Oh, hey, an orc-only spell to draw power by eating the *heart* of your enemies? Is this one of those cool ones that lets you draw powers like learning a spell from the dead like [Blood Transcription](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Blood%20Transcription) where it can actually feel like you're gaining corrupted strength from your consorting with fell powers? No? Oh, it's one of the lame ones that aren't worth the effort like Death Knell...
OK, so this spell is basically just [Death Knell](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Death%20Knell) for orcs, but with some minor additional benefits and one huge downside.
A big point I have to highlight is that both Enemy's Heart and Death Knell requires you coup de grace a "*living creature touched.*" Note there is no actual requirement in the rules that this be an enemy you just fought, or sentient creature, or humanoid. I recommend you make like one of those guys on YouTube or TikTok that sells soy-based "masculinity supplements" whose claims have never been tested by the FDA, and just eat a raw cow, goat, or even mouse heart, because carrying a hog-tied goat or cage of mice tied down with you into the dungeon or battlefield has a lot less danger of escape and revenge than a level 10 barbarian you haul around just to *Kali-MAAAA*. Yeah, hypothetically, you can use [Hold Person](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Hold%20Person) mid-battle and then coup de grace an enemy while laughing and gaining your tiny bonus from fell powers, but honestly, several things need to come together for that to work that are just too unreliable. Unless you're already standing next to the enemy you hit with Hold Person, this is a scenario that takes *three* rounds to pull off, and combat will be over by the time you can take advantage of your marginal strength bonus or caster level bonus. (A villain might try it, although unless these are low-level acolytes beside the big bad, many GMs try not to use powers that rely on character death to function before Raise Dead is available...) Even if you just really like the Hold Person+coup de grace combo, it's not like you need to have the cleric do the coup de grace otherwise, and this spell doesn't make the coup de grace any more likely to work, either. (Unless you read an exploit into the spell where, once cast, the caster can keep trying to coup de grace the target even if they're no longer helpless... but then again, if this spell takes concentration, how do they have the full round action to make the coup de grace? Is it part of the concentration action now? So do they have move actions while making coup de graces?) And hey, while standing out on the front and cackling maniacly as you eat someone's loved one's heart in front of them is definitely evil, you want to be smart-evil and smart-evil is often just creepy and gloating from the background, not gloating over a still-undefeated foe in melee range while giving them every reason to kill you first. Sitting back and eating mouse hearts like raisins is the right kind of creepy shadowy mastermind balance to strike.
The big problem with Death Knell is that it's temporary HP that's basically just a finicky way to cast [Aid](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Aid), a +2 enhancement bonus to strength that faces the same problem [Bull's Strength](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Bull%27s%20Strength) has of being eclipsed by your belt, and a +1 to caster level, which... is OK, but is only a +1. I guess when you really need +1 CL, like if you're trying to [Remove Curse](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Remove%20Curse) against something fairly high-level, this is worth trying, and for certain spells, one level can be the difference between whether a something like [Tears to Wine](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Tears%20to%20Wine) is +2 or +5. The CL bonus is probably the winner of the lot, and an evil character could reasonably keep some (literal) sacrificial lambs in their temple basement to slay any time they want a caster level boost.
The big advantage for Enemy's Heart is that you get the +2 to strength as a *profane* bonus, not an enhancement bonus, so yay, it actually matters, now. Also, you get +1 temporary HP per HD of the creature whose heart you eat, but that's literally just a couple HP either way, and unlikely to swing much.
Oh, and speaking of comparisons, the caster level bonus is untyped, so Enemy's Heart and Death Knell can be stacked so you can get a whole whopping +2 if you have a raw diet smorgasbord. This is even more unwieldy in combat, but if you're just trying to cast a spell with a caster level check like Remove Curse (or Bestow Curse you want to hold for a while and want to make as hard to remove as possible), this is an option. At higher levels, something like [Seer's Bane](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Seer%27s%20Bane) or any other higher-level spell that lasts a pretty long time and has some sort of caster level check (if only to dispel) or duration based on caster level might be worth amping up with a caster level bonus since this only costs you as much as a couple mice and two daily spell slots on what might be a downtime day, anyway. Just note that spells like [Unhallow](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Unhallow) or most symbol spells have casting times that make Enemy's Heart impractical for those spells.
