Any creature struck for damage by any of a Corrupted creature’s natural weapons or by any manufactured weapon wielded by a Corrupted creature must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 plus one-half the Corrupted creature’s Hit Dice plus the Corrupted creature’s Charisma modifier) or suffer a tainting of its essence. Infernals and creatures with the Corrupted template are immune to this ability. Creatures with the Tainted subtype gain a +4 bonus on their Will saves to resist this ability. Once a particular creature has been affected by this ability, it is said to be “corruption-touched.”
A corruption-touched creature suffers a reduced effect from spells and effects that would normally heal it. Any cure spell that would normally heal the creature (or any inflict spell in the case of creatures that are healed by negative energy) has its effectiveness reduced to the next-lower spell. This means that a cure minor wounds spell has no effect on a corrupted creature, a cure light wounds spell is treated as if it were a cure minor wounds spell, and so on. A heal spell is treated as if it were a cure critical wounds spell. The mass versions of cure spells are similarly affected (but the spell still has its normal effect on its targets that are not corruption-touched). The caster level of the affected spell is unchanged. The Infernal energy that infuses a corruption-touched creature is neither positive nor negative; it is of its own unique type and it inhibits whatever form of energy would normally heal the victim. Any form of energy that would damage the victim instead of healing it is ignored by the corruption-touched condition and functions at full strength.
Supernatural and spell-like abilities that heal specific amounts of damage (such as a paladin’s ability to lay on hands or a monk’s ability to mend her own wounds) affect a corruption-touched creature as if it had a level of resistance equal to the Hit Dice of the Corrupted creature that inflicted the corrupting touch on the subject. For example, a character who was struck by a Corrupted Ghoul (2 Hit Dice) would ignore the first two points of healing from any supernatural or spell-like ability. This resistance also applies to any natural healing that the character would normally undergo; for example, a living creature normally heals a number of hit points equal to its Hit Dice with a night of rest. A creature struck by a Corrupted Ghoul would heal 2 hit points less if it rested while it was still corruption-touched. A creature cannot directly lose hit points as a result of being corruption-touched; if the amount of resistance exceeds the amount of healing, then the amount of healing is simply reduced to zero.
Magic items that heal characters are inhibited exactly as described above. If the magic item is a spell-trigger or spell-completion item (such as a wand of cure light wounds or a scroll of cure moderate wounds) then it is reduced to the next-lower spell; if the item heals a specific number of hit points then the corruption-touched creature resists the item’s healing based on the Corrupted creature’s Hit Dice, as described above. Any magic item that would damage the corruption-touched creature has its full normal effect.
In addition to the effects described above, a corruption-touched creature temporarily gains the Tainted subtype, regardless of its alignment. This has no direct effect on the corruption-touched creature, except that it can now be detected by spells and abilities that detect Tainted creatures, and it is now vulnerable to spells and abilities that specifically target Tainted creatures. However, the corruption-touched creature cannot be turned or rebuked by characters who have the ability to turn or rebuke Infernals, unless it is normally vulnerable to that ability. A corruption-touched creature cannot spread the corruption-touched condition to other creatures.
A single Corrupted creature cannot inflict the corruption-touched condition on the same target, but multiple different Corrupted creatures can individually inflict the condition on the same target. This only matters if the Corrupted creatures have different Hit Dice. If a particular target is struck by more than one Corrupted creature, only the most powerful corruption-touched effect takes precedence (in other words, the conditions over-lap, they do not stack.)
The corruption-touched condition lasts for 24 hours. A remove curse or break enchantment spell can remove the corruption-touched condition. A dispel magic spell has no effect.