Are diety-specific spells and items locked to worshippers?

[Kiba Kurokage]

As the title asks, I know feats and traits say specifically: You MUST worship the diety to take them, (clarifying channel, and ear for music as examples for a shelyn-worshipping character), But a previous DM told me that magic items can only be crafted by and given to members of a specific diety's religion if they are associated.

In example: A ring of seven lovely colors, Knight-Inheritor's Ring, or Starsong Mail, can only be given to, worn, and specifically CREATED by worshipers of that religion as a kind of "trade secret". I am unaware of any mechanical issues with a cleric of Desna wearing a rosy Hauberk, other then not getting the bonuses specifcally stated with: "if the wearer has X as their patron: then Y".

My main concern is the creation of and buying these specific items in other campaigns, if there is a ruling stating anything of the sort. I would like my oracle/worshiper of Shelyn to be able to get his deity-favored gear without needing to take item creation feats himself for example.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Kiba Kurokage wrote:

As the title asks, I know feats and traits say specifically: You MUST worship the diety to take them, (clarifying channel, and ear for music as examples for a shelyn-worshipping character), But a previous DM told me that magic items can only be crafted by and given to members of a specific diety's religion if they are associated.

In example: A ring of seven lovely colors, Knight-Inheritor's Ring, or Starsong Mail, can only be given to, worn, and specifically CREATED by worshipers of that religion as a kind of "trade secret".

No such restrictions are mentioned in the item entries for those three (looking at Archives of Nethys, which is canonical nowadays), therefore they do not exist.

And while there are items whose Construction (bottom of the item entry) include things like "creator must worship Shelyn," "creator must be a cleric of Shelyn," "creator must have gotten to second base with Shelyn," it is important to remember that such prereqs can be skipped at the mere price of increasing the crafting DC by 5 per skip. The only construction bit that can't be skipped that way is the item creation feat.

Kiba Kurokage wrote:

I am unaware of any mechanical issues with a cleric of Desna wearing a rosy Hauberk, other then not getting the bonuses specifcally stated with: "if the wearer has X as their patron: then Y".

I don't see anything like that in the Rosy Hauberk entry either, actually. If it were there, it would hold (non-skippably), but as you say that doesn't stop anyone else from having one, wearing it and getting all its other benefits. At worst you might offend actual worshippers who see you with it.

TL;DR Your previous GM was dead wrong.

[avr]

Suppose a cleric of Shelyn wearing a ring of seven lovely colors dies horribly at the hands of a cleric of Zon-Kuthon. Is there anything stopping the latter looting the body of the former? There is not.

[OmniMage]

I'm not familiar with such a rule. Perhaps it was a house rule or maybe the GM read something wrong.

[PossibleCabbage]

If an item functioned differently when used by a person of a certain alignment/class/religion that would be indicated in the text of the item.

Precedence for this is like, the Holy Avenger working differently for Paladins.

[zza ni]

some items have powers that only show up if the user is of a specific religion,like an item that give a bonus to skill and if you are of some specific religion you also get to cast a specific spell\s x/day.
but even that you can probably UMD.

[Kayerloth]

No, but ultimately the dm has the final say. I doubt balance would be thrown out of whack by ruling the creator must be of a specific faith and that could not be bypassed by raising the DC. As for theft and UMD there are ways they could be inhibited. There could religious groups who hunt down 'wayward' items of the faith, looking to return them to the faith/faithful. Curses and negative levels could be bestowed when the unfaithful wield or use the item, for example.

[Claxon]

I suppose the creation might be limited to worshipers, maybe it's something special that the connection to the deity allows.

But once it's made I can't see the magical item working differently for non-worshipers, unless the item specifically calls it out as doing so.

[Chakat Firepaw]

As a general rule, no. The main exception are the spells granted in the "worshiper specific" sidebars, (e.g. while an Inquisitor of any deity can cast Harvest Knowledge, Clerics can only cast it if they worship Calistria), and any spell or item can have a restriction specific to it.

Now, such items and spells are certainly going to be more common with worshipers of the deity in question. Partly because they have easier access to them and partly because they are the kinds of things they would use, (what worshiper of Abadar isn't going to be interested in a spell that makes appraisals easier, faster and never unknowingly wrong?).

[CloudCobra]

The book Gods and Magic has rules for attuning items from one patron deity to another. The prerequisites are the Craft Wondrous Item feat, all the spells that the item requires at creation and that you spend 500 gp + 1 day's work to retune it to another patron or remove the patron requirement entirely.

So, on one hand, if you loot something from a follower of another deity and "retune" the item that's effectively giving followers of that deity the middle finger. However, on the other hand, if you just have a cleric of another deity create an item with that particular spell it does also bypass the problem of obtaining certain spells. A contract is a contract is a contract - but only among Ferengi.