TuggyNE
2013-09-28, 09:25 PM
Most material components in 3.x share a trio of unfortunate characteristics: they are completely free for all intents and purposes, they can be pulled from a spell component pouch as though it were a bottomless pocket of near-infinite variety, and they have no connection to the spell or magic system beyond goofy jokes. Many of the others are impractical to acquire or carry around, or are specified only by purchase price irrespective of market considerations. This replacement is intended to solve all of those problems in the core system.
Components
Verbal (V)
A verbal component is a spoken incantation. To provide a verbal component, you must be able to speak in a normal voice. A silence spell or a gag spoils the incantation (and thus the spell). A spellcaster who has been deafened has a 20% chance to spoil any spell with a verbal component that he or she tries to cast.
Somatic (S)
A somatic component is a measured and precise movement of the hand. You must have at least one hand free and empty (or holding only a material or focus component) to provide a somatic component.
Material Component (M)
A material component is one or more physical substances or objects that are annihilated by the spell energies in the casting process. These substances are usually quite valuable, and sometimes so valuable or hard to acquire they have no listed price. The most common of these is known as powdered arcana. They are not included in a new spell component pouch.
Focus (F)
A focus component is a prop of some sort, used to better control magical energy for certain spells. A focus is not consumed when the spell is cast and can be reused. Foci are not included with a new spell component pouch (but see School Focus, below), and all foci have a non-negligible cost.
School Focus (SF)
A school focus component is a special type of focus that only works for a single school of arcane magic. Most arcane spells require the appropriate school focus to cast. Unless lost, stolen, or destroyed, school foci are included with spell component pouches. Some casters prefer to wield weapons (usually quarterstaffs) that include focus elements for all the schools, effectively merging multiple school foci.
Divine Focus (DF)
A divine focus component is a special type of focus, an item of spiritual significance. The divine focus for a cleric or a paladin is a holy symbol appropriate to the character’s faith. The divine focus for a druid or ranger is usually a sprig of holly or mistletoe.
If the Components line includes F/DF or SF/DF, the arcane version of the spell has a focus or school focus component (the abbreviation before the slash) and the divine version has a divine focus component (the abbreviation after the slash).
XP Cost (XP)
Some powerful spells entail an experience point cost to you. No spell can restore the XP lost in this manner. You cannot spend so much XP that you lose a level, so you cannot cast the spell unless you have enough XP to spare. However, you may, on gaining enough XP to attain a new level, use those XP for casting a spell rather than keeping them and advancing a level. The XP are expended when you cast the spell, whether or not the casting succeeds.
Tools and Skill Kits
School Focus
This small construction of special woods and metal junctions is needed to cast most arcane spells. It is also necessary for identifying most magical energies: Spellcraft checks to identify active spells, identify spells as they are cast, or properly draw a dimensional anchor diagram for binding (requiring an abjuration focus) take a -2 circumstance penalty without the appropriate focus. Many foci are shaped like flat ornamental knots, some like wands (although their construction is markedly different from normal wands, and they operate on different principles), some like orbs. Each school of arcane magic requires its own focus with a unique design (identifiable with a DC 11 Knowledge: Arcana or DC 6 Spellcraft check). Cost: 5 sp; weight: 2 oz.
School Focus, Masterwork
This focus serves the same purpose as a school focus (above), but its elaborate traceries, superior materials, and careful craftsmanship make it the perfect tool for identifying flows of magical energy, giving a +2 circumstance bonus on appropriate Spellcraft checks, but only those of the school of magic it's designed for. Cost: 25 gp; weight: 2 oz.
Holy Symbol, Silver or Wooden
A holy symbol focuses positive energy. A cleric or paladin uses it as the focus for his spells, for spell identification, and as a tool for turning undead. Each religion has its own holy symbol. Wooden holy symbols function as all-in-one school foci for the purpose of identifying spells and spell effects, while silver holy symbols function like masterwork versions of the same. Cost: 1 gp (wooden) or 50 gp (silver); weight: 1 lb.
Holly and Mistletoe
These plants can be gathered in many temperate forests, and remain useful for druidic or ranger spellcasting for at least six months after gathering under normal conditions. They can be used for Spellcraft checks in the same way as a wooden holy symbol. Cost: -; weight: -.
Focus Staff
This staff is designed less for combat (although it can still function as a quarterstaff in a pinch) and more to focus arcane energies of all schools; it contains separate sections for each school's focus, and shifting hands to make use of a different focus section is a free action that can be taken even when it's not your turn. Cost: 4 gp.