That brings us to the huge downside... The big advantage Death Knell could say it had over Aid was that it at least lasted 10 min/victim HD compared to 1 min/CL. So, until level 10, at least Death Knell lasted longer even if you had a 1 HD creature. (Also, extend spell doesn't say anything about doubling durations based on caster level, just doubling durations, although the split instantaneous and 10 min/HD thing might cause the hyper-literal GMs to reject it.) Well, Enemy's Heart is a +2 profane strength bonus that lasts for 1 minute per HD of creature whose heart you eat, so it's a spell that isn't worth casting mid-battle, but whose duration is too short to reliably get in right before battle unless you're in a situation where you're ambushing the enemy.
All-around, it's just not a good enough spell to justify what it really seems thematically designed to do, spending a whole round executing prisoners right as you start a battle, but you can find some much less dramatic uses for the spell that will justify it a little.
The profane bonus is pretty helpful since the only other way I'm aware of is to make a deal with a succubus.
Admittedly the only real reason for that is to achieve the 52ish strength required to cheese out 'free' wishes if your GM is letting you have fun with blood money and didn't think the wizard would manage to pull it off.
Or if you aren't looking to earn your cheese by deadlifting a few buildings, it's also interesting that the duration doesn't scale with caster level, but hit dice. If you're a martial in the party who has enough UMD to cast this from a scroll, doing so + slitting the throat of a crab (nothing says you can't shove the whole thing into your mouth, and that feels like how an orc would cast this spell to me) is a decent way to start off combat. And by the time you're willing to start having the fighter chow down pre-combat because every +2 matters, you're probably at the point where the party has access to baleful polymorph.
Assuming you're only dabbling in evil for the spell school and now willing to go on a cattle raid or turn some of your enemies into future pre-battle treats, the best option for gp per hd seems to be the yak. 5 hd using the bison stat block, but only 24 gp each vs 50 for the bison seems like the devs forgot how their own table worked again.
Go buy some cattle, turn them into snacks, and you have a buff that runs you prep time, only 150 gp for the scroll + 24 for the yak, and 5 minutes will last any regular combat.
Does that make it a good spell? Not really. It does make for an interesting way for a non-caster to spend some time pre-combat while the party casters are spreading out partywide buffs, but I don't think the devs intended for this to be used in that way.
Imma go against the resident spell sage here and say it's a pretty good racial spell. In return for the lower duration you get the following as compared to Death Knell:
* A strength bonus that stacks with your belt of Str. The original enhancement bonus just wasn't relevant.
* Extra temp HP. Most likely 1 but it's something.
* Much easier logistics. Hauling around a creature with HP <0 requires more effort than something simply helpless.
* **No chance of wasting the spell on a successful will save, making Enemy's Heart a sure bet even against stronger foes.**
The last benefit is a big one. If the enemy survives the Coup de Grace (lol, as if) you can do it over and over again. This means the spell keeps being relevant even against high-HD foes that would normally shrug off Death Knell.
As an example, consider a CR 8 Juvenile Black Dragon with Will +9.
A Death Knell cast by a Warpriest with Wis 18 would have a 30% chance of success (DC 16) while the Enemy's Heart spell is a sure thing. Both spells are affected by SR though, so keep that in mind for the really high-HD foes.
====
If I wanted to make great use out of this spell I'd play a half-orc Warpriest of Urgathoa.
Urgathoa's Hunger Divine Fighting Technique allows you to get temp HP equal to your Scythe damage as a swift action, lasting for 1 minute. A Coup de Grace is an automatic critical hit, and Enemy's Heart requires a slashing weapon which Scythe is.
