During our last session, my PCs ecountered the projected image of Xerkamat outside the entrance to Taboo Temple. He hit them with Blasphemy on the first round, doing 8 points of strength decrease (4 for those who saved - I am using the Pathfinder version of the spell, which allows a saving throw for all of the effects). We had to end the session early after the first round of battle, so I am making plans for our next session.
My question is this: if Xerkamat uses Blasphemy again, will the strength decrease from the second Blasphemy stack with that of the first? If they do stack, then Xerkamat could conceivably keep using Blasphemy to drop all of their strength scores to zero, at which point they would be paralyzed. Is this correct?
This is the first time that I have used a monster that has Blasphemy usable at-will.
Thanks for any help!
-Max Hellspont
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I'd need to look to be 100% sure, but I'm already in the high 90's without looking that it's a non-stackable bonus. I think it's "profane". Just like most bonuses of the same "type" (enhancement, deflection, etc) they don't stack. So if he were to cast blashphemy again, only the best - against each PC would apply. Might be useful if lots of people made their saves, but otherwise he'd be better off doing something else.
I was leaning that way too, because the spell calls the weakened condition a strength score decrease - implying a "negative bonus" if you will. However, the spell description doesn't list the strength score decrease as being of any particular named type (profane, circumstance, etc.), and since unnamed bonuses stack, there could be an argument that multiple castings of blasphemy would stack.
By RAW, they stack. But being a good DM includes not being a jerk to your players (for no good reason, anyway). So while Xerkamet could keep uttering blasphemies, he shouldn't. He has plenty of other nasty options.
Creative Director
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Ability damage does stack... but blasphemy doesn't cause damage. It just hits with a penalty. A second blasphemy would therefore only replace the previous round's penalty with the new penalty, and then only if it exceeded the original penalty.
Additionally, blasphemy and its 3 variants are already pretty broken and frustrating for players to endure. It's good for the game to not spam these spells, and since the effects don't stack, there's not really a need to use them more than once. Move on to using other tactics for Xerkamat; he can't actually defeat the PCs with blasphemy, so he'll need to switch to other spells or attacks.
Excellent! Thanks for the help!
-Max Hellspont