Temples / Restore Life & Limb

For the purposes of this spell, what qualifies as a temple of the spellcaster’s god? My PCs want to create a shrine to their god basically. There’s not really much guidance on shrines or other holy sites, but I’m thinking something like this could work.

I’m almost thinking something similar to chaotic altars, but erected by lawful clerics, using the gp rule for sacrifices? So, if the PCs are out in the wilds of some random place they can have a high level priest erect an altar, sacrifice some gold, cast some blessings and consecrate the ground to make a holy altar that can act as a “temple” for the purposes of RL&L.

Thoughts?

It's purposefully left vague so that the Judge can adjudicate as he deems appropriate. It could be a cathedral, it could be standing stones like Stonehenge, or it could just be a Shinto-friendly grove of natural beauty.

Your suggestion of treating it like a chaotic altar is a great one that I will personally steal for my own campaign.

Indeed. Stolen!

What about sacrificing animals to Lawful gods? This was quite common in the Ancient Near East…

Herd animals are also tradegoods I think so they should work in lieu of gold. I guess its difficult to get hold of enough of them within a day to make it worth the trouble though.

Yeah, when I say gold, I mean “anything of value”. Maybe the gods of your world all have different things they prefer to be sacrificed.

Makes great sense to me, but herd animals are cheap enough that you’re going to have to do a massive slaughter or find exotic animals to get much in the way of divine power - maybe give a multiplier for the god’s preferred offerings?

(e.g. Enlil loves honey, mead, and goats, but detests the offering of pig or of any kind of bird)

That’s a great idea, Tom!

I'd worry that you would end up with sacrificial animal arbitrage, in which merchants devoted to Enlil trade pigs to the Lord of Swine's merchants in exchange for goats. 

Perhaps you  might instead specify that certain more costly types of herd animals are worth more. Consider the vast real-world price differential between a losing thoroughbred ($1,000 or less, sold for glue) and a prize thoroughbred ($1MM plus). You could imagine that an animal "worthy" of sacrifice could likewise be quite valuable.

Oh, yes, my idea of exotic included “pure white bulls raised on clover who have never seen a dog” as well as “baby roc”.