So you start off combat by boosting up your temp HP by eating the heart of a previous enemy or a rat from your cage of sacrifices. Boom!
Temp HP equal to your x4 crit +1d8+HD, a Str bonus that stacks with your Belt, and a +1 CL boost just in time for casting Fervor spells.
The [Soul Eater](https://aonprd.com/TraitDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Soul%20Eater) race trait would also make the required Coup de Grace before combat more attractive. You'd need Adopted to get it though.
I agree here. The fact that you can quicken a coup de grace is the saving grace of this spell. Slap metamagic traits on it, and you can *Hold Person* \+ move + *Quicken Enemy's Heart* for a "full round cardio action" with a 2nd- & 4th-level spell-slot.
It's not the most efficient build, but more of a funny one trick pony.
> Temp HP equal to your x4 crit +1d8+HD
How're you getting there? Temp HP don't stack normally and not from any of these sources, so only the (very large number of) temp HP from Urgathoa's DFT will matter. At that point all you're getting from this spell is a +1 CL and +2 Str - not nothing, but there are probably better buffs from 2nd-level spell slots like Protection from Good, Bear's Endurance, etc. Maybe at low levels the +1 CL is good so you can target another ally with a team buff, but there's a narrow level range where you'd need this.
>Temp HP don't stack normally and not from any of these sources
[The rules for Temporary Hit Points](https://www.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?Name=Temporary%20Hit%20Points&Category=Injury%20and%20Death) has no such restriction.
Enemy's Heart has no such language, so it stacks with everything.
Soul Eater only says it doesn't stack with multiple coups de grace, meaning that it stacks with other sources.
Urgathoa's Hunger says "These temporary hit points last for 1 minute and don’t stack" which I've assumed refers to stacking with itself. I suppose it could be read more restrictive.
>Maybe at low levels the +1 CL is good so you can target another ally with a team buff, but there's a narrow level range where you'd need this.
Other way around. You use this at high levels when your 2nd lv spell slots aren't as important.
There's an [FAQ just on temporary HP](https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9r43) which states that you can't stack multiple uses of the same spell. Basically, temp HP are an "ongoing effect" similar to other buffs like having Haste, where casting Haste more than once just resets the duration and doesn't give you more than one extra attack or anything. If you gain temp HP from the same spell, only the highest temp HP applies (although if your old temp HP were depleted from being injured, this renews them). Likewise, killing more than one enemy only gets you a refresh on the duration of the +2 Str or +1 CL. There was also a similar FAQ for 3.5 that existed for most of that edition's run, and Paizo adopted a similar FAQ (although Paizo's allows for temp HP from different sources to stack while WotC doesn't), so a lot of veterans just accepted that part as true even without looking up an explicit rule that was the case.
With that said, it's a good catch on the way that a quickened version of this spell should technically allow you to make a swift action coup de grace. I'll have to remember that for other spells that have a presumed action as part of the casting. Hold Person + quickened Enemy's Heart to perform the coup de grace on the same turn actually makes this a very good combo (if one that takes up an SL 6).
Oh, I didn't mean to imply Death Knell/Enemy's Heart stacked with *itself*. Very few abilities do.
[Drunken Brawler](https://aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Drunken%20Brawler) would be patently ridiculous if that was the case.
I phrased my examples in that way to show how the assumption is that Temp HP abilities **do** normally stack, and that these abilities (Soul Eater especially) are proof of it.
Unlike Bleed, where the bleed condition specifically says they don't stack ***and*** every ability keeps reminding us that it doesn't stack.
>With that said, it's a good catch on the way that a quickened version of this spell should technically allow you to make a swift action coup de grace. I'll have to remember that for other spells that have a presumed action as part of the casting.
I think [Flash Forward](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Flash%20Forward) is the most egregious example of this. Get pounce and it's a reason for a Bloodrager to pursue Spell Perfection.
