Buttercup
Princess of Florin
I just skimmed through all but the first few posts, so forgive me if I've repeated anything. This world sounds really cool! Here are some points that occurred to me.
You could make all cure and other positive-energy spells one level higher than they are in the PH, to reflect the shortage of positive energy. Harm and other negative energy spells might be one level lower. This would mean that, for example, a cleric could not cast Cure Light Wounds until 3rd level.
There should be a thriving black market in untainted water. Of course, since it is a black market, some of what is sold will actually be unholy water, and anyone who drinks it will begin to decay. In fact, if you can grab a copy of Mongoose's Encyclopedia Arcane: Necromancy, there is a list of all sorts of nasty things that can happen to someone who dabbles too much with negative energy. You could even have your heroes roll for negative energy damage once a week when they're adventuring outside of the 'safe' zones.
Food would need to be purified before it was eaten or one would need to roll for the same sort of damage.
I'm envisioning a holy spring, which is in the main temple of your positive aligned religion. The water that comes out of here is all holy water. The existence of this spring is the greatest secret of this religion, and even the low level clerics & paladins don't know about it. However, maybe the mid level clerics of this order sprinkle water from this spring all around the city once a week, and this is what keeps the area free from the taint suffered by the rest of the world. Plants grown in the tiny kitchen gardens in this city are normal and healthy, and the people prize them highly. Maybe there would be periodic rituals conducted by the high priest, in which the Daylight spell is cast all over the ciity. If you go with my idea of increasing the level of all positive-energy related spells, then one has to be a 9th level cleric before one can cast Daylight.
You could make all cure and other positive-energy spells one level higher than they are in the PH, to reflect the shortage of positive energy. Harm and other negative energy spells might be one level lower. This would mean that, for example, a cleric could not cast Cure Light Wounds until 3rd level.
There should be a thriving black market in untainted water. Of course, since it is a black market, some of what is sold will actually be unholy water, and anyone who drinks it will begin to decay. In fact, if you can grab a copy of Mongoose's Encyclopedia Arcane: Necromancy, there is a list of all sorts of nasty things that can happen to someone who dabbles too much with negative energy. You could even have your heroes roll for negative energy damage once a week when they're adventuring outside of the 'safe' zones.
Food would need to be purified before it was eaten or one would need to roll for the same sort of damage.
I'm envisioning a holy spring, which is in the main temple of your positive aligned religion. The water that comes out of here is all holy water. The existence of this spring is the greatest secret of this religion, and even the low level clerics & paladins don't know about it. However, maybe the mid level clerics of this order sprinkle water from this spring all around the city once a week, and this is what keeps the area free from the taint suffered by the rest of the world. Plants grown in the tiny kitchen gardens in this city are normal and healthy, and the people prize them highly. Maybe there would be periodic rituals conducted by the high priest, in which the Daylight spell is cast all over the ciity. If you go with my idea of increasing the level of all positive-energy related spells, then one has to be a 9th level cleric before one can cast Daylight.
