To create Holy Water (flask), the PHB states you need 25 gp in powdered silver. The spell Ceremony from XGE also can produce a vial of Holy Water, and also requires 25 gp in powdered silver.
If I'm taking 250 sp, which value 25 gp, that equals 5 pounds of silver as a material component for a flask or vial of water.
I will disregard that a vial holds 4 ounces, whereas the flask holds 16 ounces, but the conundrum remains.
Hauling around 5 pounds of silver to be able to create Holy Water which then only weighs 1 pound (flask), seems disconnected.
I understand that from an game economic view, you don't want to have players create Holy Water from a cheaper component and then sell it for a higher price, but I'd think that even diamond dust worth 25 gp would make for a 'better' material component.
For a level 1 spell slot and a 1 hour cast time, the material component ought to be easy to come by, in my opinion, but try getting 250 sp from your group... ;)
Did I miss anything? How does it work in your group?
25gp worth of powdered silver is not 250 silver coins ground up into dust, it is just a component that you acquire from ye olde powdered silver emporium which happens to have an outlet in every single city, town, hamlet and homestead in the land. It weighs effectively nothing. I imagine it is a pinch of particularly purified stuff, while a 'silver' coin is some alloy of tin and lead with just a hint of silver for colour.
In my games we don't track material components at all, so casting this spell would just involve sacrificing 25gp during casting.
25gp worth of powdered silver is not 250 silver coins ground up into dust, it is just a component that you acquire from ye olde powdered silver emporium which happens to have an outlet in every single city, town, hamlet and homestead in the land. It weighs effectively nothing. I imagine it is a pinch of particularly purified stuff, while a 'silver' coin is some alloy of tin and lead with just a hint of silver for colour.
I disagree with your conception of coins in the world of D&D. What you seem to propose is that the fantasy world uses a fiat currency. If that were the case, there would be no reason for a silver coin you found in dungeon treasure chest to be worth one fiat "silver" piece. At least it would be an extreme coincidence if that were the case.
The weight of these consumed ingredients is definitely a problem, but I don't think that ceremony was necessarily intended to be used in the field. I seems to me a situation where you grab a handful of silver powder from your church before you go to perform a ceremony.
I just did the math and based on a coin weighing 1/50 lb that makes the gold coin a bit larger than a penny, a silver coin a bit larger than a quarter, and a copper coin a bit smaller than a dollar coin. That means that 25 gp of silver is about the volume of 6 rolls of quarters. It could comfortably fit in a pouch, but I wouldn't want to carry enough for multiple castings.
(Also interesting, but significantly less relevant: at today's real-world prices, instead of 10 copper per silver and 10 silver per gold, the actual ratio would be 60 copper per silver and 80 silver per gold.)
Dilution/creation: can more holy water be created by just putting one drop of holy water into non holy water?
No, you would either be expending (pouring the holy water into the water) or desecrating the holy water (pouring the water into the holy water). Either way, you are done one Holy Water (flask).
To create Holy Water (flask), the PHB states you need 25 gp in powdered silver. The spell Ceremony from XGE also can produce a vial of Holy Water, and also requires 25 gp in powdered silver.
The PHB also states (https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/phb/equipment#Coinage) that 50 coins weigh one pound.
If I'm taking 250 sp, which value 25 gp, that equals 5 pounds of silver as a material component for a flask or vial of water.
I will disregard that a vial holds 4 ounces, whereas the flask holds 16 ounces, but the conundrum remains.
Hauling around 5 pounds of silver to be able to create Holy Water which then only weighs 1 pound (flask), seems disconnected.
I understand that from an game economic view, you don't want to have players create Holy Water from a cheaper component and then sell it for a higher price, but I'd think that even diamond dust worth 25 gp would make for a 'better' material component.
For a level 1 spell slot and a 1 hour cast time, the material component ought to be easy to come by, in my opinion, but try getting 250 sp from your group... ;)
Did I miss anything? How does it work in your group?
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
25gp worth of powdered silver is not 250 silver coins ground up into dust, it is just a component that you acquire from ye olde powdered silver emporium which happens to have an outlet in every single city, town, hamlet and homestead in the land. It weighs effectively nothing. I imagine it is a pinch of particularly purified stuff, while a 'silver' coin is some alloy of tin and lead with just a hint of silver for colour.
In my games we don't track material components at all, so casting this spell would just involve sacrificing 25gp during casting.
I assume the labor and process of powdering silver fit for a "potion" type ingredient was cost vs weight issues. Maybe?
Dilution/creation: can more holy water be created by just putting one drop of holy water into non holy water?
No, you would either be expending (pouring the holy water into the water) or desecrating the holy water (pouring the water into the holy water). Either way, you are done one Holy Water (flask).
How to add Tooltips.
The spell consumes the silver, it is not physically placed in the vial that becomes holy water.