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Old 07-08-2022, 07:03 PM   #47
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Why holy water? And other questions about holy-powered PCs

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbone View Post
It's been a while since I last posted a big batch of game questions. I have many more, but will restrain myself to small batches. Here are five questions related to clerics and holy warriors:


1) Why not just use acid?: Why stock up on holy water to fight vampires and the like? Holy water burns vampires like acid, which is cool – but know what else burns vampires like acid does? Acid. Which sizzles pretty much all enemies (and locks, grating bars, etc.), not just those with a rare Divine Curse.

Acid costs less, too! Sure, the clerical discount hands holy water the price advantage again, but the wee savings don't seem worth giving up acid's great usefulness. So, barring the GM granting other benefits to holy water, why not go all-acid? Maybe acid's danger factor (chance of acid vials breaking in a fall)? The chance of meeting a ghost affected by holy water but not acid? Special-order spotty availability? The "it's genre" factor of holy water? Something else I'm missing?

Just wondering whether anyone else has come across players asking "why holy water?".


2) Splash vs armor: How does holy water work against armor? Given 1d-3 dam, I guess the idea is that 1 or 2 points' worth might "get into" DR 1, and 1 point might work its way into DR 2... but I guess no water gets past DR 3.

No particular problem here. "Damage vs DR" is arguably an odd way of handling whether a liquid works its way into armor, but it'll do for simple resolution. (Obvious advice vs armored foes: Aim the water at exposed areas.) The question: Is there some alternate handling of liquid seeping through clothing/armor, tucked away somewhere in GURPS?


3) Extreme resistance: When a demon tries to use some evil magical effect on a holy warrior, do Resist Evil and Higher Purpose (Slay Demons) stack to create an awesome resistance roll? My understanding is "Absolutely!"; is that correct?


4) @confused: Exploits p90, under "Praying", says,

I guess I'm not familiar. What is this "@"?


5) Help me put this question to rest: What's the difference between Rest in Pieces and the Final Rest spell? At a glance, the latter seems the spell version of the former, but Rest in Pieces is a super-cheap advantage while Final Rest is one of the more hugely expensive spells available.

They would both seem to have the same general use of "stop your dead enemy from coming back as an undead or similar", but as the undead hunter profession in Companion 3 automatically has both the advantage and the spell, I gather the two abilities are intended to have distinctly different uses.

Looks to me like Rest in Pieces is indeed a cheap (no FP) Final Rest, but with the restrictions a) you have to have killed a living thing, not an undead, b) you have to have killed it yourself, and c) you only prevent the once-living corpse from returning as undead, not from returning as a resurrected living thing, some sort of automation, etc.

So, if any of a)-c) would be a problem, you want to use Final Rest, not Rest in Pieces.

Does that sound right? Or is there more to the distinction?
Because vampires are originally a subchristian legend. They are supposed to be demonic or at least associated with devils (if I remember Dracula was cursed for becoming Protestant for reasons of state). Holy water works on them not because of it's chemical properties but because it is holy.

As I said it is "subchristian". By that I mean it is from a weird combination of orthodox (meaning "reasonably sound in doctrine" not big O orthodox meaning, "Greek Rite") Christianity and peasant animism. It is of course heresy to say that a virgin would become a vampire (essentially be damned just because Satan says so) by being bitten by a vampire but vampires being afraid of holy water would be something they are familiar with.

That is why the ideas of vampires being intimidated by the icons of different religions does not work. Vampires were made in Eastern Europe and had the context of the lives of peasants who lived their. If for instance they were frightened of golems instead of holy water they would be a different sort of monster.
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Last edited by jason taylor; 07-08-2022 at 07:22 PM.
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