negating spells

[The Grackle]

I'm playing in the World's Largest Dungeon and our party is fighting a pack of barghests.
They start off combat by hitting us w/ multiple Crushing Despairs.

So first, because these are penalties, the spell effects all stack, correct?

Second, how would using a Good Hope to negate these effects work? Will one Good Hope negate all penalties? Or just negate one spell's worth?

 

[Infiniti2000]

I'm playing in the World's Largest Dungeon and our party is fighting a pack of barghests.
They start off combat by hitting us w/ multiple Crushing Despairs.

You mean that each one hits you with a crushing despair, right? A barghest cannot use it more than 1/day.

So first, because these are penalties, the spell effects all stack, correct?

Damage and drain 'stack', but penalties do not stack from the same source.

Second, how would using a Good Hope to negate these effects work? Will one Good Hope negate all penalties? Or just negate one spell's worth?

You may have multiple crushing despairs active, which would require (for instance) multiple dispel magic checks. The spell description says "Good hope counters and dispels crushing despair." Quite frankly, there's a lot of debate on spells like this that have counters and whether it's one-for-one or one-for-many. IMO, there's equally valid support for either case. My personal preference is one-for-one, but with the non-stacking-ness of it, that's not too terrible.

 

[The Grackle]

You mean that each one hits you with a crushing despair, right? A barghest cannot use it more than 1/day.

Yep. multiple barghests all using their SLAs at once.

Damage and drain 'stack', but penalties do not stack from the same source.

Really? I'll have to tell the DM that; he has previously nailed us w/multiple rays of enfeeblement from gangs of sorceror kobolds. Getting a -2 penalty isn't so bad, I was worried about failing five saves and getting a -10 to attack,damage,save,etc.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Really? I'll have to tell the DM that; he has previously nailed us w/multiple rays of enfeeblement from gangs of sorceror kobolds. Getting a -2 penalty isn't so bad, I was worried about failing five saves and getting a -10 to attack,damage,save,etc.

Really! Read through the ray of enfeeblement thread, if you wish, for more info on it.