[RPG] If a Cleric uses “a sprinkling of holy water” in a spell, does the flask eventually get used up

clericdnd-5eequipmentspell-componentsspells

e.g. the Bless spell calls for "a sprinkling of holy water"

Is the flask essentially unlimited for Bless, or is there a conversion of X sprinklings in 1 flask?

Best Answer

If they didn’t bother to print a number of usages, it indicates that the amount consumed that way is, in their opinion, negligible and not worth worrying about. Having a flask of holy water be consumed by repeated castings of bless would be a houserule, and something that should be covered at the game’s outset, before anyone has so much as decided to play a cleric (much less buy holy water or prepare bless).

I would strongly caution that this houserule is unlikely to add much to your game. It just becomes another thing to track, and there just isn’t really much of anything to be gained by the additional bookkeeping—which is probably why Wizards of the Coast didn’t bother.

This logic, of course, makes one wonder why we bother with (zero-cost) consumed spell components at all—which is a very good question that is well worth considering, and possibly doing something about, e.g. removing them from the game entirely. There is exceedingly little value here.