Name Binding (4E)

Naming

You can make a creature put a mortgage on its spirit, allowing it to be summoned to serve later.

Level: 7	Component Cost: Variable
Category: Binding	Market Price: 250 gp
Time: 10 minutes	Key Skill: Arcana
Duration: Instant or 1 hour

You use this ritual on a helpless creature of the elemental, fey, immortal, and shadow origin. Usually it is cast on a defeated but live enemy you do not wish to kill. It creates a mystic link to the creature, that you can later use to summon and order it about. This link takes the form of a small art object, often a statuette, ribbon, or a piece of paper with the creature’s name on it.

Arcana Check Result	Duration of Service
9 or lower	1 hour (1 fight), link is lost
10-19	2 hours (1 fight)
20-29	4 hours (2 fights)
30-39	8 hours (3 fights)
40 or higher	24 hours (4 fights)

By performing this ritual over such an object, you call the creature to serve you. The duration of the service depends on the result of the Arcana check, and there is a penalty to this check equal to half the level of the creature. There is a limit on time and also a limit on the number of fights the creature will participate in; after the duration is up, the requisite number of fights have occurred, or the creature is reduced to zero hit points or below, it disappears.

If a creature you call to serve is of a higher level than you or the result of the Arcana score is particularly bad, you lose the link. Otherwise, the link can be used again and again, and it can be given away or stolen like any magical object.

The casting cost is 20% of a magic item of your level.