Who is mantle of faith for?

[Otterscrubber]

Mantle of Faith: This holy garment, worn over normal clothing, grants damage reduction 5/evil to the character wearing it.

Strong abjuration [good]; CL 20th; Craft Wondrous Item, stoneskin; Price 76,000 gp.


Is this supposed to be for a good faith or an evil one? Usually evil ones have some kind of bad side effect, but if it is meant to be good why is it useless against evil? *Edit* It seems clear it is meant to be good, but you would think it would have some kind of protective quality against evil.

 

[shilsen]

Considering that angels tend to have DR/evil and demons/devils tend to have DR/good, and the references to the item as a "holy garment" and having an aura of "strong abjuration [good]", I think it's quite obvious that it is intended for a good faith. Not that it should stop intelligent members of an evil faith from using it, of course.

 

[Nail]

Right, but the point being: Why isn't it DR/good? After all, holy people generally fight bad guys, not good guys!

 

[DM2]

Right, but the point being: Why isn't it DR/good? After all, holy people generally fight bad guys, not good guys!

I kind of wonder that myself....congratulations, you have DR 5, unless of course you are fighting your most common enemies.....

 

[AuraSeer]

Right, but the point being: Why isn't it DR/good? After all, holy people generally fight bad guys, not good guys!

Since you're using holy power, you take on some aspects of the embodiment of goodness, the celestials. You get DR/good because that's what celestials have.

I like to visualize it as extra damage instead of bypassed defense. That is, celestials are supernaturally tough, but the touch of pure Evil is painful to them and causes extra damage. (The reverse is true for fiends, and IIRC we recently had a thread about their DR.)

 

[Nail]

... visualize it as extra damage instead of bypassed defense. That is, celestials are supernaturally tough, but the touch of pure Evil is painful to them and causes extra damage.

Rrrright.....

And when all the good guys fight each other, it's not so painful.

"Go ahead, Raphael! Hit me right here on th' chin...I dare ya!"

"Awwww....come on, Gabriel, you know how much I hate that game....I can never penetrate yer DR......(whine)......sure, Gabriel gets the 15/evil DR, and what do I get? A lousy 5/evil.......(grumble, grumble)."

 

[dcollins]

This seems to be an intrinsic flavor problem with the new 3.5 alignment DR rules... it seems like powerful evil creatures should be more vulnerable to good powers, and at the same time good powers should be less vulnerable to evil powers. But instead they made symmetric alignment DR which results in celestials and mantle of faith being particularly vulnerable to evil creatures.

 

[Gwarok]

The whole DR/evil thing is just, well..lame. If you see an item that would be neat but has something about it like this that relegates it to the dust bin, something was probably done wrong. I would simply change it. Celestial and Fiendish DR is just silly since they bypass eachother all the time and effectively are a useless defence against those they really need it for.

 

[jgsugden]

Think of it this way:

The mantle of faith provides protection from damage from any source except the most vile and evil sources which it is powerless against.

It is designed to resist damage, but the touch of evil can negate that protection.

Does that make sense?

 

[Greatwyrm]

And when all the good guys fight each other, it's not so painful.

Maybe not, but it could explain why the Blood Wars have gone on so long. Since devils and demons can't breach each others' DR, it takes a while to pound each other down.