Blasphemy..!

[SpadeHammerfist]

From the SRD (3.5)
Blasphemy
Evocation [Evil, Sonic]
Level: Clr 7, Evil 7
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 40 ft.
Area: Nonevil creatures in a 40-ft.-radius spread centered on you
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None or Will negates; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes
Any nonevil creature within the area of a blasphemy spell suffers the following ill effects.
HD Effect
Equal to caster level Dazed
Up to caster level –1 Weakened, dazed
Up to caster level –5 Paralyzed, weakened, dazed
Up to caster level –10 Killed, paralyzed, weakened, dazed
The effects are cumulative and concurrent.
No saving throw is allowed against these effects.
Dazed: The creature can take no actions for 1 round, though it defends itself normally.
Weakened: The creature’s Strength score decreases by 2d6 points for 2d4 rounds.
Paralyzed: The creature is paralyzed and helpless for 1d10 minutes.
Killed: Living creatures die. Undead creatures are destroyed.
Furthermore, if you are on your home plane when you cast this spell, nonevil extraplanar creatures within the area are instantly banished back to their home planes. Creatures so banished cannot return for at least 24 hours. This effect takes place regardless of whether the creatures hear the blasphemy. The banishment effect allows a Will save (at a –4 penalty) to negate.
Creatures whose Hit Dice exceed your caster level are unaffected by blasphemy.

Question 1: does ‘Deathward’ protect against the ‘killed’ part?
Question 2: what is the weakening? Is it ability damage? Is it ability drain? Does ‘Deathward’ protect against it?
Question 3: does ‘Freedom of Movement’ protect against the paralysation?
And the biggie…
Question 4: dazed!? How many times is any self-respecting DM going to give their powerful evil clerics this spell? By definition these clerics tend to be the PC’s main foes, and therefore will be of higher level (or will have various caster level boosts so that they do daze the PCs)!
They also always have plenty of thugs with them + one round’s free attacks = TPK!

Also, another point, why does Blasphemy daze when Dictum, Holy Word and Word of Chaos all deafen targets of equal level? This makes little sense when all four spells are basically supposed to be the same spell cast by different alignments.

Just look at the in-game effects.
Caster Level = deafened (-4 penalty on initiative checks, auto fails listen checks and 20% spell failure chance) compared dazed (to no action but defence)!

 

[Thanee]

1: No, the spell doesn't have the [death] descriptor.
2: I'd say a penalty, like Ray of Enfeeblement. Death Ward wouldn't help there.
3: Yes. It's paralyze and Freedom of Movement helps against that.
4: Wait until you find the creature, that can do it at will...

The daze effect is definitely too much!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Epametheus]

Yeah, Blasphemy is really nasty. They've slightly toned it down, since the Dazed effect no longer hits higher level characters.

I never, ever used Hezrou in 3.0E simply because they had Blasphemy at will. When using a creature to its fullest ability meant a guaranteed TPK, it's just not that fun to use it.

Powers that prevent death, ability drain, and paralyzation should counter the appropriate sections of that spell.

I guess Mind Blank defends against Dazed, but otherwise, yes, the party should get hosed. Blasphemy is way too good compared to its colleagues.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

1: No, the spell doesn't have the [death] descriptor.

Where does it say that a spell has to have the [death] descriptor in order for Death Ward to block it? I don't see anything in the description of the spell...

Was errata'ed? FAQ'ed? Sage'd?

AR

 

[the Jester]

The whole purpose of descriptors is to clarify stuff like this. Therefore I rule that "death magic" = magic with the death descriptor.

 

[Thanee]

p. 174 PHB [DESCRIPTOR]

Bye
Thanee

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

p. 174 PHB [DESCRIPTOR]

Bye
Thanee

I'm working with the SRD here but if this is what you're referring too:

[DESCRIPTOR]
Appearing on the same line as the school and subschool, when applicable, is a descriptor that further categorizes the spell in some way. Some spells have more than one descriptor.
The descriptors are acid, air, chaotic, cold, darkness, death, earth, electricity, evil, fear, fire, force, good, language-dependent, lawful, light, mind-affecting, sonic, and water.
Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how the spell interacts with other spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with alignment, and so on.
A language-dependent spell uses intelligible language as a medium for communication. If the target cannot understand or cannot hear what the caster of a language-dependant spell says the spell fails.
A mind-affecting spell works only against creatures with an Intelligence score of 1 or higher.

...it don't say nothing about Death Ward and [Death] spells.

 

[nameless]

Slightly unrelated... but does having Sonic immunity (in the vein of Fire immunity or Cold immunity) give you immunity against non-damaging [Sonic] attacks like the various "word" spells?

 

[Thanee]

AR, I don't question, that the description isn't very good.

It basically says, that spells interact with each other according to the descriptors. As an example, it shows, that a spell with the [language-dependant] descriptor is a language-dependant spell.

The same would be true for a death spell, which is then a spell with the [death] descriptor, much like a good spell is a spell with the [good] descriptor and an evil spell is a spell with the [evil] descriptor, those are used fairly often.

It's a bit guesswork, really, but I'm quite sure, that it is meant like that.

As has been said, it's the whole point of the descriptors.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Spatula]

Dazed: The creature can take no actions for 1 round, though it defends itself normally.

Question 4: dazed!? How many times is any self-respecting DM going to give their powerful evil clerics this spell? By definition these clerics tend to be the PC’s main foes, and therefore will be of higher level (or will have various caster level boosts so that they do daze the PCs)!
They also always have plenty of thugs with them + one round’s free attacks = TPK!

How so? Unless the PCs are first level, 1 round of free attacks vs a dazed party isn't going to kill everyone. You can only coup d'grace helpless opponents, and dazed is not helpless.