Positive and Negative Energy

[mucco]

I'm having some issues with these two energy types.

They look like total mirrors and, aside from one spell or two (Animate Dead, and I hear there's speculation about that spell's alignment), are not associated with Good or Evil. So the question would be: why can't I Resist Energy (Positive)? And why are those spells not in the Evocation school? Poor design, or are there any actual reasons?

[Kuma Kode]

I'm having some issues with these two energy types.

They look like total mirrors and, aside from one spell or two (Animate Dead, and I hear there's speculation about that spell's alignment), are not associated with Good or Evil. So the question would be: why can't I Resist Energy (Positive)? And why are those spells not in the Evocation school? Poor design, or are there any actual reasons? Those two have always been a bit funky. There's Death Ward, which guards against negative energy effects, and presumably you could make a Life Ward that guards against positive. It's just that positive energy doesn't really have any special negative consequences and 99.9% of PCs are living, so such a spell would be rather unnecessary.

The resist reason you can't Resist Positive is because it's not an elemental damage type. It's Energy. The same reason you can't Resist Holy or Resist Unholy.

As for why they're not in Evocation... I would presume it's because Negative fits into Necromancy and positive energy effects are fluffed as summoning the energy from the Positive Energy plane? School classifications really aren't a very technical part of the game.

[2xMachina]

Positive is all stuffed in Conj (Healing)

[mucco]

Maybe Necromancy would be a better place for Positive Energy too then? It does say that Necromancy manipulates life force. And there even is a Necromancy [Healing] spell in SpC...

[Kuma Kode]

Maybe Necromancy would be a better place for Positive Energy too then? It does say that Necromancy manipulates life force. And there even is a Necromancy [Healing] spell in SpC... That does make sense. Resurrection and Raise Dead are also both Necromancy. I think they were separated as an attempt to make necromancy more evil.

[satorian]

As I remember, healing spells were necromancy in 2nd edition. I'd guess they were indeed trying to make necromancy more evil.

[Curious]

You know, I had some thoughts on this a while ago. I believe that both positive and negative energy have no alignment, as in, they are not inherently good or evil, merely opposites. As such, I think having a class or school of magic dedicated to positive magic, as opposed to negative magic, would be quite awesome. For instance; perhaps your magic could be used for both healing, buffing, or mutating enemies with rampant cellular growth. There are so many possibilities!

[ericgrau]

Ya they aren't elements is the fluff reason. The balance reason is because some types aren't meant to be resisted.

Although this whole thing does remind me of my custom spell in one campaign based on protection from energy: "protection from weaponized horticulture". The reason was because the character had a phobia of tropical fruit ever since he got one shotted by an exploding pineapple.

[Kuma Kode]

Protection from Weaponized Horticulture
I just... had to stare at that one for a while.

[Dr.Epic]

And why are those spells not in the Evocation school? Poor design, or are there any actual reasons?

Because they can restore HP?:smallconfused:

[boomwolf]

I tend to combine the two in my games to a single energy type, being a "plus" an "minus", but basically the same thing.

[The-Mage-King]

Ya they aren't elements is the fluff reason. The balance reason is because some types aren't meant to be resisted.

Although this whole thing does remind me of my custom spell in one campaign based on protection from energy: "protection from weaponized horticulture". The reason was because the character had a phobia of tropical fruit ever since he got one shotted by an exploding pineapple.

:smallconfused:

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AWESOME! :smallbiggrin:
Keeping my Caps lock.