Why holy water? And other questions about holy-powered PCs

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by tbone

1) Why not just use acid: In the end, falls and other accidents sound like one of the biggest downsides of acid: there's a pretty good chance of vials breaking. Plus, holy water can have whatever miscellaneous beneficial uses the GM comes up with. (Along with emergency use as drinking water. Mmm, Dei-licious!)

IIRC there's a Spanish folk tale where someone's holy water fails to function as intended specifically because he refused to allow it to be used as emergency drinking water, with the antagonist explaining that water that had been withheld from someone dying of thirst could not possibly be considered consecrated to God. That may or may not be official theology.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by tbone

Re the idea of using holy water in exorcisms, etc.: Definitely sensible. I recently came up with my own use for holy water & other "clerical consumables" as aids in "cleansing" tasks. Nothing fancy, or original: I just stole the idea from P. Dell'Orto's lovely Spell Components piece in Companion 3, treating consumables like holy water as a college component (replacing "college of spells" with "Turning, Exorcism, and other miscellaneous cleansing tasks"). I'll be tweeting the idea, and follow-ups to it, from tomorrow.

I've been doing that since I had a PC make the requisite Hidden Lore check to "know what Holy Water was good for" and decide that it was basically useless. So I expanded it to give bonuses to Exorcisms and bonuses as a Spell component to spells (anything that could be 'cleansing or driving away Evil' related) and to healing checks with Esoteric Medicine.

As soon as I did the above the PCs all started carrying one or two vials, several carry whole 'flasks' now since it's basically splashed around liberally when the Cleric starts getting in the weeds with penalties (especially the self-healing spells and checks). The Cleric also went in for an aspergilium 'conversion' on their mace and liberally splashes it around in fights with undead, to make the standard 'after fight' Exorcism easier (in unconsecrated areas undead have a habit of not staying redeaded, so they like to consecrate areas and put all dead and undead to rest properly).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by tbone

Perhaps it's best to say "yes, holy water burns undead like acid, but unlike acid vials uses DR/5 instead of full DR".

I suspect this is RAI. It follows he general rule for grenades, but does damage like acid. Not to "undead" though, just vampires and bleeders, AFAICT.

Or just do away with the "DR protects normally" exception for acid and holy water alike. (1d-3 dam is pretty sad to begin with; let those liquids seep into armor!)

This makes acid greandes less useful, since their main function is degrading armor.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

IIRC there's a Spanish folk tale where someone's holy water fails to function as intended specifically because he refused to allow it to be used as emergency drinking water, with the antagonist explaining that water that had been withheld from someone dying of thirst could not possibly be considered consecrated to God. That may or may not be official theology.

That's a pretty good story for a GM to keep in mind, for when it's time to hose a cleric for not following holy vows. Divine snubbing could strip power from not just spells and advantages but from holy objects too.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

As soon as I did the above the PCs all started carrying one or two vials, several carry whole 'flasks' now since it's basically splashed around liberally when the Cleric starts getting in the weeds with penalties (especially the self-healing spells and checks). The Cleric also went in for an aspergilium 'conversion' on their mace and liberally splashes it around in fights with undead, to make the standard 'after fight' Exorcism easier (in unconsecrated areas undead have a habit of not staying redeaded, so they like to consecrate areas and put all dead and undead to rest properly).

Yeah, that's the stuff. (The aspergillum mace is a nice touch, too. Got any stats/rules you can post?)

Holy water should be a useful tool in a cleric's arsenal; a little more effectiveness vs (some) undead, and a use in aiding exorcisms etc. (through the simple step of borrowing the spell component rules) helps a lot, IMO.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by tbone

Yeah, that's the stuff. (The aspergillum mace is a nice touch, too. Got any stats/rules you can post?)

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics p. 36.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics p. 36.

Ah, the Aspergillum of High Power; thanks. Cool item; it essentially lets you get six "splash on enemy" uses from a vial of holy water.

mburr0003 seems to be saying that a PC made a combo aspergillum/mace, though. I'm wondering what the specifics are.

[sir_pudding]

Huh, I swear I've seen a mace/aspergillium somewhere.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Huh, I swear I've seen a mace/aspergillium somewhere.

That sounds familiar to me, too, but I can't find it in my GURPS collection. Maybe an old D&D thing?

I love the way mburr0003 approached holy water. I'm going to follow suit.

[Dalin]

Of course I found it in a Pyramid right after I posted that.

Pyramid #3/36 Dungeon Fantasy, p. 12: "New Weapon Modification: Aspergillum."