Discrepancy in Protection from Good/Evil

[LazarusLong42]

From the SRD, on the spell protection from evil:

Third, the spell prevents bodily contact by summoned creatures. This causes the natural weapon attacks of such creatures to fail and the creatures to recoil if such attacks require touching the warded creature. Good summoned creatures are immune to this effect.

And on the spell protection from good:

This spell functions like protection from evil, except... good summoned creatures cannot touch the subject.

The former implies that protection from evil protects against the natural attacks of evil and neutral summoned creatures (i.e., only good creatures are immune). The latter, however, implies that protection from good wards only against good creatures. (The implication in the law and chaos versions of the spell is the same, substituting the correct alignment.)

I can't find anything in either the errata or the FAQs that addresses this discrepancy; has there been a Sage "ruling" or other similar addressing of the issue? Given the name of the spell, I assume the intent was the latter effect--only evil creatures are warded by protection from evil--but given that all four spells protect against mind control regardless of alignment, this line of reasoning is not quite cut-and-dry.

 

[Telperion]

As far as I can tell: it sucks to be neutral.
That bein said I don't think it is a great problem.
Here are some reasons:
- You can't attack the creature you are warded against.
- You can't approach the creature you are warded against (very close anyway).
-SR can allow a summoned creature to pass trough the ward.

So, it doesn't really help to be warded from that evil Demon that just popped into existence if all your friends are getting slaughtered right next to you. All the demon needs to do is go around you and keep on striking at your allies. If you make an attack, then the ward is history and the creature can attack you normally.

 

[dcollins]

I can't find anything in either the errata or the FAQs that addresses this discrepancy; has there been a Sage "ruling" or other similar addressing of the issue? Given the name of the spell, I assume the intent was the latter effect--only evil creatures are warded by protection from evil--but given that all four spells protect against mind control regardless of alignment, this line of reasoning is not quite cut-and-dry.

Many of us have been puzzled by this discrepancy ever since 3.0 came out. There hasn't been any modification to what's written there.

 

[Cheiromancer]

The former implies that protection from evil protects against the natural attacks of evil and neutral summoned creatures (i.e., only good creatures are immune). The latter, however, implies that protection from good wards only against good creatures.

I am not sure about that last interpretation- it doesn't say " except only good summoned creatures cannot touch the subject" or anything equivalent. Protection from evil protects contact by evil or neutral summoned creatures, but not good summoned creatures. Protection from good is the same, except good summoned creatures cannot touch the subject. So protection from good also protects contact by evil or neutral summoned creatures. In other words protection from good protects against everything.

If you are an evil cleric, you'd have to worry about attacks from other evil casters, not just do-gooders. You need all-round protection. That's my interpretation, anyway.