Focus Staff, Masterwork
Combining a well-made weapon with masterful arcane implement design, this is the perfect tool for identifying flows of magical energy of any school, just like a masterwork school focus. This quarterstaff functions like a regular focus staff otherwise, and is often used as the physical base for creating magic staffs. Cost: 800 gp.
Spell Component Pouch
An arcane spell component pouch comes with a school focus for each of the eight schools, as well as space to hold up to about 2 lb of other foci and material components. Its design allows retrieving contained foci and materials as a free action during spellcasting or to help identify magical energies, even when it's not your turn, but it can't hold anything more than a few inches across in any dimension. Cost: 5 gp, including 8 school foci; weight: 2 lbs.
Spell Component Pouch, Empty
This spell component pouch contains no school foci, but does have compartments for them; specialist wizards and sorcerers often use this to save a little money at low levels. It can hold a total of 3 lbs of focus and material components and functions in the usual way. Cost: 1 gp; weight: 1 lb.
Special Substances and Items
Powdered Arcana
Despite the name, this substance is not actually condensed magic or anything similar, nor indeed useful only for arcane casters. Rather, it serves as a generally suitable (if expensive) additional power source and buffering agent for certain spells that would otherwise impose impossible strains on their casters. Spells with expensive material components usually require varying amounts of this coarse powder, listed in their entry.
Its production requires precious metals, gems, rare herbs, strange organs from animals and magical beasts, high-precision grinders and carefully made vessels, special purification and combination techniques, and lengthy alchemical and magical rituals, with Craft (Alchemy) checks at DC 31. Cost: 400 gp/in3 (may be purchased in smaller quantities, such as ounces at 80 gp each or drams at 5 gp each); weight: 5 oz/in3.
Wondrous Items
Steadying School Focus
This masterwork school focus, in addition to giving the usual circumstance bonus to Spellcraft checks, acts to magically steady and direct the user's mental processes, giving them a competence bonus to their Concentration check of +2, +5, +10, +15, or +20, depending on the strength of enchantment.
Faint transmutation; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, attune focus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?308358-Attune-Focus-%28new-3-5-spell-for-material-component-rework-PEACH%29); Price 425 gp (+2), 2525 gp (+5), 10,025 gp (+10), 22,525 gp (+15), or 40,025 gp (+20).
Expansive Spell Component Pouch
This spell component pouch is magically augmented to hold far more than the usual. The mouth is slightly larger to allow larger components to be retrieved. Regardless of what is put into the pouch, it weighs a fixed amount. This weight, and the limits in weight and volume of the components carried, depend on the pouch’s type, as shown on the table below.
TypeWeightContents Weight LimitContents Volume LimitMarket Price
Type I3 lb.50 lb.6 cu. ft.600 gp
Type II5 lb.100 lb.14 cu. ft.1,200 gp
Type III7 lb.200 lb.30 cu. ft.1,775 gp
Type IV12 lb.300 lb.50 cu. ft.2,400 gp
Type V15 lb.400 lb.70 cu. ft.3,000 gp
If the pouch is overloaded, or if sharp objects pierce it (from inside or outside), the pouch ruptures and is ruined. All contents are lost forever. If an expansive spell component pouch is turned inside out, its contents spill out, unharmed (though probably somewhat disorganized), but the pouch must be put right before it can be used again.
An expansive spell component pouch behaves like a bag of holding if put within a portable hole, and vice versa.
Moderate conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, secret chest.
Feats
Eschew School Focus (formerly known as Eschew Materials)
Prerequisite
Arcane caster level 1st.
Benefit
You can cast any spell that has a school focus component and identify any spell or effect without needing the corresponding school focus. (The casting of the spell still provokes attacks of opportunity as normal.)
Conversion Guide
Most spells currently listed with negligible-cost (arcane) foci or material components are changed to use school foci. Here are some characteristics of material components or foci that should not be changed to using school foci: Highly specific to the casting (plane shift's tuning forks [though common forks are readily available for nominal cost], simulacrum's sample, etc)
Extremely perishable (teleport through time's freshly-picked flower from untouched soil, Snowcasting)
Seriously questionable or illegal to possess (crushing fist of spite's severed Good-aligned humanoid cleric hand)
Rare to the point of being (nigh) unique (apocalypse from the sky's artifact)
Additionally, most spells that currently use expensive material components are changed to use the volume (in cubic inches, ounces, or drams) of powdered arcana that would typically cost the amount originally listed (not a certain value in gp). Exceptions, if any, should follow at least one of these guidelines: Closely tied to the spell's purpose and function (illusory script's ink, transformation's potion of bull's strength)
Already one or more whole gems or other objects (animate dead's onyx, refuge's trigger object)
Already specified in terms of weight, size, or some other factor than price (fire trap's half-pound of gold dust) Even components that meet one or all of these guidelines could be converted, though this is not necessary. Decisions on whether to convert a given spell's components should be made in advance of play, especially for exceptions that meet none of these guidelines.
