Protection From Evil Spell
Protection from Evil is one of fantasy roleplaying’s classic defensive wards, but its rules are significantly different between editions. Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e use the traditional alignment-based Protection from Evil. Current D&D 5.5e instead uses Protection from Evil and Good, protecting against six specific creature types rather than anything that is simply evil.
The versions share a theme, not interchangeable mechanics. The 5.5e spell does not inherit legacy AC bonuses or a summoned-creature barrier, while PF1e and 3.5e retain rules that do not exist in the modern spell.
Game Mechanics
Protection from Evil and Good
1st-level Abjuration
Effect
Until the spell ends, the willing creature you touch is protected from Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends and Undead.
- Creatures of those types have Disadvantage on attack rolls against the target.
- Those creatures cannot possess the target.
- Those creatures cannot cause the target to gain the Charmed condition.
- Those creatures cannot cause the target to gain the Frightened condition.
- If the target is already possessed, Charmed or Frightened by such a creature, it has Advantage on any new saving throw against that effect.
The spell gives no AC bonus, no general saving-throw bonus and no summoned-creature contact barrier. Alignment is irrelevant: the general protection is determined by creature type.
Existing Effects
Casting the spell does not itself grant an immediate saving throw. If a qualifying existing possession, Charmed or Frightened effect later allows another save, the protected creature makes that save with Advantage.
Magic Jar
Magic Jar has a specific interaction with this spell: a creature warded by Protection from Evil and Good cannot be possessed by that spell. The specific Magic Jar rule applies even when the creature attempting possession is a Humanoid rather than one of the six creature types listed above.
Protection from Evil
Abjuration [Good]
First Protection — Defence Against Evil
The subject gains a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures.
Second Protection — Possession and Mental Control
If the subject is already affected by a spell or effect that possesses it or exercises mental control over it, and the original effect allowed a saving throw, the subject immediately makes another saving throw against the original DC with a +2 morale bonus.
If this new saving throw succeeds, the controlling effect is suppressed for the duration of Protection from Evil. While the protection lasts, the subject is also immune to new qualifying attempts to possess it or exercise mental control over it.
This part of the spell applies only when the qualifying effect was created by an evil creature or evil object, subject to GM discretion.
Examples include Charm Person, Command and Dominate Person.
Third Protection — Evil Summoned Creatures
Evil summoned creatures cannot make bodily contact with the warded subject. Their natural attacks requiring contact fail unless the creature overcomes the protection.
The protection against a particular summoned creature ends if the protected subject attacks that creature or deliberately attempts to force the barrier against it. Spell Resistance can allow the summoned creature to overcome this part of the spell.
A successful new save suppresses an existing possession or mental-control effect; it does not necessarily remove the underlying effect or eject an already-present possessing life force.
Mythic Protection from Evil
The deflection bonus to AC and resistance bonus on saving throws increase to +4.
An evil creature attempting to possess or mentally control the subject must make a Will save against the spell. Failure causes mental feedback dealing 1d6 damage per 2 caster levels, maximum 5d6.
An evil summoned creature that uses Spell Resistance to bypass the contact protection must likewise save or suffer this feedback once in each round in which it attacks the protected creature.
Protection from Evil, Communal
Protection from Evil, Communal is a 2nd-level spell for Arcanist, Cleric, Inquisitor, Oracle, Paladin, Sorcerer, Summoner, Unchained Summoner, Warpriest and Wizard.
It otherwise functions as Protection from Evil, but the total duration is divided into 1-minute intervals among the creatures touched.
Protection from Evil
Abjuration [Good]
First Protection — Defence Against Evil
The subject gains a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures.
Second Protection — Possession and Mental Control
The ward blocks attempts to possess the subject and suppresses qualifying enchantment (charm) and enchantment (compulsion) effects that grant continuing control, including effects such as Dominate Person.
The underlying magical effect can remain active while the ward prevents its controller from exercising control.
This second protection works regardless of the controller’s alignment. The controller does not have to be evil. Only the separate AC and saving-throw bonuses are specifically keyed to evil creatures.
Third Protection — Summoned Creatures
The barrier prevents bodily contact by summoned creatures. Good summoned creatures ignore this protection, so the barrier applies to summoned creatures that are not good.
The contact protection against a particular summoned creature ends if the protected subject attacks that creature or deliberately forces the barrier against it. Spell Resistance can also allow the summoned creature to overcome the barrier.
Material Component
For an arcane caster, the material component is a little powdered silver used to trace a circle approximately 3 feet in diameter around the creature being protected.
