Lahm’s Finger Darts 5.5e / 2024

2nd-Level Transmutation
Casting Time: Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, Corrupt
Duration: Instantaneous
Available To: Warlock, Wizard, Cleric of a vile domain, or another spellcaster using corrupt magic rules
Alternative Spell Name: Severing Darts of Lahm

Spell Effect

You transform one of your own fingers into a hardened dart of corrupted flesh and fire it at a creature you can see within range. The dart strikes with unnatural certainty, curving around ordinary battlefield movement and minor obstruction.

Make no attack roll. The target must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC.

On a failed save, the target is Crippled until the end of your next turn.

While Crippled this way, the target suffers all of the following effects:

• Its Speed is reduced by 10 feet.
• It has Disadvantage on Dexterity checks and Dexterity saving throws.
• The next attack roll made against it before the condition ends has Advantage.

On a successful save, the target suffers no effect. The dart is still spent, and you still pay the corrupt cost.

Additional Darts

When you cast this spell, you may create more than one dart if your character level is high enough.

• 1st–4th level: 1 dart
• 5th–8th level: 2 darts
• 9th–12th level: 3 darts
• 13th–16th level: 4 darts
• 17th level or higher: 5 darts

You may create fewer darts than your maximum. You pay the corrupt cost only for darts actually created.

Each dart requires one available finger. You cannot create a dart from a missing finger.

A single dart can target only one creature. Multiple darts may strike the same creature, or you may divide them among several creatures. If you target more than one creature, no two targets may be more than 15 feet apart.

You must choose all targets before any saving throws are rolled.

Multiple Darts Against One Creature

If one creature is struck by two or more darts from the same casting and fails at least two saving throws, it is also Hampered for 1 minute.

While Hampered, the creature cannot take the Dash action, and it cannot make Opportunity Attacks or other Reactions that depend on sudden physical movement.

If the Hampered creature is flying and cannot hover, it must land at the end of its next turn or fall.

A Hampered creature repeats the Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the Hampered effect on itself on a success.

Corrupt Cost

For each dart you create, you suffer both of the following effects:

• You lose one finger.
• You gain one level of Corrupt Exhaustion.

Corrupt Exhaustion uses the normal Exhaustion rules, but it cannot be removed by ordinary rest, food, water, or mundane medical care. It can be removed only by magic capable of cleansing severe bodily corruption, such as Greater Restoration, Regenerate, or a comparable campaign-specific rite.

When one level of Corrupt Exhaustion from this spell is removed, one finger lost to this spell regrows.

The cost is paid when the spell is cast, not when the target fails its saving throw. If the target succeeds on the saving throw, resists the spell, benefits from magical defence, or proves invalid after casting, the finger is still lost and the Corrupt Exhaustion is still gained.

Missing Fingers and Useless Hands

A caster must have enough fingers available to create the darts. You cannot create more darts than you have qualifying fingers.

A hand with one or no fingers is useless for normal adventuring purposes.

A useless hand cannot:

• Wield a weapon.
• Hold a shield.
• Use a wand, rod, staff, or similar implement.
• Perform somatic components.
• Use thieves’ tools, artisan’s tools, gaming sets, musical instruments, or similar hand-based tools.
• Climb effectively.
• Write, tie knots, pick locks, open delicate mechanisms, or perform fine manipulation.

A creature without true fingers cannot cast this spell. Claws, hooves, fins, tentacles, pseudopods, and similar appendages do not qualify unless the DM deliberately rules that the creature has finger-like digits capable of being lost.

Valid Targets and Object Limits

This spell targets creatures, not objects.

It cannot target or damage:

• Locks.
• Doors.
• Weapons.
• Armour.
• Shields.
• Ropes.
• Chains.
• Siege engines.
• Traps.
• Mechanisms.
• Containers.
• Unattended items.
• Corpses that are not active undead or otherwise valid creatures.

The spell cannot be used as a lockpick, trapbreaker, rope-cutter, disarming tool, or siege spell. Its cruelty is anatomical, not architectural.

Cover, Concealment, and Line of Effect

The dart ignores ordinary melee confusion, half cover, three-quarters cover from minor obstruction, and ordinary visual concealment if you can still clearly designate the target.

The dart does not ignore:

• Total cover.
• Blocked line of effect.
• Closed doors or sealed walls.
• Magical barriers that prevent targeted magic.
• Antimagic.
• Effects that prevent the creature from being chosen as the target of a spell.
• Situations where you cannot identify or meaningfully designate the target.

