+3 Holy Symbol?

[cmanos]

How come holy symbols never got the whole magic item treatment? And you never find them as traesure. Yet they are so important that every cleric has to have one!

Never say Never. There is a flametouched iron holy symbol of the sovereign host in Shadows of the Last War.

 

[Christian]

Never say Never. There is a flametouched iron holy symbol of the sovereign host in Shadows of the Last War.

Which, for those unfamiliar with Eberron, gives a +1 to your level for turning checks.

 

[Land Outcast]

Uther Lightbringer (yes, I know, I don't care about originality, the DM's quality made up for it) -paladin of Lathander in a FR game I played- had a quite fun holy symbol which produced Enlarged Daylight as a immediate action and gave those who saw it a new save once per day against undeads' mind affecting effects (example: Vampire's Domination).

It was a minor item (game level 15 aprox) but was admittedly a nice touch.

 

[Notmousse]

In theory you could add enchantments of nearly any stripe to your holy symbol through Craft Wonderous Item. Of course the most thematically appropriate ones (adding to your turn checks or turn damage, and other uses for turning attempts) aren't often seen so I'd created a few of my own for campaigns I've run.

My favorite was a holy symbol of Pelor which granted any like-minded cleric two additional Greater Turning attempts per day. Unfortunately the cleric gave it to his deacon without checking if it had any powers.

 

[Glyfair]

I think this is probably the main stumbling block to adding magic holy symbols as standard treasure. For one thing, most of them will be the holy symbols of your foes, and those that are found as other random treasure will most likely not be of your god.

True, but there is nothing preventing special holy symbols from being quested after. Some might even have abilities tied into being in a place of worship rather than being carried. Let them add magical protections or gifts to their temples.

Eberron has a special material, Flametouched iron, that adds to the turning check when used to fashion holy symbols.

 

[Andras]

Add the power of a circlet of Persuasion or a Sceptre of Obedience (Mini's HB) to your Holy Symbol. They add a bonus to Cha checks which would be your Turning check.

They share the same cost formula @ Bonus^2 * 500.

 

[Kieperr]

The Planar Handbook has a True Holy Symbol. Such a symbol is made on the god's home plane and gives a +2 to turn checks.

 

[FireLance]

You know, I once toyed with the idea of domain symbols. A cleric with one of these symbols could prepare spells in his domain slots as if he had access to the domain associated with the symbol, but would have to use the domain symbol as the divine focus (or as an additional divine focus, if the spell does not require one) to cast the spell. Naturally, a cleric should only be able to use a domain symbol if his deity or philosophy grants access to that domain, or at the very least, is not incompatible with the domain. I'd price it similar to a spellbook with nine spells, one each of level 1 to 9, or 4,500 gp.

As an additional bonus, a divine spellcaster that does not have domain slots could use a domain symbol to prepare up to 1 spell per level of spells he has access to from that domain (again, assuming the domain is compatible with his deity or philosophy), but no more than 1 spell per level of spells he has access to can be used in this manner, even if he has more than one domain symbol.

 

[Jhamin]

A PC in my game recieved a Holy Symbol that could cast Death Ward 1/Day. It was a reward from a fellow cleric of her order about to leave for Epic quests.

 

[ElectricDragon]

The 1e or 2e module, Ravenloft, featured a magical holy symbol that gave a +2 or +4 bonus (I forget which) to turning checks (PCs couldn't be evil then; so it worked for any PC cleric). Otherwise, killer module (and I mean TPK: there was one 5th level ranger-frog that did survive, though...).


Ciao
Dave