"holy" weapons in a system without alignment?

[Conaill]

Are you sure you still need the concepts of positive and negative energy? If so, make sure to remove any connotations of Good & Evil from them. I would just cut them out altogether along with alignment. It's used in a fairly confusing and inconsistent manner anyway (might improve in 3.5 though...)

I have no problem with a weapon that's Holy to one specific religion, and does extra damage to those opposing said religion (and/or to those that religion opposes - not necessarily the same thing!). Dealing damage to everyone not of the same fate might be overpowered though.

 

[Voadam]

Are you going to have one religion? Defined religious good guys and bad guys?

Holy could affect undead, fiends, and fiend followers who have turned their backs on the blessings of the true religion for power from fiends, for example, while unholy could affect celestials and followers of the gods.

 

[JChung2003]

No alignment = no holy weapons. Use bane weapons instead.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I would change Holy Weapons to specific domain foes or Smite Weapons aganist. Weapon would be normal +2 against everything but would have extra damage against the foes of a god or domain.

 

[daTim]

Just because you dont have alignments doesnt mean there are no concepts of good and evil, just that it is impossible to pin a person down to a single ideal like that. The best suggestion I could make regarding this would be to simply expand the way Bane works so that it incorporates groups or organizations like a rangers favored enemy works.

 

[Numion]

Give evil undead and evil ousiders [Unholy] subtype, and let the holy weapon deal extra damage against them.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Holy
Enhancement Bonus: +2
Description:
A Holy weapon is imbued with holy power.
This power was channeled by a creator who had somehow access to the power of a god (or multiple gods), like a cleric, druid or priest.
Effect:
The weapon deals 1d6 holy damage in addition to any other damage it deals.
This type of damage is not subject to Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance or Energy Immunity.
Even creatures who follow the same diety as the creator (or wielder) gain no special resistance against it.
This is extra damage and not multiplied on critical hits or on similar occasions.

It might lack some flavour, since it no longer distincts between "good" or "evil", even from the point of view of the diety, but its mechanically easy and needs no guesswork. Plain and simple, 1d6 extra damage. In many cases, it might seem inferior to a +1 enhancement like Flaming or Screaming, but its advantage is that it is not subject to Energy Resistance or Damage Reduction.

You could also go another route, and decide that holy and unholy are simply energy types, and unholy demons might take double damage from holy damage and no from unholy. In this case it could be a +1 enhancement...

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Aaron2]

Give evil undead and evil ousiders [Unholy] subtype, and let the holy weapon deal extra damage against them.

If you have "evil" outsiders then you are already using alignment. Just use alignment and remove the Detect-and-Protect type abilities; no one will notice.


Aaron