If your campaign uses Spell Resistance, Magic Resistance, or a similar rule, resolve it separately for each target. A resisted dart has no effect, but the caster still loses the finger and suffers the corrupt cost.

Upcasting

When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the maximum number of darts does not increase beyond the character-level limit.

For each slot level above 2nd, one creature that fails its saving throw also suffers an additional 5-foot reduction to its Speed while Crippled.

This added reduction applies only while the Crippled effect lasts. It does not extend the duration of the spell.

D&D 5.5e / 2024 Abuse-Prevention Notes

This spell should not become a clean, efficient, repeatable debuff without consequences. The lost finger and Corrupt Exhaustion are not flavour text. They are the balancing cost and the spell’s moral identity.

Do not allow the spell to:

• Avoid its corrupt cost because the target succeeded on the saving throw.
• Avoid its corrupt cost because the target resisted the spell.
• Fire from a finger the caster does not have.
• Hit a target behind total cover.
• Damage objects.
• Replace thieves’ tools, weapon attacks, or object-breaking spells.
• Become harmless cosmetic body horror.

If a player character uses the spell repeatedly, track the visible and practical consequences. Gloves, altered gestures, missing fingers, strange regrowth, changed handwriting, damaged tool use, and suspicious healers all belong in the spell’s aftermath.

D&D 5.5e / 2024 Design and Balance Notes

This version uses a condition-based conversion instead of ability score damage. That keeps the spell fast to run in modern play while preserving the original idea: the victim’s movement, coordination, and bodily control are briefly ruined.

The effect is deliberately short because the cost is severe. The spell should be tempting in an emergency, frightening in villain hands, and costly enough that no sane caster treats it as routine.

For player characters, this spell should be available only in campaigns that actively use corrupt magic, vile spellcasting, infernal bargains, or similar moral-cost systems. For NPCs, it is excellent because it creates an immediate visual signature and a visible price.

Lahm’s Finger Darts, Pathfinder / 3.5e

School: Transmutation [Evil]
Level: Corrupt 2
Components: V, S, Corrupt
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium, 100 ft. + 10 ft./level
Target: Up to five creatures, no two of which can be more than 15 ft. apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

Spell Effect

The caster transforms one or more of her own fingers into hardened darts of corrupted flesh and fires them at chosen creatures within range. Each dart strikes unerringly once a valid target has been chosen.

Each dart deals 1d4 points of Dexterity damage to its target.

A single dart can strike only one creature. Multiple darts may strike the same creature, or the caster may divide them among several creatures. If the caster targets more than one creature, no two targets may be more than 15 feet apart.

The caster must designate all targets before checking Spell Resistance or rolling Dexterity damage.

Number of Darts

The caster may create one dart at 1st caster level.

For every three caster levels beyond 1st, the caster may create one additional dart, to a maximum of five darts.

• 1st–3rd caster level: 1 dart
• 4th–6th caster level: 2 darts
• 7th–9th caster level: 3 darts
• 10th–12th caster level: 4 darts
• 13th caster level or higher: 5 darts

The caster may fire fewer darts than her maximum. She pays the corrupt cost only for darts actually created.

The caster cannot create more darts than she has available fingers.

Corruption Cost

For each dart created, the caster takes 1 point of Strength damage and loses one finger.

The cost is paid when the spell is cast. If the spell fails to overcome Spell Resistance, if the target proves invalid, or if the dart has no effect for any other reason, the finger is still lost and the Strength damage is still taken.

Fingers lost to this spell regrow when the corruption cost is healed, at a rate of one finger per point of Strength damage healed.

The caster cannot delay the corruption cost until after Spell Resistance is checked. The dart exists because the finger has already been sacrificed.

Missing Fingers and Useless Hands

A hand with one or no fingers is useless.

A useless hand cannot:

• Wield a weapon.
• Hold a shield.
• Use a wand, rod, staff, or similar magic item.
• Manipulate material components.
• Perform somatic components.
• Use tools.
• Pick locks.
• Write.
• Climb effectively.
• Perform fine manipulation.

Creatures without fingers cannot cast this spell. Claws, hooves, tentacles, pseudopods, fins, and similar appendages do not qualify unless the DM rules that the creature has true finger-like digits capable of being lost.

If a caster lacks enough qualifying fingers for the number of darts desired, she must create fewer darts. The spell cannot use toes, teeth, claws, or severed fingers carried as objects unless the DM is deliberately creating a special variant.

