The spell is personal
The spell protects its caster. It is not a touch spell that can normally be used to grant its Temporary Hit Points to another creature.
The caster-level contribution is capped
The caster-level portion stops increasing at +10. A caster of 10th level or higher therefore gains 1d10 + 10 Temporary Hit Points.
It does not repair existing wounds
The Temporary Hit Points absorb subsequent damage but do not restore Hit Points already lost.
See the SpiralWorlds Sorcerer/Wizard spell catalogue for other spells from the same spell list.
How False Life Works
Borrowed Vitality
False Life places a expendable magical reserve between the caster and injury. When danger reaches the body, that reserve can be consumed before the caster’s true vitality is touched.
The spell is therefore most useful when danger is expected rather than after every resource has already been spent.
Protection Without Armour
False Life does not turn aside a blade, harden clothing or create a visible shield. An attack can still strike cleanly. The difference is that some of the harm is absorbed by the spell’s reserve rather than by the caster.
That makes the magic particularly useful to lightly protected practitioners who expect to remain close enough to danger that an occasional blow cannot be avoided.
Preparation Before Danger
A caster expecting violence can establish False Life before committing to a dangerous position, entering a ruin, opening a sealed chamber or approaching an enemy whose attack may be difficult to avoid.
The spell is particularly attractive when survival matters more than dealing additional damage immediately.
Using False Life in Play
Protect the Fragile Caster
False Life is most valuable when a relatively small amount of extra punishment could decide whether a spellcaster remains standing. A single surviving Hit Point can preserve movement, spellcasting and the ability to escape a dangerous position.
Cast Before Entering the Threat
The spell rewards anticipation. Use it when the party has identified a serious threat but still has time to prepare: before opening the crypt, crossing the breached wall, entering the monster’s chamber or beginning an assault.
Expect the Reserve to Be Spent
The Temporary Hit Points are a disposable resource. Their purpose is to be lost instead of actual Hit Points. Finishing an encounter with the reserve mostly consumed can still mean the spell did exactly what was required.
Related Spells
False Life in the World of 1454
Among learned practitioners, False Life sits uneasily beside medicine. It can keep a scholar, mercenary spellcaster or court magician alive through violence that might otherwise kill them, yet it does not knit torn flesh, set a broken bone or replace lost blood.
University-trained magical natural philosophers often describe the effect as an artificial vital reserve: a temporary magical pattern shaped to imitate one function of life without becoming part of the body itself.
A surgeon examining the caster afterwards may find surprisingly little injury for the violence endured. The spell has not accelerated healing. Instead, part of the harm never reached the body’s ordinary vitality at all.
Blood, Spirits and Invisible Signs
Different schools use different material traditions. Some employ a drop of blood; others favour alcohol or distilled spirits traced across the body in precise signs.
Where spirits are used, the marks vanish as the liquid evaporates. The practitioner may therefore enter a court, council chamber, battlefield or dangerous negotiation carrying no obvious visible ward despite having completed the preparation beforehand.
Natural philosophers disagree over whether blood and spirits represent genuinely different workings or merely different physical methods of imposing the same counterfeit pattern of vitality.
A Dangerous Question
False Life inevitably attracts philosophical argument because it imitates one property of living flesh without creating life itself.
Some scholars regard it as little more than a defensive manipulation of vital force. Others argue that the spell demonstrates something more unsettling: the outward functions of life can be reproduced by magic without the presence of genuine living substance.
For adventurers, soldiers and practical magicians, the dispute is secondary. Whatever the reserve truly is, it can be spent in place of their own blood.
Sources & Licensing
- System Reference Document 5.2.1 — False Life
- System Reference Document 5.2.1 — Temporary Hit Points
- Archives of Nethys — False Life, Mythic False Life and False Life, Greater
- Revised System Reference Document — False Life
Material from System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Applicable Open Game Content is used under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. Copyright 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skip Williams.
System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook and Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.