Confused a little by Blasphemy wording

[Mark Knights]

Ok, first time I had to DM this spell and I thought I had a handle on it but then I got confused with the wording regarding caster level

HD equal to caster level is clear as is HD up to caster level -1

But then the wording confuses me HD up to caster level -5? Does this mean if their HD is caster level -2 I use this row? And the HD up to caster level -10 does this mean caster level -6 to caster level -10?

And what if your HD is less than Caster Level -10?

We ran the spell twice tonight and I erred on the row of kindness (as players were caster level -2) so I used the caster level -1 row but on second casting they were caster level -3 so I used the caster level -5 row.

Can someone help with a clarification please?

[Menelmacar]

Caster Level is let's say 15.
Caster Level - 1 would be 14, characters up to 14 HD would suffer Weakened and Dazed effects.
Caster Level - 5 would be 10, characters up to 10 HD would suffer paralyze, weaken and dazed.

So a character with 13 HD would suffer Weakened and Dazed effects, it's over 10 HD and under 14 HD.

A character with HD 9 would suffer paralyze, weaken and dazed, it's under 10 HD but over the 5 HD needed for the next more severe status.

So in your example it would be HD 13 the first time and HD 12 the second time. Both of which fall into the "Up to Caster Level -1, but higher than Caster Level -5" Tier, so they should be weakened and dazed.

[Mark Knights]

Thank you! It is so obvious to me now :)