Examples: Magic mouth's material components (bit of honeycomb and 10 gp of jade dust) would be converted to 2 drams of powdered arcana (typical cost 10 gp, but potentially more or less depending on campaign circumstances). Symbol of sleep, instead of mercury and phosphorous and 1000 gp of diamond/opal dust, would be 2½in3 of powdered arcana (typical cost 1000 gp).
Anyway, anything I'm forgetting about? PEACH away!
2018-11-27: Make it clearer how to convert expensive material components.
2014-05-13: Druid divine focus is now explicitly listed in the Components section. Also a minor typo in a price is fixed.
2014-05-05: Foci now explicitly play nicely with somatic components, just in case. Also, Eschew Materials is converted into Eschew School Focus. Tweaked verbal component wording and adjusted a few other things, as well as fixing links and formatting a bit. (Tables were fixed a while back.)
2014-01-03: Assorted minor wording tweaks, action clarifications for focus use off-turn, and making foci act still more like skill tools for Spellcraft (including divine foci, for the first time). Added a bit more to the initial problem statement to include the additional fixes I've made since starting.
2013-12-30: A few typo corrections and a little bit more clarification on conversion.
2013-10-12: Expensive material components, reordering of rules sections, more conversion guidelines, and a reference to attune focus.
2013-10-06: Adding option for empty SCP, fiddling with wording of F/M/SF component rules, etc.
2013-10-04 round II: Guidelines for rare-but-technically-free material components/foci, a bit more on staffs. Reformatting conversion in general.
2013-10-04: Orbs, wands, staffs can all be foci now. Staffs get to be all-in-one — no discount, sorry, but at least you get to look awesome.
2013-10-03: Magical space-warping returns! But this time it costs extra.
2013-09-28: First version: SF replace most M/F, SCP loses its magical space-warping, MW/magical SF versions
Components
Verbal (V)
A verbal component is a spoken incantation. To provide a verbal component, you must be able to speak in a normal voice. A silence spell or a gag spoils the incantation (and thus the spell). A spellcaster who has been deafened has a 20% chance to spoil any spell with a verbal component that he or she tries to cast.
Somatic (S)
A somatic component is a measured and precise movement of the hand. You must have at least one hand free and empty (or holding only a material or focus component) to provide a somatic component.
Material Component (M)
A material component is one or more physical substances or objects that are annihilated by the spell energies in the casting process. These substances are usually quite valuable, and sometimes so valuable or hard to acquire they have no listed price. The most common of these is known as powdered arcana. They are not included in a new spell component pouch.
Focus (F)
A focus component is a prop of some sort, used to better control magical energy for certain spells. A focus is not consumed when the spell is cast and can be reused. Foci are not included with a new spell component pouch (but see School Focus, below), and all foci have a non-negligible cost.
School Focus (SF)
A school focus component is a special type of focus that only works for a single school of arcane magic. Most arcane spells require the appropriate school focus to cast. Unless lost, stolen, or destroyed, school foci are included with spell component pouches. Some casters prefer to wield weapons (usually quarterstaffs) that include focus elements for all the schools, effectively merging multiple school foci.
Divine Focus (DF)
A divine focus component is a special type of focus, an item of spiritual significance. The divine focus for a cleric or a paladin is a holy symbol appropriate to the character’s faith. The divine focus for a druid or ranger is usually a sprig of holly or mistletoe.
If the Components line includes F/DF or SF/DF, the arcane version of the spell has a focus or school focus component (the abbreviation before the slash) and the divine version has a divine focus component (the abbreviation after the slash).
XP Cost (XP)
Some powerful spells entail an experience point cost to you. No spell can restore the XP lost in this manner. You cannot spend so much XP that you lose a level, so you cannot cast the spell unless you have enough XP to spare. However, you may, on gaining enough XP to attain a new level, use those XP for casting a spell rather than keeping them and advancing a level. The XP are expended when you cast the spell, whether or not the casting succeeds.
