Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Sir Bedivere, while semantically I can share your POV I think it sort of runs against the tradition.
We all know what we are talking about when we hear "holy water".

BTW, the paragraph on unholy water got me thinking:
Should evil/chaotic clerics turn good and life-aligned creatures/spirits?

1. Either unholy water affects undead as the holy one does (damages undead) and boosts TU since evil clerics turn undead. (it is different just for the fact that it boosts reverse spells)

2. Or it damages good/life aligned creatures and spirits and boosts Turning such creature since evil clerics turn those creatures.

I think 1 is the "classic" answer.
But what do you think?

LibraryLass wrote:Druidic water, eh?
Now that's a novelty.

It was sort of natural outgrowth of what I was writing.
Probably it would be more philologically correct to have sprigs of mistletoe or sickles of different materials affecting the way druid powers work... but that's stuff for the druid supplement.

Yeah, using 'holy' and 'unholy' works, and yeah, changing the term would probably just confuse everyone.

Holly Water has a harmful effect on undead, so Unholy Water either has a beneficial effect on undead or a harmful one on another creature group...
As evil clerics don't gain the power of turning other type of creature and instead are able to control the undead I'll go with the first option, they get the same bonus but for controlling effects.

I'm not sure I find that solution completely satisfactory, but the whole holy/unholy thing is a can of worms as is.

While I can see a few ways one can utilize "holy water" or its alternatives for bad guys, I don't think attempting to codify it all will be good long term. Collectively we have had discussions about the topic of codifying stuff, and that it generally constrains the GM (or more correctly newer or less experienced GM's that have not learned to ignore stuff that does not suit them). When one says, "this is how it works", then that unwittingly also indirectly implies "it does not work other ways". Leaving this stuff fairly vague allows the GM to decide when the situation calls for it.

I'd opt for vague, with perhaps a statement like "Holy Water (or similar substances for other ethos) may have other applications and specific effects when used against different sorts of creatures, as an enhancer for certain clerical spells, or in other situations."