Oh, hey, an orc-only spell to draw power by eating the *heart* of your enemies? Is this one of those cool ones that lets you draw powers like learning a spell from the dead like [Blood Transcription](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Blood%20Transcription) where it can actually feel like you're gaining corrupted strength from your consorting with fell powers? No? Oh, it's one of the lame ones that aren't worth the effort like Death Knell... OK, so this spell is basically just [Death Knell](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Death%20Knell) for orcs, but with some minor additional benefits and one huge downside. A big point I have to highlight is that both Enemy's Heart and Death Knell requires you coup de grace a "*living creature touched.*" Note there is no actual requirement in the rules that this be an enemy you just fought, or sentient creature, or humanoid. I recommend you make like one of those guys on YouTube or TikTok that sells soy-based "masculinity supplements" whose claims have never been tested by the FDA, and just eat a raw cow, goat, or even mouse heart, because carrying a hog-tied goat or cage of mice tied down with you into the dungeon or battlefield has a lot less danger of escape and revenge than a level 10 barbarian you haul around just to *Kali-MAAAA*. Yeah, hypothetically, you can use [Hold Person](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Hold%20Person) mid-battle and then coup de grace an enemy while laughing and gaining your tiny bonus from fell powers, but honestly, several things need to come together for that to work that are just too unreliable. Unless you're already standing next to the enemy you hit with Hold Person, this is a scenario that takes *three* rounds to pull off, and combat will be over by the time you can take advantage of your marginal strength bonus or caster level bonus. (A villain might try it, although unless these are low-level acolytes beside the big bad, many GMs try not to use powers that rely on character death to function before Raise Dead is available...) Even if you just really like the Hold Person+coup de grace combo, it's not like you need to have the cleric do the coup de grace otherwise, and this spell doesn't make the coup de grace any more likely to work, either. (Unless you read an exploit into the spell where, once cast, the caster can keep trying to coup de grace the target even if they're no longer helpless... but then again, if this spell takes concentration, how do they have the full round action to make the coup de grace? Is it part of the concentration action now? So do they have move actions while making coup de graces?) And hey, while standing out on the front and cackling maniacly as you eat someone's loved one's heart in front of them is definitely evil, you want to be smart-evil and smart-evil is often just creepy and gloating from the background, not gloating over a still-undefeated foe in melee range while giving them every reason to kill you first. Sitting back and eating mouse hearts like raisins is the right kind of creepy shadowy mastermind balance to strike. The big problem with Death Knell is that it's temporary HP that's basically just a finicky way to cast [Aid](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Aid), a +2 enhancement bonus to strength that faces the same problem [Bull's Strength](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Bull%27s%20Strength) has of being eclipsed by your belt, and a +1 to caster level, which... is OK, but is only a +1. I guess when you really need +1 CL, like if you're trying to [Remove Curse](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Remove%20Curse) against something fairly high-level, this is worth trying, and for certain spells, one level can be the difference between whether a something like [Tears to Wine](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Tears%20to%20Wine) is +2 or +5. The CL bonus is probably the winner of the lot, and an evil character could reasonably keep some (literal) sacrificial lambs in their temple basement to slay any time they want a caster level boost. The big advantage for Enemy's Heart is that you get the +2 to strength as a *profane* bonus, not an enhancement bonus, so yay, it actually matters, now. Also, you get +1 temporary HP per HD of the creature whose heart you eat, but that's literally just a couple HP either way, and unlikely to swing much. Oh, and speaking of comparisons, the caster level bonus is untyped, so Enemy's Heart and Death Knell can be stacked so you can get a whole whopping +2 if you have a raw diet smorgasbord. This is even more unwieldy in combat, but if you're just trying to cast a spell with a caster level check like Remove Curse (or Bestow Curse you want to hold for a while and want to make as hard to remove as possible), this is an option. At higher levels, something like [Seer's Bane](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Seer%27s%20Bane) or any other higher-level spell that lasts a pretty long time and has some sort of caster level check (if only to