It must be a fairly holy word because this spell has a lot going on. Not only does Rimbo Xencraft get to send a creature back to its original plane, but that creature doesn’t even get a saving throw to ignore the spell. To bust off a law-talking guy term, “rules as written” would allow Rimbo to send a pit fiend or nalfeshnee straight back to the lower planes without either of these fairly fearsome devils/demons getting a chance to do something that any 1st-level character gets to do: make a saving throw.

After the creature has been thrown back to whatever outer plane they are from, they end up taking some form of damage: under 4 h.d., immediately dead. But what 15th-level cleric is going to waste “holy word” on a measly owl bear? 7 or so h.d? You are paralyzed and better hope that you don’t get returned to some place in Hades where you are likely to be prey. Bit more powerful at 11 h.d.? You are going to be stunned for a while, which is not quite paralyzed but still not great. Over 12 h.d.? Some kind of big tough from the seventh Hell? You are still heading back and you won’t be able to hear when you land because you are deaf.

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