I covered the following two points: 1) the inconsistent relationship between the energy planes, feywild, shadowfell, and alignment. 2) an idea that clerics get their damage by channeling from energy gates located on specific planes. If moved to the wrong plane they will cause problems the PCs need to fix.
The standard cosmology has always had problems with consistency of internal logic. One of the good things 5e brought to the table was removing the confusing logic surrounding positive and negative energy effects (unlike Pathfinder, which has only made things even more complicated). That said, there's still an association between alignment and the remnants of the energies. Negative energy (now necrotic damage) has always been associated with evil and positive energy (now radiant damage) with good, even though at other times the rules have called them morally neutral.
Here is a quote concerning how radiant and necrotic energy are typically portrayed in prior editions:
Positive Energy is associated with Vitality (Boosting Hit Points, Healing, Raising the Dead, Life Extension, possibly including positive emotional effects if the GM is feeling generous) and Raw Energy (Light, Most Evocations, including force-constructs. Possibly including Astral Constructs if the game master is feeling generous. Includes most Metamagic Addition effects under “pouring more raw energy into the spell” and for back-compatibility with Divine Metamagic). Secondarily it seems to have minor associations with the Higher Planes (covering relatively minor summons and limited contact effects, simple blessings, and purifications/sacred light – but nothing of very high level that doesn’t overlap into raw-energy blasting).
Negative Energy is associated with Darkness (Darkness and Shadows, Necromancy, Corruption and Curses, and, if the GM is feeling generous – negative emotional effects) and Destruction (Disintegration, Cause Wounds / Harm, and Negation/Dispelling). Secondarily it seems to have minor associations the lower planes (covering relatively minor summons and limited contact effects, simple curses, and making things toxic or infections).For the most part this still applies in 5e, at least conceptually. The difference is that in 3.x positive and negative energy could fulfill the role of the other in certain circumstances: negative energy would heal the undead rather than harm them (which makes no sense thematically as a force of destruction), and positive energy would harm the undead rather than heal them (which would be covered by purification rather than healing, which are two separate concepts). Trying to puzzle out the logic of this led to many headaches. 4e simplified things by making healing spells heal undead just as they did the living, and then 5e made healing spells entirely ineffective against undead.
5e still has the positive and negative energy planes (which have become almost synonymous with the higher and lower planes), although they've been eclipsed in importance by the Shadowfell and Feywild. The Shadowfell is full of spooky evil undead. The Feywild is full of... fey. Despite being linked with druids and neutrality and including hags, the fey and Feywild still has connotations of being linked to goodness despite having obvious evil factions like the Unseelie fey. For example, the eladrin and guardinals of Planescape fame have apparently been typed as fey (though they have yet to appear in an official sourcebook).
I have already discussed the morality of undead and the situational usefulness of turn undead in other posts. I could spend a lot of time discussing how 5e's assertion that death and darkness and whatever are evil without any logical basis, but I will not. Instead, I will try to explain why clerics deal radiant or necrotic energy with their divine strikes.
Taking a page from Classic Play: The Book of the Planes, the different domains channel their energy from gates located on planes of the appropriate energy source. A cleric who deals radiant damage is channeling that damage from the Plane of Radiance (which in my cosmology displaces the Feywild), necrotic damage from the Shadowfell, acid damage from the Elemental Demiplane of Acid, etc. This provides a handy plot hook: if the gates are moved to a different plane, the clerics and angels will deal the wrong damage type and may suffer other unpleasant side effects.
Another motivation for my adopting this is that it places less emphasis on the gods. I do not like the idea of the gods actively taking part in affairs on the material plane. Not only does it eclipse the party members and render the concepts of heresy and apostasy moot, but it also makes the gods all look evil for not using their power constructively. Don't believe me? The Empyrean in the monster manual is explicitly stated to be a demigod or whatever, who the gods allow to destroy and pillage at will and will go so far as to resurrect the Empyrean if the party kills it (and maybe smite the party while they're at it). I will deal with in-game religion in a future post.
Research links
- ruscumag.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/eclipse-d20-conversion-dominion-and-path-of-the-dragon/
- ruscumag.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/undead-and-souls-the-d20-way/
- www.campaignmastery.com/blog/something-about-undead/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/4532j0/5e_why_doesnt_the_cure_wounds_spell_harm_undead/
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