Tools and Skill Kits
School Focus
This small construction of special woods and metal junctions is needed to cast most arcane spells. It is also necessary for identifying most magical energies: Spellcraft checks to identify active spells, identify spells as they are cast, or properly draw a dimensional anchor diagram for binding (requiring an abjuration focus) take a -2 circumstance penalty without the appropriate focus. Many foci are shaped like flat ornamental knots, some like wands (although their construction is markedly different from normal wands, and they operate on different principles), some like orbs. Each school of arcane magic requires its own focus with a unique design (identifiable with a DC 11 Knowledge: Arcana or DC 6 Spellcraft check). Cost: 5 sp; weight: 2 oz.
School Focus, Masterwork
This focus serves the same purpose as a school focus (above), but its elaborate traceries, superior materials, and careful craftsmanship make it the perfect tool for identifying flows of magical energy, giving a +2 circumstance bonus on appropriate Spellcraft checks, but only those of the school of magic it's designed for. Cost: 25 gp; weight: 2 oz.
Holy Symbol, Silver or Wooden
A holy symbol focuses positive energy. A cleric or paladin uses it as the focus for his spells, for spell identification, and as a tool for turning undead. Each religion has its own holy symbol. Wooden holy symbols function as all-in-one school foci for the purpose of identifying spells and spell effects, while silver holy symbols function like masterwork versions of the same. Cost: 1 gp (wooden) or 50 gp (silver); weight: 1 lb.
Holly and Mistletoe
These plants can be gathered in many temperate forests, and remain useful for druidic or ranger spellcasting for at least six months after gathering under normal conditions. They can be used for Spellcraft checks in the same way as a wooden holy symbol. Cost: -; weight: -.
Focus Staff
This staff is designed less for combat (although it can still function as a quarterstaff in a pinch) and more to focus arcane energies of all schools; it contains separate sections for each school's focus, and shifting hands to make use of a different focus section is a free action that can be taken even when it's not your turn. Cost: 4 gp.
Focus Staff, Masterwork
Combining a well-made weapon with masterful arcane implement design, this is the perfect tool for identifying flows of magical energy of any school, just like a masterwork school focus. This quarterstaff functions like a regular focus staff otherwise, and is often used as the physical base for creating magic staffs. Cost: 800 gp.
Spell Component Pouch
An arcane spell component pouch comes with a school focus for each of the eight schools, as well as space to hold up to about 2 lb of other foci and material components. Its design allows retrieving contained foci and materials as a free action during spellcasting or to help identify magical energies, even when it's not your turn, but it can't hold anything more than a few inches across in any dimension. Cost: 5 gp, including 8 school foci; weight: 2 lbs.
Spell Component Pouch, Empty
This spell component pouch contains no school foci, but does have compartments for them; specialist wizards and sorcerers often use this to save a little money at low levels. It can hold a total of 3 lbs of focus and material components and functions in the usual way. Cost: 1 gp; weight: 1 lb.
Special Substances and Items
Powdered Arcana
Despite the name, this substance is not actually condensed magic or anything similar, nor indeed useful only for arcane casters. Rather, it serves as a generally suitable (if expensive) additional power source and buffering agent for certain spells that would otherwise impose impossible strains on their casters. Spells with expensive material components usually require varying amounts of this coarse powder, listed in their entry.
Its production requires precious metals, gems, rare herbs, strange organs from animals and magical beasts, high-precision grinders and carefully made vessels, special purification and combination techniques, and lengthy alchemical and magical rituals, with Craft (Alchemy) checks at DC 31. Cost: 400 gp/in3 (may be purchased in smaller quantities, such as ounces at 80 gp each or drams at 5 gp each); weight: 5 oz/in3.
Wondrous Items
Steadying School Focus
This masterwork school focus, in addition to giving the usual circumstance bonus to Spellcraft checks, acts to magically steady and direct the user's mental processes, giving them a competence bonus to their Concentration check of +2, +5, +10, +15, or +20, depending on the strength of enchantment.
Faint transmutation; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, attune focus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?308358-Attune-Focus-%28new-3-5-spell-for-material-component-rework-PEACH%29); Price 425 gp (+2), 2525 gp (+5), 10,025 gp (+10), 22,525 gp (+15), or 40,025 gp (+20).
