Ice Spike (3.5e Spell)

With a harsh grunt and a sharp upward motion, you generate a spearlike icicle from beneath the ground to impale your enemy.

This spell generates an icicle from beneath the ground to impale an enemy. This icicle does 3d6 piercing damage and 3d6 cold damage and hoists the enemy up into the air, trapping it on the icicle (effectively, the enemy is impaled on a massive pike). A successful Reflex save can negate being lifted up in the air and trapped, but not the damage unless the save succeeds by 5 or more.

A creature in midair gains a +1 bonus to its Reflex save per 10 feet of elevation.

A creature impaled on the ice spike is in an extremely awkward and painful position, suspended on the spire roughly 30 feet below its peak, which means that it's roughly 60 feet above the ground (plus or minus up to 5 feet per two caster levels at the caster's option, to a maximum adjustment of 60 feet higher or lower at caster level 24). The creature is, to put it extremely mildly, physically stuck in place; furthermore, it takes 1d4 cold damage per round it remains on the spire, and is also bleeding profusely (causing it to lose 4 hit points per turn in addition to the cold damage). A creature on the icicle can only free itself by smashing the portion of the spire beneath it or pushing itself off of the spire. Smashing the spire requires a Strength check (DC 14 + caster's spellcasting modifier + ½ caster's caster level), and success means that the creature is still impaled, but can now drop down to the ground and remove the portion of the spire that is still ran through its body. Alternatively, the creature can attempt to pull itself off the spire through a succession of Climb checks. This works as normal for scaling a cliff, except that the fact that the "cliff" is basically inside the climber makes the climbing process really, really awkward. This makes it more difficult to climb, increasing the DC (already accounted for in the Climb DC formula) and slowing progress up and off the spire to half that of what the creature would normally be entitled to. The Climb DC for a creature to pull itself off the spire is 14 (for a 4th-level spell) + 5 (because the spire is made of ice, and therefore difficult to get a grip on) + 5 (for the aforementioned awkwardness of the climb) + the caster's spellcasting modifier. Falling simply means the creature slides back down to where it started, 30 feet below the spire's top, and takes 2d4 points of cold damage and 2d4 points of physical damage (I'd try to classify this second type of damage more precisely, but all I can come up with is "gory physical trauma" or "traumatizing internal organs"). Once the creature has ascended 30 feet, it can hoist itself off of the spire and drop down with a DC 15 Dexterity check; failure on the Dexterity check means that the creature slips while lifting itself off the spire and impales itself again, taking 3d6 piercing damage and 3d6 cold damage and sliding back down to 30 feet below the spire's peak (though it can try to make a Climb check, as if catching itself after falling off a wall, in order to arrest its momentum 1d4&times;5 feet away from the top of the spire instead of the full 30 feet). Success on the Dexterity check means that the creature is off the spire and drops down to the ground (taking the appropriate falling damage, subtracting 10 feet and converting another 10 feet to nonlethal damage for what is effectively an intentional jump), and no longer takes cold damage from the spire (though it still takes bleeding damage due to having been impaled on a ludicrously long and sharp object; the bleeding continues until it has completely bled out (which, in game terms, means that its hit points dropped down to &minus;10 and it is therefore dead) or has stemmed the bleeding through healing magic (such as cure spells) or a DC 20 Heal check).

The caster can make the spike as tall as he likes in order to hit a creature at any height, but the further the intended victim is above the ground, the more time it has to see the spike coming, react, and get out of the way (which is why airborne creatures get a bonus to their Reflex saves based on their altitude). If the caster makes the icicle taller than 90 feet plus 5 feet per 2 caster levels (maximum height is 150 feet at caster level 24, as described in the previous paragraph), the portion of the spire above the maximum height is too thin and brittle to support its own weight, let alone the weight of a victim; therefore, the excess portion of the spire lasts only long enough to stab the target, and collapses afterwards (regardless of whether or not the attack succeeded). If the target fails its Reflex save to avoid the icicle and gets struck, and uses extraordinary means (such as wings, rotary blades, or self-inflation) to fly, it must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity check or else get cluttered with the shards from the collapsing spike and get knocked out of the sky, directly onto the main spike below. If the Dexterity check is failed by 5 or less, the creature is able to control its descent well enough to attempt to avoid landing on the spire, and is entitled to a second Reflex save in order to land 5 feet away from the spire's base in any direction of its choosing. If a flying creature fails the Dexterity check by 5 or more or fails the second Reflex save, it is impaled on the stable portion of the spire (see the paragraph above), and also takes fall damage from the drop onto the icicle. A creature that flies through supernatural means (including magic such as the fly spell) is not at risk of being knocked out of the air by this spell unless impaled by the stable portion of the spire (it still gets covered in ice shards if it gets hit and fails a DC 15 Dexterity check, but the shards don't impair its ability to fly).