Purify Evil Spells

[undead hero]

Sooo what happens when you add the Purify metamagic to an Evil spell? Do you now have a neutral spell descriptor (as in you have Evil and Good)? Or does it drop the evil spell descriptor and gain the good descriptor?

I don't think this is a clear cut answer so I didn't go with the Q&A thread.

[Chaosvii7]

Sooo what happens when you add the Purify metamagic to an Evil spell? Do you now have a neutral spell descriptor (as in you have Evil and Good)? Or does it drop the evil spell descriptor and gain the good descriptor?

I don't think this is a clear cut answer so I didn't go with the Q&A thread.

I think it should drop Evil and gain Good, unless it explicitly states otherwise. I assume Purifying the spell overtakes the original spell's effects, because it seems like kind of a waste to just get rid of the alignment descriptor.

[ahenobarbi]

It gains [Good] descriptor and keeps [Evil] descriptor.

Because feat says that it should gain [Good] descriptor and says nothing about loosing [Evil] descriptor.

[Fates]

Purified Unholy Blight. It does 1/4 normal damage to neutral creatures (1/8 on a save). Most useless attack spell ever? Probably not.

[undead hero]

It gains [Good] descriptor and keeps [Evil] descriptor.

Because feat says that it should gain [Good] descriptor and says nothing about loosing [Evil] descriptor.

Can a spell have two opposite alignment descriptors?

Also with Purify spell, you can then cast Evil spells and you won't drop toward the deep end of the alignment.... Though it may take you to neutral...

[rweird]

Can a spell have two opposite alignment descriptors?

Also with Purify spell, you can then cast Evil spells and you won't drop toward the deep end of the alignment.... Though it may take you to neutral...

The single casting probably means it won't change much.

[Nettlekid]

Can someone explain to me the whole "changing alignments because of spell descriptors" thing, because it doesn't seem like there's a lot of hard and fast rules about what's a kind of big deal. I understand that Clerics (and Druids?) are unable to cast spells with descriptors opposed to their alignments. But arcane casters are under no such compulsion, except for the suggestion that if they use too many (what counts as too many?) spells of an opposed alignment, their alignment will shift? I find it hard to imagine that some CE Bard who liberally uses the spell Blinding Beauty to permanently blind civilians so she can steal from them will eventually turn good as a result of casting that spell.

[Evard]

The biggest problem with becoming evil is being on the wrong side of the smite evil when you present the king with the rat tail you were tasked to pick up from some remote abandoned caslte. The kings Paladins may not ask questions.

Plus ppl are wary of adventuring with an evil team mate.

When you cast to many evil spells, you are doing something that is inheritantly (on my cell so no spell check) evil. Perhaps desicrating a corpse or using evil energy. Eventually that gets to your character. Think of it like taint if you will.

[Nettlekid]

I understand the fluff reasons to it (mostly, it's usually the Evil-to-Good ones that are weird) but there seem to be no mechanical details on how the conversion works. How many alignment spells you need to cast in how short a time for it to change you.

[hamishspence]

In Fiendish Codex II there's "Corruption" rules- how many unatoned-for Evil acts will reset your afterlife destination to the Nine Hells if you are Lawful.

But it doesn't say your alignment actually changes, no matter how much Corruption you accrue.

For comparison, casting an Evil spell is a 1 pt Corrupt act- on a par with "humiliating an underling" and less evil than "stealing from the needy for personal gain".

Good aligned characters can be "driven to evil from time to time" - without alignment changing (Champions of Ruin. Player's Handbook also mentions that Good characters might do morally dubious things now and again). How rare the evil acts need to be (1 per week at most? 1 per month? Less?) and how serious they need to be to change alignment, is very much a DM discretion thing.

Neutral characters, going by Heroes of Horror, can commit Evil acts regularly and remain Neutral, as long as there's sufficient Good intentions behind it. Still, DMs might put certain limits on that- with some Evil acts being too severe for the DM to react in any way other than to change the character's alignment.

[ahenobarbi]

Can a spell have two opposite alignment descriptors?

Also with Purify spell, you can then cast Evil spells and you won't drop toward the deep end of the alignment.... Though it may take you to neutral...

I don't think there is a rule prohibiting spell being [good] and [evil]. And there is something similar: a creature with [evil] subtype and good alignment is considered both good and evil...