Talk:Components
Noah: Ah, this is excellent. Something left somewhat open-ended here is what actually constitutes a holy symbol (a subject very near and dear to Wirschen at the moment). Can a Christian priest bind two sticks together and have a working cross for spell casting? Does it have to be blessed somehow by the spiritual order (i.e. if a smilodon devours your cross in the middle of America, are you totally boned until you return to Christian lands)?
I think perhaps the defining factor is that a holy item has some permanence to its shape, and that some craftsmanship went in to its creation. Therefore two sticks bound together in a cross shape would not constitute a holy item, but a cross carved from two sticks, bound with twine and set with tar would. I think if every holy item needed to be blessed there would be far fewer houses of worship and fewer still offshoot branches of an established religion. How would the first Bogomils get their symbols blessed?
Hal: As the PH specifies that a holy symbol costs 25 gp, and as this purchase is oft the largest expenditure for a first-level priest (not that we'll see any of those ever again), an expenditure rendered unnecessary if one could whittle up a holy symbol while en route to the dungeon, I would probably rule that a holy symbol needs at the very least 25 gp worth of craftsmanship in it (exceptions to be made for mendicants); it should probably be blessed in some way by church (temple, mosque, etc.) authorities, too, but of course for some priests (crazed heretics, e.g.) this requirement can be waived; and perhaps mitigating circumstances can permit the use of unblessed 25 gp items. But even Bogomils can have a blessing ritual that involves defecating on the host. The question of first Bogomils falls under the question of first causes; and founders of religions, I think it's clear, get their holy symbols blessed directly by their gods.
Noah: Ah, so. All of this is copacetic. I presume exceptions are made for primitive cultures as well (although there is nothing preventing them from putting in 25 gp worth of work on something). Further, the use of 'bless' here refers to the spell sans the requirement for holy water, correct?
