Laeral's Dancing Whip

This spell animates a whip or any piece of wood small enough to be carried one-handed by the caster into a weapon. The caster tosses the item into the air and speaks the incantation, and this material becomes a 5-foot-long line of translucent white light floating in the air.

On the next round, the dancing whip strikes twice with a THAC0 of 10 at any target being chosen by the caster that is in the area of effect. It inflicts 1d3+1 points of damage with each successful strike. It continues to attack twice per round until the spell expires, the target being moves out of the area, or the being is slain or destroyed. If the being moves out of the area, the whip hangs in midair waiting for the being to move back into range. The spell area is stationary at the caster's location when the whip was created; it does not move with the caster.

A dancing whip cannot change its target being, but it can sense invisible or shape-changed beings, and it is not fooled by illusions (for example, it ignores mirror images to strike at the true body of the target). Each time the whip successfully strikes the being, the being's effective Armor Class against the whip only (not other creatures or attacks) worsens by 1 point. The being is allowed a saving throw vs. spell against every whip attack, however. A successful saving throw means only 1 point of damage is suffered.

A dancing whip takes no damage from physical attacks, but is MV Fl 15 (A), AC 4, and has 22 hit points for purposes of other types of attacks. A dispel magic destroys a dancing whip instantly. The caster of the whip need not concentrate on it or refrain from other spell-casting to maintain its existence. The dancing whip magic consumes the original whip.

Notes: Restricted to the Seven Sisters, their apprentices, and select Harpers in the Forgotten Realms setting.