Other Ways of Acquiring Taint 

If the DM decides there may be other ways of acquiring taint points during the course of a campaign. Certain accursed places or objects may also cause taint. For every 24 hours spent in a tainted place or in contact with a tainted object the character must make a fortitude saving throw. The base DC is 10+5 for every 24 hours of consecutive exposure. The campaign’s taint level is used as a modifier to the die roll. At the Dm’s discretion you may also have to make a taint roll whenever you summon a demon or an undead creature. 

Cleansing Taint 

Certain spells if they are available can affect taint. Remove Curse and Remove Disease can remove one point of taint but cannot reduce it below one. Greater Restoration can reduce the level of taint by its user’s caster level right down to zero. In Price of Forbidden Knowledge campaigns absolutely nothing can ever reduce taint level below the level of the highest level spells a mage can cast. 

At the DM’s option sorcerers can recover from taint at the rate of one point per month if they utterly abstain from performing magic, avoid any place where it is being cast, and any exposure to any device, place or thing that might cause taint. At the end of this month, they can make a Fortitude saving throw DC equal to 10 + their current taint level and if they succeed they can reduce their taint level by one. Once again in Price of Forbidden Knowledge campaigns they cannot reduce their taint level below the level of the highest level spells they can cast. 

Using Taint Instead of Alignment 

You can use taint scores to replace alignment for some things. For example magical items that only work for evil characters under the standard rules will only work for characters with a taint score of 1 or higher. Items that only work for good or non-evil characters will only work for those without a taint score.


Familiars and Taint 

In some campaigns, especially those with taint levels of zero and above, the sorcerous nature of the bond between familiar and mage automatically results in the owner acquiring one point of taint. While the familiar is alive this cannot be removed by any means.