How the Editions Differ
| Rule | D&D 5.5e | Pathfinder 1e | D&D 3.5e |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spell name | Protection from Evil and Good | Protection from Evil | Protection from Evil |
| Primary trigger | Creature type | Evil alignment/source | Evil alignment plus broader mental-control protection |
| Attack defence | Disadvantage | +2 deflection AC | +2 deflection AC |
| Save bonus | No general bonus | +2 resistance against evil effects | +2 resistance against evil effects |
| Existing control | Advantage on later qualifying saves | Immediate new save at +2 morale | Qualifying control suppressed |
| Summoned-creature barrier | None | Evil summoned creatures | Nongood summoned creatures |
| Called creatures | Normal creature-type rules | Not automatically blocked | Not automatically blocked |
Common Rulings
Does Protection From Evil Stop Magic Jar?
Yes, although the rules route varies by edition.
In current 5.5e, Magic Jar specifically prevents possession of a creature warded by Protection from Evil and Good or Magic Circle. This specific interaction applies even when the prospective possessor is a Humanoid.
PF1e and D&D 3.5e instead reach the result through their possession rules. In those editions, suppressing a possessor’s ability to control a body is not necessarily the same as ejecting that life force.
Does It Stop Charm Person, Command or Dominate Person?
5.5e: Charm Person and Dominate Person are not automatically stopped merely because they are mind-affecting magic. The general ward prevents Charmed only when its source is one of the six protected creature types.
PF1e: Charm Person, Command and Dominate Person are relevant examples of mental influence, but the Pathfinder protection requires an evil creature or object as the source.
D&D 3.5e: the spell suppresses qualifying ongoing charm or compulsion control regardless of the controller’s alignment.
Summoned Is Not Called
The legacy bodily-contact barrier applies to qualifying creatures that are summoned. A creature brought through a calling effect is not automatically stopped by that clause.
A creature brought by Lesser Planar Binding or Planar Binding is called rather than summoned in the legacy rules.
For legacy containment, use Magic Circle Against Evil and its inward-facing binding procedure rather than treating a personal Protection from Evil spell as a planar prison.
Using Protection From Evil in Play
The spell rewards knowing what sort of threat lies ahead. Against the right creature or effect, a 1st-level ward can frustrate attacks, possession and supernatural control far beyond what its level suggests.
In 5.5e the major costs are Concentration and the consumed 25+ GP flask of Holy Water.
PF1e and D&D 3.5e reward advance preparation differently. Their minute-per-level duration requires no concentration, while the AC and saving-throw bonuses can remain useful throughout an encounter dominated by evil enemies.
Related Wards, Bindings and Control Spells
Protection From Evil in the World of 1454
In 1454, protective magic is part of the practical supernatural infrastructure of courts, towns, learned institutions, burial grounds and households.
Court Magicians
Court magicians prepare wards before questioning suspected spirit-hosts, receiving dangerous supernatural envoys or examining objects believed to carry magical influence. The spell offers protection, not proof of guilt or possession.
Grave Custodians and Monster Hunters
Those who enter disturbed tombs, recover bodies or investigate hauntings use the ward when possession or hostile spiritual influence is a credible danger.
Universities and Learned Magic
Students of magical natural philosophy compare protective materials, creature classifications, possession cases, circles and failed wards as repeatable phenomena rather than treating every supernatural danger as unknowable folklore.
Binding Chambers
Experienced summoners know that a personal ward is not a prison. Creatures brought through Planar Binding require correctly prepared containment magic, controlled approaches and redundant precautions.
Holy Water in SpiralWorlds
Holy Water remains the exact 5.5e rules term. Its preparation need not follow one universal cultural rite. Different divine and magical traditions can consecrate it according to their own practices without changing the game requirement: the 5.5e spell consumes a flask worth at least 25 GP.
Protection From Evil and the Red Death
Rare outbreaks of the Red Death can leave dangerous corpses, revenants and disturbed places behind. Protective magic therefore accompanies some expeditions into plague houses, burial grounds, abandoned roads and old corpse trenches.
It does not prevent disease, destroy undead, cleanse a building or settle a dead person’s unresolved claim. It protects only against effects covered by the selected edition’s actual spell rules.
Protective and Apotropaic Magic
The idea of warding harmful forces is much older and broader than any single fantasy spell. Historical traditions used amulets, protective images, inscriptions, boundaries, spoken formulae and ritual objects intended to avert harmful influence. Such practices are often described as apotropaic.
SpiralWorlds uses that broad historical vocabulary as inspiration rather than treating every real tradition as one identical magical system.