I base it mostly on what a person can typically earn in a day without looting dead bodies and the like.
Most discussions place a GP anywhere between $1 and $200, but average at $50. My point though was that gold appears more common in D&D worlds than in our world (which values a GP at about $400), and similarly: BIG-assed gems seem more common in Fantasy, making their exponential value by carat less certain.
Eh, I have said before that someone that understood economics needs to take a look at D&D and its prices and exchanges. Especially for spell components and magic items.
Consider the material component for Heroes' Feast. It's a bowl worth 1000gp but what makes it worth that much? Is it gold? Silver? Incredible craftsmanship? Could you attach an expensive gem to a simple clay bowl and use that? What if you used a bowl crafted by some exquisite long dead artisan? An art object like that might be worth 700gp to one noble but 1500gp for another. Can you use an art object like that with a subjective price? What if you traveled between two cities and in the first city the bowl was only worth 900gp but in the next city it was worth 1200gp? What would happen if you used Suggestion to convince someone that a simply 10gp bowl was worth 1000gp?
Taking too deep a dive into spell components is just not worth it. My rule is to keep it simple (or K.I.S.S. it). Spell casters should be familiar enough with their abilities to 'know' whether this or that component will work or not. Likewise they should know how to make most of the spell components they need given the appropriate materials. Why? Because why not. I understand making sure a player is being diligent enough to keep track of expensive components but how much book keeping are you planning on doing and how much fun would that be?
the material component for Heroes' Feast. It's a bowl worth 1000gp but what makes it worth that much?
The spell states it's "a gem-encrusted bowl worth at least 1,000 gp which the spell consumes". That would seem to indicate that the bowl is specially made for this spell (i.e. not any old 1000gp bowl will do). The nature of the manufacture is up to the DM (and might vary from wizard to wizard). However, it's generally outside the rules, and outside the point of the cost. The point of the cost is to impose a limiting resource.
For my own games: if the PC's were trapped in a dungeon but had 1000gp in gems, clay, and the ability to craft bowls from clay... I'd let them make a bowl to cast the spell. ymmv
They do have, however, a 300 gp diamond that they found elsewhere. The spell states specifically that diamond dust is required for the spell, so my druid wants to know if they can crush the diamond and get dust from it to be used for the spell.
My thought is that no, they can't, because they don't really have tools to break a diamond down to dust, something that would require more than just a standard hammer or axe. Further, breaking the diamond into pieces wouldn't necessarily turn it to dust, at least not wholly, and whatever dust they managed to get wouldn't necessarily be worth the 100 gp they need.
Now that is some cruel DMing right there. Especially the last sentence. Wow!
if the value of the gem is 100GP then as long as players used a mortar and pestle and a hammer to get the job done they get 100GP of dust
or
they can go to a spell shop and for a 20% cut they can have the gem appraised and crushed and get what is left over. in some cases with the right conditions they can get more than 100gp worth.
I always thought that tight material restriction is a bit unnecessary, specially because treasures rarely have what exactly demands. Making all the “conversions” is annoying, I think that transition of selling gems to buy diamonds dust really sounds a bit cumbersome.
So I usually just divide materials in categories, in this case gems, so you could use the spell and 100gp of gems in your inventory would be used.
Seriously, carrying dust of this, dust of that, an exact gem of certain type, a ring made of platinum?, do you know how rare is it, no matter if is only 50gp the problem is to find platinum. In the case of ring, is jewelry, so any precious 50gp ring could be fine.
So, even if maybe for spell descriptions and mysticism side could sound cool, for gameplay is just an obstacle.
Most discussions place a GP anywhere between $1 and $200, but average at $50. My point though was that gold appears more common in D&D worlds than in our world (which values a GP at about $400), and similarly: BIG-assed gems seem more common in Fantasy, making their exponential value by carat less certain.
Eh, I have said before that someone that understood economics needs to take a look at D&D and its prices and exchanges. Especially for spell components and magic items.
Consider the material component for Heroes' Feast. It's a bowl worth 1000gp but what makes it worth that much? Is it gold? Silver? Incredible craftsmanship? Could you attach an expensive gem to a simple clay bowl and use that? What if you used a bowl crafted by some exquisite long dead artisan? An art object like that might be worth 700gp to one noble but 1500gp for another. Can you use an art object like that with a subjective price? What if you traveled between two cities and in the first city the bowl was only worth 900gp but in the next city it was worth 1200gp? What would happen if you used Suggestion to convince someone that a simply 10gp bowl was worth 1000gp?
Taking too deep a dive into spell components is just not worth it. My rule is to keep it simple (or K.I.S.S. it). Spell casters should be familiar enough with their abilities to 'know' whether this or that component will work or not. Likewise they should know how to make most of the spell components they need given the appropriate materials. Why? Because why not. I understand making sure a player is being diligent enough to keep track of expensive components but how much book keeping are you planning on doing and how much fun would that be?
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
The spell states it's "a gem-encrusted bowl worth at least 1,000 gp which the spell consumes". That would seem to indicate that the bowl is specially made for this spell (i.e. not any old 1000gp bowl will do). The nature of the manufacture is up to the DM (and might vary from wizard to wizard). However, it's generally outside the rules, and outside the point of the cost. The point of the cost is to impose a limiting resource.
For my own games: if the PC's were trapped in a dungeon but had 1000gp in gems, clay, and the ability to craft bowls from clay... I'd let them make a bowl to cast the spell. ymmv
Now that is some cruel DMing right there. Especially the last sentence. Wow!
I kept it simple in my game
if the value of the gem is 100GP then as long as players used a mortar and pestle and a hammer to get the job done they get 100GP of dust
or
they can go to a spell shop and for a 20% cut they can have the gem appraised and crushed and get what is left over. in some cases with the right conditions they can get more than 100gp worth.
I always thought that tight material restriction is a bit unnecessary, specially because treasures rarely have what exactly demands. Making all the “conversions” is annoying, I think that transition of selling gems to buy diamonds dust really sounds a bit cumbersome.
So I usually just divide materials in categories, in this case gems, so you could use the spell and 100gp of gems in your inventory would be used.
Seriously, carrying dust of this, dust of that, an exact gem of certain type, a ring made of platinum?, do you know how rare is it, no matter if is only 50gp the problem is to find platinum. In the case of ring, is jewelry, so any precious 50gp ring could be fine.
So, even if maybe for spell descriptions and mysticism side could sound cool, for gameplay is just an obstacle.