Phantasm

Phantasm imprisons a creature's mind inside a constructed dream. The spell can target an awake creature. A sleeping target is much easier to reach: Phantasm gains +25% to its Spell DC against that target. Immunity to sleep does not grant immunity to Phantasm; it merely prevents the caster from creating this advantage with Sleep or a similar effect.

The target makes a Will Save when the spell reaches it. On a success, it rejects the dream completely. On a failure, its body falls asleep—or remains asleep—and its consciousness enters the phantasm. Ordinary noise, shaking, or damage does not wake it while the spell continues. Its unattended body remains vulnerable. Ending the caster's concentration, successfully dispelling Phantasm, or defeating it from within ends the imprisonment.

The dream can reproduce people, places, pain, comfort, danger, and the passage of an entire life. It need not resemble the target's memories. The caster may appear inside it through an avatar and alter the scenario while their real body continues to act normally. The target's body does not age with subjective time, but its experiences and memories inside the dream are real to its mind.

Changing a Mind

Phantasm can do more than deceive. By making the target live through carefully constructed experiences, the caster may try to change what it believes, whom it trusts, or what it will obey. Every distinct stage of that transformation grants a new Will Save. Success rejects that change, but does not by itself end the dream. The caster must spend further subjective time constructing another experience before trying again. The GM decides when a stage has been genuinely earned by the events of the dream; it cannot be reduced to repeated saves without narrative progression.

A creature that knows the world is false is not automatically free. It may resist every attempt to reshape it and still remain trapped. Conversely, a creature or intelligence capable of acting inside dreams may seize control of the scenario, reveal its flaws, or destroy it. Such an intervention is resolved according to the specific power involved and the GM's judgment.

Scaling

Spell Level	Targets	Dream and influence
4	1 creature	Creates a simple dream. Time remains close to normal, and the spell cannot leave a durable change in the target after it ends.
6	1 creature	Creates a complex, responsive life. Hours may pass subjectively during a round. After sufficient experience, the caster may attempt one limited change to an attitude, fear, or belief.
8	1 creature per 5 INT, minimum 1	Days may pass subjectively during a round. The caster may build several stages of influence and produce durable changes to beliefs, loyalties, or identity. Each stage receives its own Will Save and may later be removed by an appropriate Dispel or psychic intervention.
10	1 creature per INT	Each target can be held in a separate, fully responsive world. Months or years may pass in moments. After successive failed stage saves, the caster may completely rewrite a target's loyalties and command it as a dominated creature. Once per target and casting, the caster may also extract the complete formula of one spell that target knows. These changes remain after waking until dispelled, reversed through psychic intervention, or overcome through events adjudicated by the GM.

At every level, ending Phantasm releases all creatures held by that casting. A target remembers the dream unless the caster successfully altered those memories as one of the spell's stages.