Alignment Damage (3.5e Other)
 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
 | |||||||||
|
Rate this article Discuss this article | |||||||||
Alignment Damage[edit]
Much like the four elements, the four alignments are crucial parts of our world, and are embodied physically among the planes - Living rebellion, tradition, kindness and cruelty, given life and form.
And just like we use the essence of the elements to harm, like flaming blades or freezing arrows, we also use the essences of the alignments to harm their opposites, such as a holy sword burning the flesh of a demon, or an Unholy Blight leeching the life from an angel.
And thus, there are the four types of Alignment Damage - Chaos/Anarchic, Evil/Unholy, Good/Holy, and Lawful/Axiomatic.
Damage dealt by the essence of the four alignments only deals damage to creatures of the opposite alignment - Thus, an Anarchic sword would only deal damage to Lawful creatures. Against creatures with the opposing alignment subtype (Usually only found on Outsiders, such as the Evil subtype a demon or devil possesses), its damage die is increase by one size, so from d6 to d8, for example. Saving throws against Alignment effects are almost always Will saves, since the essence of the alignment affects the mind and soul, rather than the body, for the most part.
However, this applies only loosely to pre-existing effects; Things like Holy Smite deal damage differently, but deal Alignment damage of one of the four types (Chaos/Anarchic, Evil/Unholy, Good/Holy, or Lawful/Axiomatic) appropriately. In most cases, effects can never have both opposing damage types - You can't create a spell that does both Holy and Unholy damage.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Other
