Hallow - 24 hours casting??

[Carlobrand]

Hallow spell says it takes 24 hours to cast. "You touch a point and infuse an area around it with holy (or unholy) power." 24 hours touching a point? 24 hours during which you can't eat or drink? You can't nap? This sounds more like the kind of hazing one might give an acolyte as a practical joke: "You must touch this point continuously for 24 hours." Considering the impact of the spell, it is perhaps a reasonable requirement, but how does one adjudicate this? Maybe he could "touch a point" by sitting down on it while he mutters his incantations, but doing anything for 24 hours straight without break or rest, without making a mistake, is not an easy thing.

[SharkForce]

why would it be an easy thing? you'd expect this only to come out of rather high level experienced ritual casters. not some random guy off the street.

lots of things are hard to do if you haven't put in the amount of required training. for people who've put in the time and effort to be good at them, they are not so hard; i can't perform heart surgery or throw a football halfway across a field accurately or play a piano for an hour straight without making mistakes, but highly skilled and talented professionals do these things.

if characters were limited to what i could do, there'd be only one class, and the first dungeon crawl would most likely end in a TPK.

[Inevitability]

I interpret 'touching' as 'being in bodily contact with'. So yeah, sitting down would probably work.

It makes a lot of sense to me, to be honest. Imagine an acolyte meditating for hours at a time, without food or sleep, until at last his self-denial is rewarded and his deity infuses his surroundings with a portion of his divine strength.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Hallow consecrates a 120 foot circle, right? I'd allow 'touch' to mean 'stay awake and within the circle'. I imagine it like a day spent chanting, lighting candles, swinging censers, saying prayers, etc.

I guess it's possible that the ritual could include the consumption of food and drink, like the bread and wine of Christianity, but I'd assume that fasting is the default if the player doesn't explain what they're eating and why.

[Corran]

Or alternatively, the cleric would have to touch everything inside the radius of the spell, and that is why it takes so long to complete. Bink!:smalltongue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmh8eJbfdmQ

[RickAllison]

Or alternatively, the cleric would have to touch everything inside the radius of the spell, and that is why it takes so long to complete. Bink!:smalltongue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmh8eJbfdmQ

I give you 3 cookies for the Scrubs reference :smallbiggrin:

[EvilAnagram]

I think a decent point is raided in this thread: touching is far too loose an instruction. From now on, the players in my games will have to cartwheel naked in a circle around the area for 24 hours straight.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I think a decent point is raided in this thread: touching is far too loose an instruction. From now on, the players in my games will have to cartwheel naked in a circle around the area for 24 hours straight.

Sounds like a perfectly legit ritual from the church of Eilistraee. Or Sune, or Sharess. :smallwink:

[Segev]

It only says you have to touch it, not that you must be touching it the whole period. You could be doing all sorts of things as part of the lengthy casting of this spell; the conclusion, the dramatic moment when all that magic focuses in and makes a reality-warping effect, is when you touch that spot and pour in the power you've been gathering and shaping for the last 24 hours.

[Slipperychicken]

Hallow is some really hardcore magic. It permanently affects the area with several very strong effects. As in, you do this one time, and unless someone dispels it you can come back in a few thousand years and it'll still be there. I'm okay with it being lengthy and exhausting.


Besides, there's precedent for lengthy and exhausting prayers in RL religion and fiction. In this case the caster is essentially asking god to keep the place safe literally forever. That's not something you should drop lightly.