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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6634203" data-attributes="member: 6777696">The cleric or paladin is allowed to emblazon a holy symbol on his or her shield, thereby turning it into a holy symbol.Basic Rules page 49 (equipment section):Holy Symbol. A holy symbol is a representation of a god or pantheon. It might be an amulet depicting a symbol representing a deity, the same symbol carefully engraved or inlaid as an emblem on a shield, or a tiny box holding a fragment of a sacred relic. The Player’s Handbook lists many gods in the multiverse and their typical symbols. A cleric or paladin can use a holy symbol as a spellcasting focus, as described in chapter 10. To use the symbol in this way, the caster must hold it in hand, wear it visibly, or bear it on a shield.The Cleric and Paladin do not need to take the warcaster feat in order to cast spells requiring a material component (eg spell focus) using their holy symbol emblazoned on their shield. This is more of an issue for Eldritch Knights who want to go sword and board (or multi-class arcane casters), because a shield (or weapon) cannot double as an arcane focus.It is worth noting that, for this to work, your shield does have to have a holy symbol visibly emblazoned on it. This means that anybody seeing your shield would immediately see (and most likely recognize) your holy symbol, which could have consequences under certain RP circumstances. (For instance, when adventuring in Glantri, being a cleric or paladin is punishable by death. A cleric would need to take care not to let any of the authorities see his shield, unless he wants trouble.)On the other hand, as shown above, the holy symbol can also simply be worn in a visible location, so the cleric could simply wear the symbol around his or her neck — much easier to conceal around town.</blockquote>

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