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Deathknell doesn't stack with its self.
Deathknell aura does nothing to change this.
Other than a very few specific exceptions spells end at the end of a scenario.
Also see the evil behavior section of the guide to organized play.
Additionally:
For a while, the team has been batting around a few broad-strokes FAQ entries to which the answer is essentially "No." One is "I've found a loophole that allows me to get infinite gold. Does it work?" Another is "I've found an exploit that allows me to reap infinite power. Does it work?"
While it has not yet been necessary to add such a line to the FAQ since the questions aren't frequently asked...
You can safely consider the answer to any question where the answer is infinite or so high as to be effectively infinite to be no.
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1) Intentionally purchasing living creatures to sacrifice would be an evil act.
2) Death Knell is a standard action. Death Knell last 25 turns. At most, you would sacrifice 24 cats before the oldest Death Knell expired. But it doesn't matter...
3) ...because Death Knell does not stack.
(Pirate Rob, plz change name to Ninja Rob, ty)
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You have to pay for the caster level anyway, so it doesn't matter if he gets that caster level from a bag of cats or his own graduate studies, you still need to pay for it.
(and IIRC pp spells are cast at minimum level, because your factions are cheapskates- but if you're paying gold you can get the good stuff)
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Death knell stacking is debatable. The caster level bonus is untyped and each casting is technically a separate spell (which can be considered a separate source). Expect table variation.
Similarly, the question of whether or not sacrificing creatures with death knell would be an evil act in the context of PFS is debatable. The spell does have the [evil] descriptor and many GMs would consider using it on an unconscious NPC to be an evil act however when used on a non-sentient creature many GMs (including myself) don't consider it to rise to the level of an alignment change. Expect table variation.
Other than that, as above. If you want to pay for a (legal) spellcasting service at a really high caster level that is legal. It doesn't matter how the caster got there. But it won't last past the end of the scenario (or until the duration expires, whichever comes first).
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So while you can't buy insanely high level permanent enhancements, you could (assuming death knell works like this) purchase a scroll of death knell aura, cast a level 9000 greater magic fang etc and trivialize an encounter?
There are better purchases you can make than +5 to hit and +5 to damage to end encounters.
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Death knell stacking is debatable. The caster level bonus is untyped and each casting is technically a separate spell (which can be considered a separate source). Expect table variation.
Temporary hit points from the same or even different spells don't stack with each other. I can't see spellcaster levels from death knell stacking with itself
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Seems like Pathfinder got rid of the fractional HD, so that works.
I believe your last hurdle is this.
Stacking Effects: Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves. More generally, two bonuses of the same type don't stack even if they come from different spells (or from effects other than spells; see Bonus Types, above).
Same Effect More than Once in Different Strengths: In cases when two or more identical spells are operating in the same area or on the same target, but at different strengths, only the one with the highest strength applies.
The +1 effective caster level per creature doesn't stack with itself. All Death Knell Aura does is refresh the temp HP and duration.
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Death knell adding a caster level per use? Eh, maybe. (I've seen a Paizo developer roleplay a scene when a character needed a high level make whole where they went to a shop and found the friendly Nethysian cleric who could do it with a wall full of rabbit cages behind the counter.) Personally, I don't think it's intended to for the 10th level oracle to spend her second level slots and a couple of third, then cast every buff spell at CL20. Or for a cleric, four pearls of power 2 are way cheaper than a strand of prayer beads.
Death knell aura? Maybe it stacks on multiple castings (same as above) but not from a single casting.
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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So... Out of curiosity, why did you start with cats instead of lab rats or vermin? You *know* that kittens are going to get a reaction from the pet lovers amongst us. Did you pick kittens for psychological effect?
Hmm
PS At my table... "No."
I really think that this is the first idea I've seen on these boards for which there may be zero table variation. Maybe it is time to think of something else?
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1) Intentionally purchasing living creatures to sacrifice would be an evil act.I agree with the general consensus of 'no' but I want to address the thought that sacrificing living creatures is somehow inherently evil. It is not.
That is all.
