Dark Affliction Questions

[Pyrohemia]

Dark Affliction (Su): At 3rd level, any black magic spells that the black mage casts that causes status effects provides a penalty to saving throws against that status effect equal to -1 per two black mage levels for a duration of 1 round per two black mage levels.

My question is: How does this work exactly? Say I cast Dark (save or be Dimmed for 1d4 rounds), will this ability reduce the saving throw by 1? Does this ability still last it's duration if they succeed on the initial saving throw? Does the penalty only apply to this status effect (in this case Dimmed) or to any status effect? If it only applies to one kind of status effect, will using another spell with a different status effect end the current penalty or add another instance of this effect?

The wording is very murky (to me) and I want to have it fully understood before I get to this level and start using it.

[silverwerret]

Way it sounds...any black magic spell that the mage casts that causes a status effect...be it dimmed, burned, squalled, etc...etc...will cause the penalty to go into effect every time they have to save cause of that spell. I am guessing they do not stack...so casting dark and fire will not incur twice the penalty but a penalty for each. That is how I read it anyway and I hope this helps.

[NeloAngelo]

Pretty much what silver said i believe. You cast fire and burn a guy, well for that duration, he now incurs a penalty on his saving throws against the status effect "Burning".

Id also say when you dim a guy and he only is dimmed for 1 round and then you dark him again, the affliction is still there from your duration (if its high enough) so you can dark him again and he will still have the penalty. By wording anyways. I would say by wording the dark affliction going in no matter what, just simply casting dark on them will invoke the penalty. It does not state they need to fail the save, just casting a spell that causes a status effect invokes Dark affliction. So if you fail the first time on he throw, your next try will have a better chance. I hope i answered correctly.