D&D 1E Holy Symbol Spell Purpose?

I don't understand the purpose of this being q spell. Isn't making a Holy Symbol into a spell to make every Cleric waste a Spell slot? Additionally, it is a 2nd level spell. What about the 1st level spell components requiring a Holy Symbol for it's Material Component?
In my opinion, this should NEVER be a spell but a normal ritual for any Cleric/Paladin.

Like it says in the spell, it's to replace a lost or damaged holy (or unholy) symbol or create a backup, so the cleric doesn't have to go back to town to buy a new one if the one they bought at first level gets destroyed somehow. Of course, the cleric could always buy a backup ahead of time, but what if that gets destroyed too? This spell could come in handy as long as the proper item or materials are available to make into a new one.

Hriston said:

Like it says in the spell, it's to replace a lost or damaged holy (or unholy) symbol or create a backup, so the cleric doesn't have to go back to town to buy a new one if the one they bought at first level gets destroyed somehow. Of course, the cleric could always buy a backup ahead of time, but what if that gets destroyed too? This spell could come in handy as long as the proper item or materials are available to make into a new one.

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I understand that, but why make it into a Spell? Just like Death's Door Spell. It should just be a normal homebrew ritual not a spell. I would never require it to be a spell as a DM.

santosud37 said:

I understand that, but why make it into a Spell? Just like Death's Door Spell. It should just be a normal homebrew ritual not a spell. I would never require it to be a spell as a DM.

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That was 1e. You died a lot. Things were less friendly or player facing. You tracked components, and a holy symbol was one for clerics.

There was no rituals. You had it and could cast, or you were out of luck. The cleric was the healer. Nobody else could heal except for the 1, maybe 2 per day of bedrest. I'm not recalling all the rules since we all moved on to the newer rules, and then the newer rules that have rituals and PCs that can heal and now it looks like double healing in the new, new game.

santosud37 said:

I don't understand the purpose of this being q spell. Isn't making a Holy Symbol into a spell to make every Cleric waste a Spell slot? Additionally, it is a 2nd level spell. What about the 1st level spell components requiring a Holy Symbol for it's Material Component?
In my opinion, this should NEVER be a spell but a normal ritual for any Cleric/Paladin.

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In other words, it's like having to use a spell to make Holy Water. It isn't needed. Just a normal ritual for any Cleric would suffice for a Holy Symbol.

santosud37 said:

I understand that, but why make it into a Spell? Just like Death's Door Spell. It should just be a normal homebrew ritual not a spell. I would never require it to be a spell as a DM.

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I’m not aware of rituals as a thing in AD&D. (Not that they might not exist, but maybe I’m just not familiar with the particular publication you’re thinking of.) Where are you finding that? As for why these are spells, because they let you do things you can’t normally do and because there’s no free lunch in AD&D.

santosud37 said:

In other words, it's like having to use a spell to make Holy Water. It isn't needed. Just a normal ritual for any Cleric would suffice for a Holy Symbol.

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Are you using the term ritual in a non-gamist meaning? As in just something a cleric does -- take some water/a physically crafted symbol and wave their hands over it and say some prayers?

In that case, sure. Go right ahead (not that you need my permission). If that works for you and your group, I see no pitfalls to that decision.

As to the question of the purpose of doing it the way it was done -- AD&D was written in a way to try to make trivial inventory decisions meaningful.

• Because training-cost-to-level-up roughly equaled how much gold you would acquire getting the requisite xp (most of your xp coming from loot's gp value), you could not afford to waste/throw away equipment.
• However, each pound of equipment you carted into a dungeon that wasn't expended is 10 coins less loot you could cart back out of the dungeon.

Thus you were supposed to make hard decisions about what was necessary. Don't overpack and thus not be able to strip-mine the dungeon, but don't underpack and thus end up in the lurch when you run out of ______. It's the same under-/overcautious tension it gave to time-management (you want to search every square for traps, but taking the time to do so increases the number of wandering monster checks).
For that reason, all things you might use in a dungeon-crawl have to be nontrivial expenditures. They need to cost gold, take up weight, and/or require a spellcasting expenditure. If you can reconstitute them along the way*, well then they are no longer a precious inventory management item. In which case they no longer serve the purpose discreet equipment has in the game.
*especially in ways it is hard for the DM to say you can't do while travelling; and whittling a simple holy symbol or collecting some water and declaring it blessed fall are hard to argue against.

santosud37 said:

In other words, it's like having to use a spell to make Holy Water. It isn't needed. Just a normal ritual for any Cleric would suffice for a Holy Symbol.

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A few weeks ago, my local pastor asked me to make some holy water. I told him I have no idea. He told me that all I needed to do was to take a pot, fill it with water from the sink, and boil the hell out of it.

Dragon breath.

That is why the spell exists. When you get breathed on, chances are most of your stuff fails its save and is gone.

santosud37 said:

In other words, it's like having to use a spell to make Holy Water. It isn't needed. Just a normal ritual for any Cleric would suffice for a Holy Symbol.

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That's a fine stance and if it works for your games, go for it! In AD&D, life for PCs is usually more complicated. According to the DMG (p. 115) creating holy water requires a special (and expensive) custom-made receptacle and the casting of five different spells.