Uh, yeah it is. Haven't really seen anything that would suggest otherwise.
Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
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From a more strictly mechanical standpoint, although Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild does not intrinsically treat casting evil spells as an evil action, it does not condone using those spells with the evil descriptor to perform evil actions (please see the FAQ).
One of the stress tests that Linda and I use in assessing new character options is the bag-of-rats test, which is to say "Can a PC carrying a bag of rats abuse this mechanically, moral ramifications notwithstanding?" We do this not just to prevent near-infinite power/arcane pool point/wealth loops, but also because acts of animal mass murder, cruelty, and/or sacrifice are extremely distasteful. If you need it spelled out in terms of the FAQ above, yes, your proposed plan would be evil. I'd say hiring someone to perform such a series of evil acts—whether because you need a higher-level spellcaster or because you believe you can dodge the alignment ramifications by making someone else perform heinous acts in your stead—would also be evil.
Don't be evil.
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Sacrificing living things has been a part of human culture since like... forever. It's a part of every major religion (that I'm aware of) including the Christian bible.
Death Knell is evil because it's explicitly named as such. Sacrificing a living creature for other purposes - say for a nature oracle's natural divination - is not necessarily.
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Sacrificing living things has been a part of human culture since like... forever. It's a part of every major religion (that I'm aware of) including the Christian bible.
Death Knell is evil because it's explicitly named as such. Sacrificing a living creature for other purposes - say for a nature oracle's natural divination - is not necessarily.
1) I have many thoughts and things to say about Real World religion and their practices, it also has no place in this discussion since we're not talking about real world religion so don't bring them in, that always ends badly.
2) natural divination just calls out a freshly killed creature, it doesn't say they have to be killed for the sole purpose of the divination.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Seems like Pathfinder got rid of the fractional HD, so that works.
I believe your last hurdle is this.
The +1 effective caster level per creature doesn't stack with itself. All Death Knell Aura does is refresh the temp HP and duration.Stacking Effects: Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves. More generally, two bonuses of the same type don't stack even if they come from different spells (or from effects other than spells; see Bonus Types, above).
Same Effect More than Once in Different Strengths: In cases when two or more identical spells are operating in the same area or on the same target, but at different strengths, only the one with the highest strength applies.
I agree with Steven, he has quote exactly the right rule. It does not stack, or to put this another way, it stacks exactly a well as 25 castings of haste.
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Bonuses without a type always stack, unless they are from the same source.
Death Knell bonus to caster level will stack because it is untyped unless it is determined to be from the same source.
Are 2 separate casts of Death Knell the same source?
Is a Death Knell cast from 2 different lists the same source?
Is Death Knell cast from a spell list and another from Daemon-Spawn Tiefling SLA the same source?
Is Death Knell Aura the same source as a Death Knell? (granting you the benefits of Death Knell)
Is an Ifrit casting Death Candle the same source? (This spell functions like Death Knell)
Deadshot Vest? (can use death knell (Will DC 13 negates) against that target as a swift action)
Sacrificial Dagger of the Blood Mother? (the wielder can use death knell)
Edit:
I also don't find sacrifice to be evil inherently. That dagger is for a N deity of birth and death, Fandarra. Her worship requires great sacrifices, and at times of great suffering, the sacrifice of a worshiper may be necessary to appease her.
What if a cleric needs to raise their caster level with death knell to increase the chance a party member lives by casting a remove disease?
I'm sure the cat example was to just get a rise out of people and it clearly worked. Just take each situation as it appears (which would dictate if it is evil or not) rather than thinking of everything as being black and white.
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There's another PFS rule to consider here, even if I don't remember exactly where it's at: Don't be a Jerk.
Even if you could successfully argue your way around the does it mechanically work?, and is it evil? questions you still have to deal with the fact that most people are going to be at the very least uncomfortable and most likely offended by it.
I can't be alone in saying that an attempt to do this at a game day at a FLGS or a Con would probably ruin my experience for that session if not the whole day. If I had my kids with me, as I almost always do when playing PFS, I would take them and leave if someone brought this up at the table we were playing at in anything but a light hearted, what if manner that was quickly dropped.
