There's a lot of guys in the last few adventures who throw down with vile damage. The party I'm DMing for consists largly of CN characters, with a few leaning strongly towards evil. How are they supposed to heal the vile damage? They won't be able to cast Hallow, and it's doubtful that anyone capable of casting it will want to associate with them.
Creative Director
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With difficulty, I would suspect.
It's a case where being evil is a penalty, to be honest. They'll need to seek out good-aligned spellcasters or perhaps secure spells on scrolls, or maybe even resort to using spells like wish or limited wish to duplicate the effects of the lower level spells.
Another option is to rule that Hallow's evil doppelganger (Unhallow, of course), also works.
warlocks can write scrolls for it..
Ur-priest FTW!
Another option is to rule that Hallow's evil doppelganger (Unhallow, of course), also works.
No, no, and no again. The whole point of vile damage is that it is evil and can only be countered by the purest good. If players go evil and take vile damage, they're either going to have to trick someone good into healing them, or use the limited wish/wish/miracle option.
In an evil campaign I played, my evil wizard kept his party rivals in line by threatening to use violated spells on them. At low levels, a violated Power Word Pain (from Races of the Dragon) really was a terrible threat.
Actually evil clerics can cast consecrate and hallow, can't they?
From SRD: Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A cleric can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s (if he has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.
Hallow has a Good descriptor - thus, evil casters cannot make use of it.
Actually evil clerics can cast consecrate and hallow, can't they?
No, clerics can't cast spells with an alignment descriptor that's opposite of their own alignment. For example, evil clerics can't cast Good spells and chaotic clerics can't cast Lawful spells. That said, any non-evil cleric would be able to cast Hallow and thus allow the healing of vile damage.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Actually evil clerics can cast consecrate and hallow, can't they?
No. They both have the good descriptor, and so cannot be cast by evil aligned clerics, or clerics of evil aligned gods.
One option would be to greater teleport or greater planeshift into a good-aligned (and presumably hallowed) temple :)
I see. I stand corrected. Several times.
So... ur-priest?
I think those PC's with Vile Damage are going to have to con a good aligned cleric. That could be an adventure in itself!
Hallow is an instantaneous effect that can't be dispelled. A basic Hallow effect (minus any additional spells keyed in) lasts basically forever once cast, unless someone unhallows over the top to counter. Just find an old abandoned temple of good (surely there'd still be a few Olman shrines to Quetzalcoatl on the Isle of Dread) and do your healing there. Sure, it's a pain, but that's what you get for being amoral! ;)
Or else there might be a CN temple somewhere that Hallows their grounds - Oldimarra might be CN, but he probably isn't a fan of undead eating his worshippers either...
warlocks can write scrolls for it..
Can evil warlocks write scrolls of Hallow? That doesn't make much sense.
i don't see why not, they aren't drawing the power by themselves, but simulating..
It is a use magic item related skill.. try telling me a evil cleric couldn't read a scroll of hallow and you would have a point ;)
But the really scary thing about that ability is the seeming ability to pull off caster level 1 meteor swarms and heal -spells, for making items.. or creating that ring of wishes (at will), without having to expend xp every day casting wish! (they just simulate)
Many neutral deities like Boccob use Hallow and Unhallow, as does Wee Jas, presumably in separate parts of the temple to emphasize different aspects of the deity.
Neutral clerics are generally happy to perform healing for cold hard cash with no questions asked.