Steal the Painful Memory Spell
Steal the Painful Memory is a third-party legacy judicial curse from Crime and Punishment (Atlas Games, 2003). It erases one clearly described event from the memories of a linked group, then fills the resulting gap with the simplest shared explanation.
At a Glance
| Original school | Transmutation [Judicial Curse, Mind-Affecting] |
|---|---|
| Original level | Cleric 7, Inquisitor 6 |
| Components | V, S, XP |
| Casting Time | 1 hour |
| Range | 1 mile/level + 1 mile per point of ceremonial force |
| Targets | A linked group, normally up to 100 creatures |
| Duration | Permanent |
| Saving Throw | Special; resisting target receives +10 circumstance bonus |
| Spell Resistance | Yes |
| XP Cost | 1,000 XP |
Steal the Painful Memory by Edition
5.5e / 2024 — No Direct Official Equivalent
No official 2024 spell erases one event from an entire linked community using this ritual structure. Modify Memory is the nearest thematic spell, but it affects memory on a creature-by-creature basis and uses completely different limits.
5e / 2014 — No Direct Official Equivalent
The 2014 rules likewise use Modify Memory for individual memory alteration. Do not import this ritual’s mile-scale range, 100-target base capacity, ceremonial force, or permanent community rewrite into 5e as core rules.
Pathfinder 1e — Third-Party Conversion Only
The original d20 structure is compatible with Pathfinder-style saving throws and ritual adjudication, but this is not a core PF1e spell. A PF conversion should preserve the linked-group and ceremonial-force limits rather than turning it into unrestricted mass memory editing.
Original d20 Rules
The caster describes the memory to be removed in roughly twelve words or fewer. The ritual erases that defined event and fills the gap with the simplest plausible shared explanation.
The targets must be connected in some meaningful way: members of the same community, guild, sacred order, adventuring company, household, military body, or another clearly linked group.
The base ritual can affect up to 100 creatures. Each additional point of ceremonial force can add up to 250 more. The effect spreads outward from the caster until either its maximum range or its maximum number of targets is reached.
The spell is designed primarily for willing targets. A creature that chooses to resist makes the source’s Will save with a +10 circumstance bonus. If a resisting creature is within the caster’s line of sight, the caster knows that it resisted; otherwise the caster does not automatically know.
Restoration: Remove Curse can restore one cooperative individual if the restoring caster meets the source’s caster-level requirement. Limited Wish restores one person. Wish or Miracle can restore the stolen memory across the affected community.
Ceremonial force: as a judicial curse, the source allows ceremonial force to strengthen its saving throw.
What Changed?
- The school has been corrected to the source presentation: Transmutation [Judicial Curse, Mind-Affecting].
- No invented 2014 or 2024 mass-memory version is supplied.
- “Same religion” has been reframed as membership in the same sacred order or other genuinely linked community.
- The 100-target base limit, +250 targets per ceremonial force, +10 resistance bonus, 12-word description limit, and restoration rules are preserved.
- Modern Modify Memory is identified only as a thematic neighbour, not the same spell.
Using the Ritual
This spell can hide a massacre, remove a shared scandal, erase knowledge of a secret site, or allow a traumatised community to choose collective forgetting. It can also become a terrifying instrument of state power.
The simplest replacement-memory clause matters. The magic does not rewrite the entire past with elaborate new events; it closes the hole with a shared explanation that requires the fewest additional assumptions.
Source and Provenance
Source: Crime and Punishment
Author: Keith Baker
Publisher: Atlas Games
Published: 2003
This page preserves third-party legacy mechanics and does not present them as official later-edition rules.
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