Clerics and their Holy Symbols

[Hypersmurf]

... or getting a feat which finally lets you forget about them forever (such as Eschew Materials).

Eschew Materials doesn't let you ignore a focus or divine focus component, though.

-Hyp.

 

[Li Shenron]

Eschew Materials doesn't let you ignore a focus or divine focus component, though.

Oh come on! We all know that, and you know it was referred to material comp

 

[Black Knight Irios]

And costly components are still out of reach for that feat, you'd need Ignore Material Components [EPIC]!

 

[Hypersmurf]

Oh come on! We all know that, and you know it was referred to material comp

In a thread about divine foci, when you'd just said "We treat them like material components"?

I didn't think that was obvious at all

-Hyp.

 

[Li Shenron]

In a thread about divine foci, when you'd just said "We treat them like material components"?

I didn't think that was obvious at all

I allow you to blame my writing skills in English.

 

[Votan]

We treat DF in the same ways as material components. Which means that they are assumed to be available and don't need to be kept track of, except in very rare circumstances or when grappling (however even the latter is often forgotten).

In theory, every divine caster should take very care of his holy symbol jsut as an arcane caster should of his spell component pouch (or spellbook!). But the chance of losing it, having it sundered or stolen, or having problems in manipulating it never comes up in our games. It is a situation that adds very little to the fun of the game, as after the first time it happens the player usually starts bothering about having more foci or pouches in the backpack, sewing them on the clothes, concealing them with a spell, spending a few more money for a special item to protect them, or getting a feat which finally lets you forget about them forever (such as Eschew Materials).

Essentially, it's the kind of thing that gets an implicit agreement from the DM that would not be bothered much, unless maybe once to create the trigger for a whole adventure.

Yeah. If you go after clerical holy symbols (almost as bad a wizard spellbooks) it really reduces the fun of playing the class. Having played a cleric suddenly deprived of spells by random bad luck (and without arms or armour) I can tell you that it is an unpleasant situation.

If a DM decides to do this it should be infrequent and planned.

 

[youspoonybard]

I always carry as much Holly and Mistletoe I can carry in my pack...

 

[dren]

In 2e Spells and Magic, Create Holy Symbol was a 2nd-level spell, which seems about right.

I give clerics a free feat at 1st level - Create Holy Symbol. They need one hour of prayer and meditation, to either instill a DF into a standard holy symbol or to create one from nothingness.

 

[The Souljourner]

We're pretty lenient. I figure that if a cleric of a god (who is probably more powerful and has more faith than 99% of that god's followers) can't make his own holy symbol, who can?

It's like the old vampire/cross thing - it's not the symbol, it's the will behind the symbol.

I assume the costs for holy symbols in the PHB are for fancy ones. If you're christian, the 1 GP one would be those nicely carved wooden crosses on a leather thong, and the 25GP ones are the really nice sterling silver jobbies on a silver chain. But if the Pope nails two sticks together, he's going to get just as much out of it as he would the uber fancy sterling silver one made in Taiwan.

-The Souljourner

 

[Thanee]

~tine. Adamantine.

Adamantium is the german word for adamantine, and Schnee is the german word for snow. So I guess, that schnee is german and just used to use the german terminus.

Bye
Thanee