Greatreach Blast and Harm

[Falling Icicle]

I am thinking about making an Eldritch Theurge character with Dread Necromancer as my arcane spellcasting class. One combo that intrigued me is using greatreach blast with harm. The damage dealt by harm can't lower a person below 1 hit point. Do they take the damage from eldritch blast before or after they take the damage from harm? In this case, the order in which the damage applies would make a very big difference. If the eldritch blast damage applied after the damage from harm, you could potentially one-hit-kill people with it quite easily.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The damage dealt by harm can't lower a person below 1 hit point.

... if they make their save.

-Hyp.

 

[Falling Icicle]

... if they make their save.

Your interpretation is different than mine.

"Harm charges a subject with negative energy that deals 10 points of damage per caster level (to a maximum of 150 points at 15th level). If the creature successfully saves, harm deals half this amount, but it cannot reduce the target’s hit points to less than 1."

I don't see how the limitation that it can't lower the target's hp below 1 is attached to the save, despite being in the same sentece. After all, the word but is often used connect two sentences together. It could just as easily read "If the creature successfully saves, harm deals half this amount. It cannot reduce the target's hit points to less than 1."

In any case, this really isn't really relevant to my question.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

... if they make their save.

-Hyp.

Even if they fail it. It might not be worded as well as it should be, but the intent is clear (and was confirmed to me by customer service).

 

[frankthedm]

I don't see how the limitation that it can't lower the target's hp below 1 is attached to the save, despite being in the same sentence.

It being in the same sentence is EXACTLY how it is attached.

It could just as easily read "If the creature successfully saves, harm deals half this amount. It cannot reduce the target's hit points to less than 1."

No. If it was worded that way it would work differently.

 

[Falling Icicle]

I'd rather this thread not get sidetracked into a debate about the saving throw on harm. The main thing is what order you apply the damage. This is also relevant if you accidentally strike a creature with a spell that heals it (such as hitting an undead with a negative energy spell). If the eldritch blast deals enough damage to kill it, but the spell applies first, the healing from the spell might save it.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I don't know whether there's a fixed rule about this in D&D. In DDM, I think the player of the affected creature decides what applies first.

In D&D, That would mean the undead would first apply the healing, then the blast (if it was sure it would die from the blast - otherwise it might endure the damage and then have it undone by the healing effect).

 

[Infiniti2000]

In any case, this really isn't really relevant to my question.

It's very relevant because it makes half the cases irrelevant (assuming victims save half the time). To answer your question, I would apply the "main" damage first, if ordering was important. So, apply the eldritch blast damage and then the harm.