Expansive Spell Component Pouch
This spell component pouch is magically augmented to hold far more than the usual. The mouth is slightly larger to allow larger components to be retrieved. Regardless of what is put into the pouch, it weighs a fixed amount. This weight, and the limits in weight and volume of the components carried, depend on the pouch’s type, as shown on the table below.
TypeWeightContents Weight LimitContents Volume LimitMarket Price
Type I3 lb.50 lb.6 cu. ft.600 gp
Type II5 lb.100 lb.14 cu. ft.1,200 gp
Type III7 lb.200 lb.30 cu. ft.1,775 gp
Type IV12 lb.300 lb.50 cu. ft.2,400 gp
Type V15 lb.400 lb.70 cu. ft.3,000 gp
If the pouch is overloaded, or if sharp objects pierce it (from inside or outside), the pouch ruptures and is ruined. All contents are lost forever. If an expansive spell component pouch is turned inside out, its contents spill out, unharmed (though probably somewhat disorganized), but the pouch must be put right before it can be used again.
An expansive spell component pouch behaves like a bag of holding if put within a portable hole, and vice versa.
Moderate conjuration; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, secret chest.
Feats
Eschew School Focus (formerly known as Eschew Materials)
Prerequisite
Arcane caster level 1st.
Benefit
You can cast any spell that has a school focus component and identify any spell or effect without needing the corresponding school focus. (The casting of the spell still provokes attacks of opportunity as normal.)
Conversion Guide
Most spells currently listed with negligible-cost (arcane) foci or material components are changed to use school foci. Here are some characteristics of material components or foci that should not be changed to using school foci: Highly specific to the casting (plane shift's tuning forks [though common forks are readily available for nominal cost], simulacrum's sample, etc)
Extremely perishable (teleport through time's freshly-picked flower from untouched soil, Snowcasting)
Seriously questionable or illegal to possess (crushing fist of spite's severed Good-aligned humanoid cleric hand)
Rare to the point of being (nigh) unique (apocalypse from the sky's artifact)
Additionally, most spells that currently use expensive material components are changed to use the volume (in cubic inches, ounces, or drams) of powdered arcana that would typically cost the amount originally listed (not a certain value in gp). Exceptions, if any, should follow at least one of these guidelines: Closely tied to the spell's purpose and function (illusory script's ink, transformation's potion of bull's strength)
Already one or more whole gems or other objects (animate dead's onyx, refuge's trigger object)
Already specified in terms of weight, size, or some other factor than price (fire trap's half-pound of gold dust) Even components that meet one or all of these guidelines could be converted, though this is not necessary. Decisions on whether to convert a given spell's components should be made in advance of play, especially for exceptions that meet none of these guidelines.
Examples: Magic mouth's material components (bit of honeycomb and 10 gp of jade dust) would be converted to 2 drams of powdered arcana (typical cost 10 gp, but potentially more or less depending on campaign circumstances). Symbol of sleep, instead of mercury and phosphorous and 1000 gp of diamond/opal dust, would be 2½in3 of powdered arcana (typical cost 1000 gp).
Anyway, anything I'm forgetting about? PEACH away!
2018-11-27: Make it clearer how to convert expensive material components.
2014-05-13: Druid divine focus is now explicitly listed in the Components section. Also a minor typo in a price is fixed.
2014-05-05: Foci now explicitly play nicely with somatic components, just in case. Also, Eschew Materials is converted into Eschew School Focus. Tweaked verbal component wording and adjusted a few other things, as well as fixing links and formatting a bit. (Tables were fixed a while back.)
2014-01-03: Assorted minor wording tweaks, action clarifications for focus use off-turn, and making foci act still more like skill tools for Spellcraft (including divine foci, for the first time). Added a bit more to the initial problem statement to include the additional fixes I've made since starting.
2013-12-30: A few typo corrections and a little bit more clarification on conversion.
2013-10-12: Expensive material components, reordering of rules sections, more conversion guidelines, and a reference to attune focus.
2013-10-06: Adding option for empty SCP, fiddling with wording of F/M/SF component rules, etc.
2013-10-04 round II: Guidelines for rare-but-technically-free material components/foci, a bit more on staffs. Reformatting conversion in general.
2013-10-04: Orbs, wands, staffs can all be foci now. Staffs get to be all-in-one — no discount, sorry, but at least you get to look awesome.
2013-10-03: Magical space-warping returns! But this time it costs extra.
2013-09-28: First version: SF replace most M/F, SCP loses its magical space-warping, MW/magical SF versions