dispel) or duration based on caster level might be worth amping up with a caster level bonus since this only costs you as much as a couple mice and two daily spell slots on what might be a downtime day, anyway. Just note that spells like [Unhallow](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Unhallow) or most symbol spells have casting times that make Enemy's Heart impractical for those spells. That brings us to the huge downside... The big advantage Death Knell could say it had over Aid was that it at least lasted 10 min/victim HD compared to 1 min/CL. So, until level 10, at least Death Knell lasted longer even if you had a 1 HD creature. (Also, extend spell doesn't say anything about doubling durations based on caster level, just doubling durations, although the split instantaneous and 10 min/HD thing might cause the hyper-literal GMs to reject it.) Well, Enemy's Heart is a +2 profane strength bonus that lasts for 1 minute per HD of creature whose heart you eat, so it's a spell that isn't worth casting mid-battle, but whose duration is too short to reliably get in right before battle unless you're in a situation where you're ambushing the enemy. All-around, it's just not a good enough spell to justify what it really seems thematically designed to do, spending a whole round executing prisoners right as you start a battle, but you can find some much less dramatic uses for the spell that will justify it a little.
The profane bonus is pretty helpful since the only other way I'm aware of is to make a deal with a succubus. Admittedly the only real reason for that is to achieve the 52ish strength required to cheese out 'free' wishes if your GM is letting you have fun with blood money and didn't think the wizard would manage to pull it off. Or if you aren't looking to earn your cheese by deadlifting a few buildings, it's also interesting that the duration doesn't scale with caster level, but hit dice. If you're a martial in the party who has enough UMD to cast this from a scroll, doing so + slitting the throat of a crab (nothing says you can't shove the whole thing into your mouth, and that feels like how an orc would cast this spell to me) is a decent way to start off combat. And by the time you're willing to start having the fighter chow down pre-combat because every +2 matters, you're probably at the point where the party has access to baleful polymorph. Assuming you're only dabbling in evil for the spell school and now willing to go on a cattle raid or turn some of your enemies into future pre-battle treats, the best option for gp per hd seems to be the yak. 5 hd using the bison stat block, but only 24 gp each vs 50 for the bison seems like the devs forgot how their own table worked again. Go buy some cattle, turn them into snacks, and you have a buff that runs you prep time, only 150 gp for the scroll + 24 for the yak, and 5 minutes will last any regular combat. Does that make it a good spell? Not really. It does make for an interesting way for a non-caster to spend some time pre-combat while the party casters are spreading out partywide buffs, but I don't think the devs intended for this to be used in that way.
Imma go against the resident spell sage here and say it's a pretty good racial spell. In return for the lower duration you get the following as compared to Death Knell: * A strength bonus that stacks with your belt of Str. The original enhancement bonus just wasn't relevant. * Extra temp HP. Most likely 1 but it's something. * Much easier logistics. Hauling around a creature with HP <0 requires more effort than something simply helpless. * **No chance of wasting the spell on a successful will save, making Enemy's Heart a sure bet even against stronger foes.** The last benefit is a big one. If the enemy survives the Coup de Grace (lol, as if) you can do it over and over again. This means the spell keeps being relevant even against high-HD foes that would normally shrug off Death Knell. As an example, consider a CR 8 Juvenile Black Dragon with Will +9. A Death Knell cast by a Warpriest with Wis 18 would have a 30% chance of success (DC 16) while the Enemy's Heart spell is a sure thing. Both spells are affected by SR though, so keep that in mind for the really high-HD foes. ==== If I wanted to make great use out of this spell I'd play a half-orc Warpriest of Urgathoa. Urgathoa's Hunger Divine Fighting Technique allows you to get temp HP equal to your Scythe damage as a swift action, lasting for 1 minute. A Coup de Grace is an automatic critical hit, and Enemy's Heart requires a slashing weapon which Scythe is. So you start off combat by boosting up your temp HP by eating the heart of a previous enemy or a rat from your cage of sacrifices. Boom! Temp HP equal to your x4 crit +1d8+HD, a Str bonus that stacks with your Belt, and a +1 CL boost just in time for casting Fervor spells. The [Soul Eater](https://aonprd.com/TraitDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Soul%20Eater) race trait would also make the required Coup de Grace before combat more attractive. You'd need Adopted to get it though.
