How good are permanent symbols?

[Callum]

I wondered if anyone had played in a game where the PCs had permanent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/permanency.htm) symbols (e.g. pain (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/symbolOfPain.htm), fear (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/symbolOfFear.htm), persuasion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/symbolOfPersuasion.htm)) inscribed on their shields, armour, etc? If so, were these powerful effects, or not worth the money/XP?

[drack]

Hmm, I've had a player that had quite a few of death. They help when you're in a pinch, but be sure to cover them before you head through town... they also get used up rather quickly when you need them... but if you need a plan for worse case scenarios than they're good.
(recall that they can each only affect 150HP before they stop functioning...)

[maysarahs]

I've never dealt with it myself but I'd consider it a significant mitigating (for balance purposes) factor that the bearer of the shield would have to make the same saves as anyone else in the radius of the effect. You'd also have to make sure the rest of the party stays well out of range as well. I'm not sure how permanency interacts with the symbols, in that the effects (of the ones without hitpoint limits at least) last for 10 minutes per caster level. I'd possibly rule that the person wearing the symbol needs to make a save every time the symbol is triggered (so if he runs around with the symbol out in the open, pretty much every 10*CL minutes)

[tyckspoon]

I've never dealt with it myself but I'd consider it a significant mitigating (for balance purposes) factor that the bearer of the shield would have to make the same saves as anyone else in the radius of the effect...


You also can attune any number of creatures to the symbol of death, but doing this can extend the casting time. Attuning one or two creatures takes negligible time, and attuning a small group (as many as ten creatures) extends the casting time to 1 hour. Attuning a large group (as many as twenty-five creatures) takes 24 hours. Attuning larger groups takes proportionately longer. Any creature attuned to a symbol of death cannot trigger it and is immune to its effects, even if within its radius when triggered. You are automatically considered attuned to your own symbols of death, and thus always ignore the effects and cannot inadvertently trigger them.

Nope. You can even make it safe for the rest of your party, and the extended casting time is not a huge problem considering you should be setting these things up in safe downtime anyway. The significant factor is that Symbol spells are really expensive, both in GP to cast the spells and XP to make them Permanent (especially if your DM reads Permanency such that only the original caster of a spell can make it Permanent. If you can use Permanency on pre-existing spells/somebody else's casting, then this is just another one of many situations that can be solved via Candle of Invocation-> Gate a Solar; they have Permanency as an at-will spell-like.)