Hey everyone,
We had a rules discussion at our table regarding Barded Spear (Battlecry! pg. 71) and how it interacts with the Duplicate Effects rules.
Barded Spear says:
The spear remains lodged within a creature it hits, making the target clumsy 1 (or increasing its clumsy condition by 1 if it is already clumsy) for 1 minute or until the spear is removed with a successful Athletics check against your spell DC as an Interact action.
Duplicate Effects says:
When you're affected by the same thing multiple times, only one instance applies, using the higher level or rank of the effects, or the newer effect if the two are equal.
The question is:
If a caster successfully hits the same target with multiple castings of Barded Spear, does clumsy increase by 1 each time (since the spell explicitly says it increases the condition if already clumsy)?
Or does Duplicate Effects apply, meaning only one instance of Barded Spear can affect the target at a time, so a newer casting replaces the older one instead of stacking?
Points of discussion:
- Each spear remains lodged and must be removed separately or together.
- The spell explicitly includes language about increasing clumsy.
- Duplicate Effects generally prevents stacking of the same effect.
How would you rule this RAW? And do you think this is intended to stack?
Thanks in advance!