Holy/Unholy Water Font

[Yogibear41]

Seem to remember reading about a magic item that could turn regular water into holy water(or unholy water variant) without the standard material component, but can't remember where I found it. Anyone know about this magic item and where I might find it?

[inuyasha]

Hmm, you might be thinking of 1st edition. If you can find a copy of the 1st edition AD&D DMG, it has rules for Clerics building expensive fonts out of copper, silver, gold, and platinum (I thiiink those four? Maybe missing one of those) that can then be used to bless holy water, with the more expensive materials allowing for more holy water.

If there's something like that in 3.X though that's pretty cool, I've just never seen it. Of course you could likely make one with the custom magic item rules.

[Mnemius]

I know there's an altar (but not given as an item/crafting reqs) in pathfinder's rise of the runelords that pumps out several bottles worth of a very potent form of unholy water every day.

(and the PC's find it before level 5...)

[Crake]

an item of at-will bless water wouldn't be too hard to calculate, price-wise,

1st level spell, CL1, 25gp material component, use activated, it would cost 2000gp x1x1, + 25x100 for the material component, so 4.5kgp, able to make 1 flask of holy water per minute

You could probably adjust the base cost to 50% using the wondrous architecture rules from stronghold builder's guide, to shave off 1000gp (making it 3,500gp), assuming the font was bulky but portable in some way, or you could drop it to 25%, if the font was built into the building, making it impossible to move without destroying, to shave off 1500gp (making it 3,000gp)

If you wanted to add on a create water component to the font so it would just constantly produce without having to be fed water, that would cost another 1500gp (or 750gp/375gp for wondrous architecture)

[Yogibear41]

I found it, Sacred Vessel from BOED. Turns water into holy water. Costs 2000 gp

[el minster]

I found it, Sacred Vessel from BOED. Turns water into holy water. Costs 2000 gp

seems kinda cheap

[DracoDei]

an item of at-will bless water wouldn't be too hard to calculate, price-wise,

1st level spell, CL1, 25gp material component, use activated, it would cost 2000gp x1x1, + 25x100 for the material component, so 4.5kgp, able to make 1 flask of holy water per minute

You could probably adjust the base cost to 50% using the wondrous architecture rules from stronghold builder's guide, to shave off 1000gp (making it 3,500gp), assuming the font was bulky but portable in some way, or you could drop it to 25%, if the font was built into the building, making it impossible to move without destroying, to shave off 1500gp (making it 3,000gp)

If you wanted to add on a create water component to the font so it would just constantly produce without having to be fed water, that would cost another 1500gp (or 750gp/375gp for wondrous architecture)
Even at 4.5k that pays for itself in 3 hours of use. The simplest solution would be to limit the production per day. The closest match to the original request would be to bump up the cost 10 to 100 fold... or even 1000 to 10,000 if you are trying to have D&D 's economy make sense without dropping the price of Holy Water. This is especially true if it doesn't require a cleric to use it. If you don't mind it being a world-altering find, but just don't want the PCs getting huge amounts of money, you could say that changing for it causes the water to lose its power* since it is supposed to be a bountiful GIFT from the god(dess) that the creator worships and/or tends to be something they take offense to. They could lose their powers until they Atone if a worshipper of that deity or an aligned one, be targeted for attack or social censure, or the font could lose its powers until said Atonement or just for them personally (and any they charge for access).
*I recommend the water instantly turning black as tar the moment the transaction is completed, or other dramatic effect so they know they erred, and also so they can't scam people.

Another solution, especially for the less mobile versions is to say that the Holy Water it produces is imperfect, and becomes mundane water in X days. If it is meant for the defense or utility* of a specific site then you could say that it denatures if taken off the site (or X hours/days afterward**).
*I think it is Concecrate that uses it as a material component?
** Teleportation is a factor, but only a minor one if X is less than about 3 days since spending two teleportations to pop back to reload is a non-trivial thing in most games as long as the PCs don't have total control of pacing, and aren't using the site as their home base and travelling mostly by teleportation anyway.

As an added level of taking tactics to any time limit you could say that the limit drops to hours(if originally days), minutes (in either case) or even rounds (ditto) as soon as it is handled by someone without Bless Water on their class spell list. To take it a step further, say the shorter timer starts as soon as it isn't an attended object of such a person (meaning the have to sleep with it on them).

A slight reduction of the nerf could be that casting Purify Food and Drink can reset the timer ONCE for a single (or multiple) vials worth. Perhaps Bless Water can be cast WITHOUT material components to reset it an unlimited number of times. Magical vessels that pause the timer as long as the water is in them could be a thing. The Lesser version of these could be made of silver, requiring it to be poured into glass before the most common usage of Holy Water (throwing at undead/Evil outsiders) can be done. The Greater version would be glass that is not destroyed by breaking, but rather reforms itself via Make Whole 1 round after breaking.

Sidenote: In one of my games my character arranged for one of the characters to enter a major battle carrying two wine bottles filled with holy water he could wield as one-use (or rather one-HIT) improvised melee (touch?) weapons. I forget how many "doses" were in each bottle.

I found it, Sacred Vessel from BOED. Turns water into holy water. Costs 2000 gp
Which edition is that? I can't find it in my (3.0?) BoED. I even checked under spells.

seems kinda cheap
Depending on the limitations (if any) and how the GM handles the absurdities of economics that strict RAW creates, I would very much agree.

[Thurbane]

Book of Exalted deeds is early 3.5.

Sacred Vessel can be found on page 37, in the Relics section.

[Doctor Despair]

Book of Exalted deeds is early 3.5.

Sacred Vessel can be found on page 37, in the Relics section.

Geeze, yeah, that's pretty strong. Definitely an economy-breaker, assuming the PCs could find purchasers. Who needs Wall of Salt anyway?