Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Holy Waters

I forget why, but I had a thought a few weeks ago about holy water. Specifically that, despite clerics worshiping various types of gods--fire, healing, protection, war, etc--holy water tends to do only a few specific things, generally operating as a sort of demon/undead-damaging grenade.

In my experience, players don't really carry holy water because the damage is typically pretty pathetic, especially at higher levels. In Dungeons & Delvers I set it up so that alchemical items could scale up, making them more useful over a long period of time: a standard fireflask (ie, alchemist's fire with a more interesting name) deals 2d6 fire damage to a 5-foot radius, while a superlative version deals 10d6 to a 20-foot radius.

Of course the price difference between the two is 425 sp, and while that might sound like a lot, the superlative's saving throw DC for half damage is nine points higher, and it inflicts more Burning damage. So, much more useful against higher level monsters, and at that point also more affordable (of course, nothing is stopping the GM from giving the players one of them early on, just to see what they do with it).

But, not only will holy water in 2nd Edition function similarly (and I think ignoring the DR of undead and demons make it all the more appealing), but you can also choose from a variety of effects depending on what sort of cleric blessed it. Here are some examples:

• Death: Pour it on a corpse to prevent it from rising as an undead creature, or to animate the corpse for a period of time. Could also inflict damage to living creatures and/or heal undead.
• Fire: Glows as a candle. It also inflicts fire damage. Could even be used to start fires.
• Forge: Restores damage to objects you pour it on. Also used to bless crafting tools so you get a bonus on the job. The really good stuff could even make it masterwork, at least for a period of time.
• Healing: It either heals a wound it is poured on, or you mix it in with a mending potion. If it heals wounds on its own, the price would have to go up, or the healing down (to something like 1d3). But I could see adding it to a mending potion to make the healing instantaneous (normally mending potions slowly restore lost WP).
• Knowledge: Drink it to gain a bonus on your next "lore" check. Could also allow you to make a lore check to recall information you couldn't possibly know.
• Protection: Pour it on someone to grant them bonus AC and/or a DR buffer, until it absorbs a certain amount of damage. Also pour it across a threshold to prevent evil creatures from passing through.
• Sun: Glows as a torch. Inflicts radiant damage, and can cure/cause blindness when sprinkled on the eyes.
• War: Grants an attack and/or damage bonus to a weapon you pour it on. Maybe for one attack (after which the water is all gone), maybe for a few. Depends on how we want to do this. Could also instantly sharpen a weapon, in case it was damaged.

Finally, I'm thinking that holy water could serve as "bottled Favor", with an amount of Favor points based on quality: it only works with whatever Domain it's linked with, but you sprinkle it on yourself, someone else, or a place or object and trigger a Miracle with a Favor cost that's equal or less.

For example, if you have healing holy water of a quality where it's worth 3 Favor, you could sprinkle it on a creature and use Healing Touch to restore Wound Points as if you had spend 3 points, yourself.