Power Word Kill is a first-level spell

The human body is resilient, but not nearly as resilient as anyone would hope. Consider all the myriad ways it may be broken beyond repair by accident and happenstance; while evolution has seen fit to be charitable and not make our weak points z-targetable, that’s all we’re going to get.Now introduce an evil wizard to your consideration. All those elaborate power systems? Irrelevant. Special bloodlines? Worthless. Fireballs, lightning bolts, magic missiles? The tacky merchandise of cheap tricksters.If a wizard really wants to turn a human being into a corpse, all they need to do is pick one of the countless ordinary ways the body can fail and give it a push in the wrong direction. Barring that, incapacitation for long enough for someone to finish them off. That can be done with a bit of severe nausea.When that first wizard found a way to kill someone with their mind, the methodology of violence began its convergence on the path of least resistance. Death holds out her scales and…