holy damage?
 

Hi guys, reading through Magic Items... ehm, what exactly is "holy damage" when does it apply? Is it defined anywhere?

My guess is that it is a followup INJURY that only applies to evil and Evil creatures (GM definition)... still it's a very poorly introduced in the system, imo.

Re: holy damage?
 

It's a "tag" that applies to certain weapons, objects, abilities, or damage that may trigger a monster's Vulnerability. Several of the undead in the Nordlond Bestiary either take double damage from holy object, or they don't regenerate holy or magical damage.

Re: holy damage?
 

Note that it's not a specific type of damage in the sense of having defined sources or special rules either.

By way of example, at one time there were some joke monsters floating around that had Vulnerability to Fruit or DR (Limited: Fruit Only). This does not mean GURPS has a "fruit" type of damage. What it means is in a fight with these things, the GM will sometimes have to decide if something inflicts fruit damage. Sometimes things intended specifically for fighting these things may specifically tell you the damage "counts as fruit", to make it simple for the GM to decide in that case.

That's all those holy tags are telling you - use this against something that has a trait of reacting differently to "holy" items, and the different effect applies.

Re: holy damage?
 

By way of another example, some monsters have defenses that don't work against silver. This doesn't mean that "silver" is a damage type- the defenses can be bypassed by cutting damage from a silver blade, crushing damage from a silver chandelier falling on their head, and so on. So too with a vulnerability to "holy" sources of damage.

Re: holy damage?
 

Holy water, for instance, probably does holy damage.

Re: holy damage?
 

Vampires have Vulnerability (Treats holy water as acid), for example.

Re: holy damage?
 

Guys, maybe I was not clear in my post.
I was actually referring to the Holy Weapon enchantment in Magic Items p.7.

What's the meaning of "add +2 holy injury or +3 vs. demons undead and anything else the GM deems to be capital-E Evil"?
This is more than just a tag, or "holy water".

Re: holy damage?
 

Is Magic Items a DFRPG product? Do you have a link?

Re: holy damage?
 

Yes it is. DFRPG Magic Items and DFRPG Magic Items 2.


As discussed above, +2 Holy adds damage with the "Holy" tag so something immune/resistant to Holy damage takes none/less, anything else takes 2 more damage, and things with a weakness to Holy take more, and as noted on pg 7* of DFRPG Magic Items, undead and demons take +3 damage instead of +2.


* If Unholy was discussed on page 6 I'd suspect this was on purpose...

Re: holy damage?
 

Ohhhhh! It's the same as section B of Dungeon Fantasy Companion! (https://warehouse23.com/products/dun...tasy-companion)

Thanks, got it now.

In that context it's pretty clear that "Holy" damage is meant to be basically interchangeable with Corrosive, Icy, Flaming, or Lightning weapons. They all add 2 damage and cost similar amounts. (Corrosive is the most expensive for some reason but not by much.)

Re: holy damage?
 

The reason being that Corrosive degrades DR. It also has some utility add-ons for creative PCs and GMs (like slowly eroding locks or chains, eating into walls little by little, etc).

A Corrosive Pickaxe would be a truly useful weapon in a lot of dungeons if the GM allows that sort of creative usage.

Re: holy damage?
 

I can buy that.

Is there a similar benefit to Frost Weapon to explain why it's the next most expensive after Corrosive?

Re: holy damage?
 

Does it do Fatigue damage? Because that's also very expensive.

Re: holy damage?
 

Nope.

"Causes a melee weapon to become freezing cold. Doesn’t harm the user or weapon, but the weapon inflicts an extra 2 points of injury on the target if it penetrates DR; see Follow-Ups (Exploits, p. 56)."

Re: holy damage?
 

No similar benefit; the pricing in DFRPG is taken from the pricing directly in GURPS Magic, which is infamously full of inconsistencies and poor choices stemming from a woefully incomplete conversion from 3E to 4E.

If something out of GURPS: Magic (or its DFRPG descendants) seems like nonsense, it's because it is in fact nonsense.

Re: holy damage?
 

Probably because fire and heat resistant is more common among enemy types?

I know it's waaaaaaay more common in PCs to have Fire Resistance going than Cold Resistance.


And then there's this. Harald has a point that cannot be overlooked.