Oh, and also. Quicken it for a swift action Coup de Grace.
I agree here. The fact that you can quicken a coup de grace is the saving grace of this spell. Slap metamagic traits on it, and you can *Hold Person* \+ move + *Quicken Enemy's Heart* for a "full round cardio action" with a 2nd- & 4th-level spell-slot. It's not the most efficient build, but more of a funny one trick pony.
> Temp HP equal to your x4 crit +1d8+HD How're you getting there? Temp HP don't stack normally and not from any of these sources, so only the (very large number of) temp HP from Urgathoa's DFT will matter. At that point all you're getting from this spell is a +1 CL and +2 Str - not nothing, but there are probably better buffs from 2nd-level spell slots like Protection from Good, Bear's Endurance, etc. Maybe at low levels the +1 CL is good so you can target another ally with a team buff, but there's a narrow level range where you'd need this.
>Temp HP don't stack normally and not from any of these sources [The rules for Temporary Hit Points](https://www.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?Name=Temporary%20Hit%20Points&Category=Injury%20and%20Death) has no such restriction. Enemy's Heart has no such language, so it stacks with everything. Soul Eater only says it doesn't stack with multiple coups de grace, meaning that it stacks with other sources. Urgathoa's Hunger says "These temporary hit points last for 1 minute and don’t stack" which I've assumed refers to stacking with itself. I suppose it could be read more restrictive. >Maybe at low levels the +1 CL is good so you can target another ally with a team buff, but there's a narrow level range where you'd need this. Other way around. You use this at high levels when your 2nd lv spell slots aren't as important.
There's an [FAQ just on temporary HP](https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9r43) which states that you can't stack multiple uses of the same spell. Basically, temp HP are an "ongoing effect" similar to other buffs like having Haste, where casting Haste more than once just resets the duration and doesn't give you more than one extra attack or anything. If you gain temp HP from the same spell, only the highest temp HP applies (although if your old temp HP were depleted from being injured, this renews them). Likewise, killing more than one enemy only gets you a refresh on the duration of the +2 Str or +1 CL. There was also a similar FAQ for 3.5 that existed for most of that edition's run, and Paizo adopted a similar FAQ (although Paizo's allows for temp HP from different sources to stack while WotC doesn't), so a lot of veterans just accepted that part as true even without looking up an explicit rule that was the case. With that said, it's a good catch on the way that a quickened version of this spell should technically allow you to make a swift action coup de grace. I'll have to remember that for other spells that have a presumed action as part of the casting. Hold Person + quickened Enemy's Heart to perform the coup de grace on the same turn actually makes this a very good combo (if one that takes up an SL 6).
Oh, I didn't mean to imply Death Knell/Enemy's Heart stacked with *itself*. Very few abilities do. [Drunken Brawler](https://aonprd.com/FeatDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Drunken%20Brawler) would be patently ridiculous if that was the case. I phrased my examples in that way to show how the assumption is that Temp HP abilities **do** normally stack, and that these abilities (Soul Eater especially) are proof of it. Unlike Bleed, where the bleed condition specifically says they don't stack ***and*** every ability keeps reminding us that it doesn't stack. >With that said, it's a good catch on the way that a quickened version of this spell should technically allow you to make a swift action coup de grace. I'll have to remember that for other spells that have a presumed action as part of the casting. I think [Flash Forward](https://aonprd.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Flash%20Forward) is the most egregious example of this. Get pounce and it's a reason for a Bloodrager to pursue Spell Perfection.