Can Cure Light Wounds Mass target the same creature more than once on its casting?

Question

When you cast the mass version of the cure light wounds spell, its range changes from touch to close and from creature touched to creature touched/level with targets within 30 feet of each other. To this sounds like a ray spell as you would have to make an attack roll vs every creature (this is because you could target undead and living creatures with the same casting). Is it possible to have the same creature targeted by the spell more than once? I dont see any place which states you can only affect a creature once with the casting.

Update:

Since there has been debate over how the rules should be applied in this case, lets do a comparison with out multiple touch spells.

• Cure Wounds mass spells "Target one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart"
• Chill Touch "Targets creature or creatures touched (up to one/level)"
• Haste "Targets one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart"
• Bull's Strength mass "Targets one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart"
• Cat's Grace mass - "Targets one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart"

Since I dont know of anyone who can successfully claim that Chill Touch cant be applied to the same target multiple times in a round assuming a sufficient bab or hasted. Someone can be affected by multiple haste spells, but only one has the effect, and is not helpful doubling up in this case because its part of the same spell so any effect that would dispel or counter one would get all instances of it. Same with Bulls and Cats. The most important difference is that the others except for Chill Touch say "One creature" but that can be thought of in two ways. The one likely intended being that a creature can only be selected once for the spell, or the creature can be selected multiple times each time taking up one of the creature targets.

Answer 1

Targeting the same creature multiple times simultaneously with the same effect causes the creature to be affected still only once

That is, this GM would rule that just because an effect can be used one time against multiple targets doesn't mean that the same effect can instead apply multiple times against one target and yield multiple results.

While it can be technically lawyered that a spell that affects multiple creatures can, instead, affect the same creature multiple times, that notion doesn't yield positive results in actual play (i.e. you'll earn a book to the noggin not applause). And, as you can see from broaching the question here, even bringing up the idea is anathema to some.

To put this negative reaction in perspective, let me employ an analogy: a game show contestant is allowed to pick two cars. While most contestants will pick two different cars, this contestant baffles host and studio audience by picking the same car twice, technically picking two cars: this car and this car again. Although this impresses the game show's lawyers, and the sponsor's pleased at the prospect of only having to provide one vehicle, this makes for lousy ratings. Seriously, don't do this: you don't want to make Drew Carey—or the GM—angry.

That said, the spell mass cure light wounds targets "one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart." However, once the caster has picked that one creature to be affected, picking that same creature likely runs afoul of of Combining Magical Effects: the creature is supposed to realize simultaneously enough the same spell's effect multiple times, something the game usually either rejects outright or accommodates grudgingly (by mandating only the most recent, most beneficial, or most detrimental effect occurs).

With that in mind, a GM could allow a lone creature to be targeted multiple times by a mass cure light wounds spell then have only the highest individual result affect the target… or even have the target affected uniquely only once, the GM mandating all creatures that the spell would've affected would've been affected equally.

Compare the spell mass cure light wounds with the spell wail of the banshee: the wail targets "one living creature/level within a 40-ft.-radius spread," and "[c]reatures closest to the point of origin are affected first." This does not mean if a Wiz20 catches but two creatures in that 40-ft.-radius spread, the wizard can force those two creatures to make 10 successful Fortitude saving throws each or die! Each affected creature instead makes 1 saving throw, and the remainder of the spell's effect is wasted. (By the way, here's a Paizo messageboard discussion about the spell wail of the banshee.)

This GM urges that unless a spell or effect says otherwise, a decision to use the spell or effect against less than than its maximum number of targets doesn't make the spell or effect's power greater against the targets the spell or effect is used against!

(I could find but this lone 2011 Paizo messageboard thread discussing the idea of picking the same target multiple times for an effect that affects multiple creatures. The topic doesn't seem to warrant serious consideration.)

Answer 2

It's not a ray. The targeting line isn't touch.

It works by asking you to select the number creatures you want to affect (with a limit on distance from you and each other). You can choose up to one/(your level). That many creatures get exactly the effect, and no more. No creature can be “selected twice” — selecting a creature just includes or excludes it from the effect. There's no “hitting” one creature multiple times — only choosing or not choosing it to be affected at all by the spell.

Answer 3

No.

From cure light wounds:

Target: one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart

You target one creature/level. You have a spell that affects multiple creatures and get to choose which creatures to target. If you are level 3 and choose the same creature 3 times, how many creatures are you affecting? You're still only affecting one creature. If you could choose the same creature more than once then you could choose the same creature however many times you wanted because it is still 'one creature' affected by the spell, leading to a contradiction.

DESCRIPTION: You channel positive energy to cure 1d8 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +25) on each selected creature

So you select creatures. When choosing teammates for some sport you don't get to choose the same person twice. Selection is a yes or no operation, either they are selected or not.

Answer 4

I feel that the repeated targeting for best benefit is a fair compromise, without too much rules lawyering. After all, it is cure light wounds. Although, even if it did work that way, I can just make the mobs more difficult anyway. GM creation monsters are how you nuke rules lawyers. :)

Answer 5

I really don't see the problem with allowing multiple, even/uneven targeting, otherwise the spell is practically worthless for a lv 5 spell. GM creation monsters or unusually high CR's beat rules lawyers every time. If a monster wants to utterly destroy a party (i.e. chain lightning which explicitly stated each target can only be targeted once), then something like this as inflict would work just fine.