Is it me or is death knell a crap spell?

[kjenks]

Death knell of the double-cursed chicken

Buy a chicken (PHB, really cheap).

Cast Bestow Curse on it to give it a "–6 decrease to an ability score" -- selecting Wisdom as the ability score you decrease.

Cast it again to give it "–4 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks."

Assuming a chicken has similar stats to other birds, it has Wis 12 or so. The -6 decrease puts it at Wis 6, for -2 on Will saves. The other -4 penalty knocks this down further.

Choke your chicken. Use unarmed strikes to keep the thing unconscious. Keep its HP down below -1 but above -10. Keep it handy, just in case combat breaks out.

You'll have to wake it up so it can eat and drink every other day, so you'll need a second double-cursed chicken. But why stop there? Have four or five of them, just in case one of them makes its Will save.

When combat breaks out, grab a double-cursed chicken and Death Knell it. It will almost certainly fail its Will save and you get a cheap power-up.

Thematically, this would work out very well for an evil cleric. You could give him a voodoo flavor, just for fun.

 

[Corsair]

Choke your chicken.

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[kjenks]

Death Knell is normally a standard action to cast, so this is a good candidate for Quicken Spell, taking up a level 6 spell slot.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Or you could just cast Harm.

 

[frankthedm]

Choke your chicken.

I find your ideas intriguing. I wish to sign up for your newsletter.I find your ideas intriguing. I wish to sign up for your newsletter.

As a sidenote I occasionally played in a BOVD campaign that used the premise the stat buffs from Death Knell also came with a euphoric feeling if the user was vilely evil. OOTS Xykon had a good name for it. Giant In the Playground Games

 

[Jhulae]

If it's unconscious, you can just coup de grace, I don't think this is a major boon.

CDG is a full round action, Death Knell is a standard action. It's faster and lets the caster move away.

CDG doesn't give you any bonuses for killing an enemy. Death Knell gives a pretty fair amount of bonuses for a second level spell, especially since the length of time it lasts is based on the killed opponent.

If the party is facing a BBEG who has this (or a cleric in a party of otherwise baddies), the cleric can suck down a minion the party has left unconscious but living, or kill a party member that's down. Either way, the cleric is using a 2nd level spell (which tend to be mostly useless against higher level parties) to boost himself and all his remaining spells. I don't think that's a bad choice at all.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Either way, the cleric is using a 2nd level spell (which tend to be mostly useless against higher level parties) to boost himself and all his remaining spells. I don't think that's a bad choice at all.

First of all, as for 2nd level spells losing value later on, Close Wounds would like to have a word with you.

As for the use against high level parties... sure, it's more useful late game than inflict moderate wounds (arguably), but the important point to make isn't "gee, this low level spell's still useful in combat!" it is "gee, low level or not, it's costing me a standard action I could be using to do something better."


As a side note, the image of an enemy cleric purposely waiting for the BBEG to move in and cast Death Knell only to use Close Wounds to make the spell fail is hilarious. It's almost like the spellcasting equivalent of a b*%ch slap!

 

[Shin Okada]

+1 caster level is useful in many occasions. BBEGs (or evil PC clerics) always have waste-able low-lives (read as poor commoner slaves) available. Even with 1 HD creature, Death Knell's duration is enough to cast that day's breakfast spells. You can use this method when casting spells such as Symbol of XXs, too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Reach spell does this, but for +2 spell levels.

I could have sworn Reach Spell was a +1LA.

 

[Jhulae]

First of all, as for 2nd level spells losing value later on, Close Wounds would like to have a word with you. As for the use against high level parties... sure, it's more useful late game than inflict moderate wounds (arguably)

Okay.. and when exactly is the BBEG going to use Close Wounds *against the party*? I'm not saying every 2nd level spell is useless at high level.. I'm saying 2nd level damaging spells tend to be useless *against the enemy* at high level. And it's definitely more useful than IMW, because IMW won't give you any bonuses...

, but the important point to make isn't "gee, this low level spell's still useful in combat!" it is "gee, low level or not, it's costing me a standard action I could be using to do something better."

Like CDG! oh, wait...