In short don't be a jerk. This idea seriously offends the average person.
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Buying and murdering hundreds of kittens for eldritch power is kind of a s*@@ty thing to do, but at worst requires atonement (unless you eat them or skin them or something afterwards, because for whatever reason that's just fine).
For atonement to work, it requires that you actually be sorry and want to atone for what you've done. Which, if you're doing this purely for power, you aren't and you don't.
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Uh, yeah it is. Haven't really seen anything that would suggest otherwise.1) Intentionally purchasing living creatures to sacrifice would be an evil act.I agree with the general consensus of 'no' but I want to address the thought that sacrificing living creatures is somehow inherently evil. It is not.
That is all.
I've seen sacrificing *sentient* creatures called out as always evil. I've never seen the line drawn at living creatures before.
Specifically, the word "sacrifice" has a neutral connotation.
There are a lot of other factors that could *make* it evil -- cruelty, frivolousness of purpose, disrespect. I agree that the scheme called out in the OP as evil. But I wouldn't call out the act of sacrifice itself as inherently evil.
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Sacrificing living things has been a part of human culture since like... forever. It's a part of every major religion (that I'm aware of) including the Christian bible.
Death Knell is evil because it's explicitly named as such. Sacrificing a living creature for other purposes - say for a nature oracle's natural divination - is not necessarily.
Sacrificing living things has indeed been part of many major world religions*. Which doesn't mean that all animal sacrifice is automatically acceptable/normal/moral/non-evil in the fictional world we've created.
That said, even if we say that sacrificing animals isn't automatically evil, there's a difference between killing them and torturing them, and drowning cats isn't the most humane way to kill them.
*For the record, many of the religions that do/did practice animal sacrifice have regulations (shechita in Judaism, zabiha in Islam, jhatka in Hinduism, etc.) designed to ensure that the animal died as close to instantaneously as possible, and was not aware of what was coming, in an attempt to ensure that it didn't suffer.
So don't look to real-world religions to try to justify yourself here--both because this is a fantasy world and not the real world, and because most of those real-world religions would view subjecting even the animals they sacrifice(d) to that sort of slow, painful death as wrong.
Don't be a jerk.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I'm not sure the "same effect at different strengths doesn't stack" really applies in this case - I think that's more aimed at situations where mutiple Color Sprays don't give you a more severe blindness or stunnedness.
I do remember Mike making a ruling about the availability of NPC spellcasters with spectacularly high CL. For example, to Make Whole a destroyed +4 weapon you'd need a CL 24 caster. He said that an NPC priest could amp up his CL that high with a series of Death Knells.
However, that had the feeling of an intellectual exercise that happens between NPCs offstage to justify them being able to do something, not necessarily something PCs should be able to leverage for everything.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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I'm not sure the "same effect at different strengths doesn't stack" really applies in this case - I think that's more aimed at situations where mutiple Color Sprays don't give you a more severe blindness or stunnedness.
I do remember Mike making a ruling about the availability of NPC spellcasters with spectacularly high CL. For example, to Make Whole a destroyed +4 weapon you'd need a CL 24 caster. He said that an NPC priest could amp up his CL that high with a series of Death Knells.
However, that had the feeling of an intellectual exercise that happens between NPCs offstage to justify them being able to do something, not necessarily something PCs should be able to leverage for everything.
It would be amazing if you could find that post, so we can ask the Campaign Leadership to make a new one.
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I don't think anyone's posted anything yet that qualifies him or her as a jerk. I do think that if someone were to sit down at a table and tried to pursue this "shenanigan" in face of the discomfort of the other players, that would make that person a jerk.
So far this just seems to be one of those speculative conversations that people have when someone wonders if an idea would work or not.
So to sum up,
1) Most people seem to think that according to the rules it won't work.
2) Even if it did work it won't be permitted in PFS play because:
a. Most people see it as evil.
b. It would make enough before uncomfortable enough that trying it would be a jerk like move.