hey all, I recently had a discussion on this and I am curious how others read the feat:
https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=272
"Carefully etching a sacred image into a physical object, you steel yourself for battle. You can spend 10 minutes emblazoning a symbol of your deity upon a weapon or shield. The symbol doesn’t fade until 1 year has passed, but if you Emblazon an Armament, any symbol you previously emblazoned and any symbol already emblazoned on that item instantly disappears. The item becomes a religious symbol of your deity and can be used as a divine focus while emblazoned, and it gains another benefit determined by the type of item. This benefit applies only to followers of the deity the symbol represents."
So my question is this:
Can you Emblazon Armament on multiple armaments?
The way I read it is that if you emblazon an armament, that armament itself cannot have more than one symbol, which is dictated by the "on that item" text.
However, another has read the text to say that you can only have one shield Emblazoned at any given time where the first clause dictates that anything you have emblazoned would be "removed" and you can only emblazon one shield.
Given the benefit is rather small for those that share the deity (damage +1 or +1 hardness) that it seems reasonably read either way (since the focus casting benefit only applies to the Cleric themselves).
Also, has there been clarification on the "casting while wielding a weapon during somatic components"? that's what lead to this discussion in the first place.
Happy gaming and thanks for any feedback!
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I'm pretty sure you're wrong. If you emblazoned a symbol on an item, it erases any other symbols you have emblazoned on the any other items. That's the important bit. It also erases any symbol on said item that anyone else Emblazoned, which is mostly a flavor thing because an item can only be dedicated to one god I guess.
Your reading would make the first clause redundant; if it only erased any symbols on the same item there would be no need to say "symbols you previously emblazoned" because that's already covered by "any symbol emblazoned on that item."
Also, think through the narrative implications of your reading. It isn't just that you could boost every weapon of every member of your party, assuming they convert to your deity, and many would. It is that a single cleric with this feat could empower entire armies of the faithful. It's so easy, in fact, it would just become the cheapest rune on the market-- 10 minutes is nothing, really. If you charged a gold (which any player would pay for +1 damage) and did it 8 hours a day you'd make 48 gold a day. That's a 160 times what a second level character makes on Earn Income. That's a pretty bonkers for a second level feat.
I mean, it says right there that any symbol you've previously emblazoned disappears. That seems really clear to me.
Oh, you can cast somatic components while wielding a weapon though. So this is only relevant for material components like the 3 action heal.
Fair enough was just curious because I felt like the “on that item” was redundant to include if it was always for any item.
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The reason it mentions "on that item" is in case someone else emblazoned on it, like if you capture a shield emblazoned by an enemy Asmodeus cleric, you can Emblazon to Iomedae and it erases any symbol you previously emblazoned and any symbol already emblazoned on that item (in this case, the Asmodeus symbol for sure, and anything else you personally emblazoned).
The reason it mentions "on that item" is in case someone else emblazoned on it, like if you capture a shield emblazoned by an enemy Asmodeus cleric, you can Emblazon to Iomedae and it erases any symbol you previously emblazoned and any symbol already emblazoned on that item (in this case, the Asmodeus symbol for sure, and anything else you personally emblazoned).
Thanks mark!