Valid Targets and Object Limits

This spell targets creatures, not objects.

It cannot damage inanimate objects, including:

• Locks.
• Doors.
• Weapons.
• Armour.
• Shields.
• Ropes.
• Chains.
• Traps.
• Mechanisms.
• Containers.
• Siege engines.
• Unattended items.

It cannot be used to sever ropes, destroy locks, disable traps, cut bowstrings, break wands, or damage equipment.

A corpse is not a valid target unless it is an active undead creature or otherwise treated as a creature by the rules of the encounter.

Spell Resistance

Spell Resistance applies separately to each target.

If a dart fails to overcome a target’s Spell Resistance, that dart has no effect. The caster still loses the finger and still takes the Strength damage.

If several darts are aimed at the same creature, use one of the following methods and decide before the spell is used in play:

Fast method: Roll once against that creature’s Spell Resistance. If the spell succeeds, all darts aimed at that creature take effect. If it fails, all darts aimed at that creature fail.

Strict method: Roll separately for each dart. This is slower but treats each dart as its own corrupt missile.

For most tables, the fast method is better.

Cover, Concealment, and Line of Effect

The darts are unerring against valid targets. They ignore melee targeting complications, partial cover, and ordinary concealment once the caster can designate the target.

They do not ignore:

• Total cover.
• Total concealment when the caster cannot identify or designate the target.
• Blocked line of effect.
• Sealed barriers.
• Antimagic.
• Effects that prevent targeted magic.

The spell is not a way to shoot through walls, open locks, sever ropes, destroy traps, or bypass object-based obstacles.

Dexterity Damage Consequences

A creature damaged by this spell suffers the normal consequences of Dexterity damage.

If a creature’s Dexterity is reduced to 0, it becomes unable to move normally and is effectively helpless or immobilised according to the ability damage rules used by the campaign.

This makes concentrated darts dangerous, especially against Dexterity-reliant characters. The balancing factors are the corrupt cost, Spell Resistance, target limits, finger loss, and the spell’s inability to affect objects.

Pathfinder / 3.5e Abuse-Prevention Notes

Do not allow the spell to:

• Avoid its Strength damage because Spell Resistance stopped the effect.
• Avoid finger loss because the target was invalid.
• Fire more darts than the caster has available fingers.
• Target locks, traps, ropes, or equipment.
• Ignore total cover or blocked line of effect.
• Function as a general object-destroying spell.
• Lose its corrupt identity by treating finger loss as cosmetic.

The self-mutilation is not descriptive decoration. It is the spell’s balancing mechanism, its horror, and its moral identity.

Pathfinder / 3.5e Design and Balance Notes

This version preserves the original spell’s brutality: no saving throw, Dexterity damage, Spell Resistance, scaling darts, Strength damage, and actual finger loss.

Because there is no saving throw, the spell should remain tightly bound to Spell Resistance, target validity, available fingers, and the corruption cost. Removing those limits makes the spell much stronger and much less interesting.

If this spell enters player hands, track the consequences. Missing fingers should matter in combat, spellcasting, craft, stealth, social scenes, disguise, legal investigation, and future healing.

Lahm’s Finger Darts 3.0e

The caster’s finger becomes a dangerous projectile that flies from her hand and unerringly strikes its target.

(Book of Vile Darkness, p. 98)  
Originally posted on D&D tools

Transmutation [Evil]

Level: Corrupt 2
Components: V, S, Corrupt,
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: Up to five creatures, no two of which can be more than 15 ft. apart
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

Creatures without fingers cannot cast this spell. The dart deals 1d4 points of Dexterity damage.

The dart strikes unerringly, even if the target is in melee or has partial cover or concealment. Inanimate objects (locks, doors, and so forth) cannot be damaged by the spell.

For every three caster levels beyond 1st, the caster gains an additional dart by losing an additional finger: two at 4th level, three at 7th level, four at 10th level, and the maximum of five darts at 13th level or higher. If the caster shoots multiple darts, she can have them strike a single creature or several creatures. A single dart can strike only one creature. The caster must designate targets before checking for Spell Resistance or damage.

Fingers lost to this spell grow back when the corruption cost is healed, at the rate of one finger per point of Strength damage healed.

Corruption Cost: 1 point of Strength damage per dart, plus the loss of one finger per dart. A hand with one or no fingers is useless.