Chapter 2 - Magic Items

Holy Water

Holy Water is a misnomer that causes people to believe that water has to be involved. Certain religions or priesthoods will use other liquids such as blood, honey, or wine. Unholy water is created with harm in mind.

Any priest with access to the required spells can create holy water once a week, provided a suitable font is available. The required spells are: create water, purify food & drink*, bless*, chant, and prayer. The spells marked with an asterisk are used in reversed form to create unholy water. the priest must be able to cast all the appropriate spells; creating holy water is not a collaborative effort.

The priest must spend at least eight hours praying and meditating before casting the spells in the listed order. Any delay between finishing the casting of one spell and starting the next ruins the ceremony. The character must maintain the chant spell for one turn. Afterward, the cleric must rest at least eight hours before casting any spells. If forced into anything else during this time, the character suffers a –4 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks.

A font is a specially blessed (or cursed) basin made of precious metals contained inside an elaborate case or pedestal fitted with a cover. A particular font can be used only once a week, and a temple or other religious building can contain only one font.

A font’s maximum capacity for creating holy water depends on its cost. The create water spell normally produces more water than a basin can hold; the extra water is either channeled away or assumed to be magically dissipated.

The basin and pedestal must be specially designed and fashioned; the process requires 2d4+2 weeks. See chart 9 for the capacity, cost of the basin and pedestal costs.

Holy water loses its potency if removed from the font for more than one turn unless it is placed in a specially blessed crystal or leaded glass vial. Each vial holds a quarter pint of liquid (4 oz or 7.25 cubic inches) and costs 5 gp. (Copper pinching characters can sell empty vials on the open market for 1d4+1 gp each.) How long the holy water will keep its potency in the vial depends on several factors not all in control of the priest who creates it.

A font can be defiled and made useless for creating holy water (and for magic font spells) by touching it and casting a Bestow Minor Curse spell. Placing anything repugnant to the deity to whom the font is dedicated to within its confines may non-magically defile fonts.

A defiled font must be entirely remade. The font cannot be cleansed or restored, except by a wish, though the materials in the basin can be recycled and used in a new basin for 1d4+1x10% of the original cost. For example, Delsenora’s temple has a font that can hold 32 vials of holy water. The initial cost was 21,000 gp for the basin plus 1,500 gp for the pedestal. If the font is defiled, the replacement cost is 1,500 gp for the pedestal and 20–50% of the original basin cost.

Holy water and unholy water are known for their special corrosive effect upon the enforcers of evil (such as undead, demons, and devils) and the minions of good (such as paladins, devas, and lammasu) respectively. These waters are also useful to slow the effects of poison.

Holy and unholy waters have separate, but not opposite, effects on poisoned creatures who drink them. Holy water acts as if the drinker was the beneficiary of a slow poison spell cast by a 1^st level priest, and the effect has an onset time of 2-5 (d4+1) rounds. (In other words, the effect has a duration of 1 hour, and the holy water must be administered within 1 turn minus 2-5 rounds of the time of poisoning to have the desired effect.) Effects of multiple applications of holy water are cumulative with respect to duration; a double dose will make a creature poison-resistant for 2 consecutive hours, as long as the second dose is administered before the first one wears off.

This beneficial effect works on evil creatures as well as non-evil ones; however, the holy water will also have its usual harmful effects on an evil creature who touches it or consumes it; thus, evil characters and creatures will not voluntarily use it and will avoid it if possible. Unholy water acts as a poison enhancer. If one vial of unholy water is ingested by a poisoned creature before the poison has taken effect, it will cause the remaining amount of the onset time of the poison (any type) to be halved. Additional vials of unholy water consumed before the onset time expires will cause the poisoned creature's saving throw to be taken at a -1 penalty (cumulative) for each vial ingested beyond the first. Characters of good alignment will not use unholy water and will avoid it if possible. Even though their effects are not opposites, holy and unholy waters will neutralize each other on a vial-for-vial basis when being used to affect a poisoned creature in the above-described manner.

• View
• Edit
• History
• Print