Holy Symbol problem - and solution

[On Puget Sound]

One of the main sources of magical goodies is loot taken from the baddies who were using it on you. This works fine for weapons, armor, body slot items...they are pretty much interchangeable. Even halflings can resize the armor they find.

But holy symbols? Not so much. Your cleric of Pelor is going to get no use from that +3 symbol of Vecna, after defeating the high priest. In fact, she's probably going to want to destroy such a thing immediately, since even selling it would only mean eventually it would be used for evil.

So, while other party members get level-appropriate gear they can use, the cleric is getting 20% of that in residuum.

Granted, you can find holy symbols in treasure chests, assuming the bad guys for some reason didn't have the same visceral reaction of "ewww, disenchant that quickly, we don't want it around". But there are 11 good and unaligned faiths, and each requires its very own Holy Symbol. It stretches credibility that every long-abandoned symbol found in a dungeon will happen to be of your cleric's faith.

My solution?
Good (and unaligned-leaning good) temples want evil holy symbols. They want them so much that they will pay full market value, or swap you for the proper symbol of equivalent power. Why? They have (or believe they have... it doesn't really matter whether it actually works or not) a special ritual that uses the connection forged between symbol and deity, to weaken the enemy god. They hope that, over thousands of such rituals, they can reduce the influence of Evil.

The temples also realize that having their own symbols out loose in the world risks having enemy faiths do the same to them, so they eagerly buy back their own symbols to keep them safe, until the proper cleric comes along to buy or trade for one. Allied temples even trade symbols back and forth to get them into the right hands, sort of like an interlibrary loan agreement.

Since I'm still a bit unclear on the 20% trade-in and its effect on the game economy, I'd appreciate input on whether this is likely to be broken in sime way, or on how other DMs have solved the holy symbol problem.

 

[Zurai]

Easier is just a ritual to consecrate (/desecrate) a holy symbol of your faith using the energy from the holy symbol of another faith you just found. Basically, 10 minutes and some cheapo ritual components and you transfer the enchantment from the magical Vecnite unholy symbol to your plain symbol of Pelor. This fits thematically with the "resize armor" ritual.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Give evil the same ability, and you have a nice receipe for a holy war. Clerics will be waylaying each other in the street to take their holy symbols, to weaken the opposing faction or just to trade in and boost their own ability.

I like it!

Though there should be a future ritual to just convert/rededicate a holy symbol.

Edit: ninja'd!

 

[On Puget Sound]

Could also be the genesis of a collectable card game. "You got a +2 battle Avandra? Wow, that's a Rare!"

On another note, I'm wondering whether evil clerics have something necrotic as an at-will, instead of Healing Word, and whether their holy symbols have different powers.

 

[Spatula]

Easier is just a ritual to consecrate (/desecrate) a holy symbol of your faith using the energy from the holy symbol of another faith you just found. Basically, 10 minutes and some cheapo ritual components and you transfer the enchantment from the magical Vecnite unholy symbol to your plain symbol of Pelor. This fits thematically with the "resize armor" ritual.

Agreed. Re-making a holy symbol sounds like a good trivial use of the enchant ritual.

 

[Imperialus]

I like both ideas actually. Not sure which one I'd go with.

I might go with option two, since IMC at least there is a low intensity religious war going on between various good and unaligned deities. Basically Kord and the 'Old Gods' against Pelor and the 'Gods of the South'. The conflict is cultural not alignment based so I could see the clerics of both factions seeking out the holy symbols of the enemy to convert them to their own side. Symbols of evil deities are equally prized.

 

[Cadfan]

Interesting idea. Thing is, if this were the way the world worked, you wouldn't want to give a holy symbol to anyone but the most powerful of your god's agents, because losing it would result in actual damage to your god. You'd keep them under lock and key, and take them out only in the most dire of circumstances.

I'd go with the "rededicate symbol" ritual.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Could also be the genesis of a collectable card game. "You got a +2 battle Avandra? Wow, that's a Rare!"

On another note, I'm wondering whether evil clerics have something necrotic as an at-will, instead of Healing Word, and whether their holy symbols have different powers.

Evil clerics still get a huge amount of mileage out of healing word. You can just re-theme their radiant damage powers to necrotic (or just say that radiance comes in a black form as well as a white one...).

 

[Sashi]

Man, you could get a lot of millage out of something like this.

 

[Gloombunny]

Evil clerics still get a huge amount of mileage out of healing word. You can just re-theme their radiant damage powers to necrotic (or just say that radiance comes in a black form as well as a white one...).

I like to think that radiance comes in a different form for each god, regardless of alignment. Pelor grants his clerics dazzling beams of golden sunlight, Sehanine provides a soft silvery luminiscence, Asmodeus a harsh red glare, the Raven Queen a pale reddish glow like the last glimmer of light from a setting sun, and so forth.