Supernatural Abilities & XP Costs

[Rubik]

I keep looking in older threads around here, and a lot of them say that supernatural abilities do not cost XP. Where is the text that says this? The SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#supernaturalAbilities) says:


Supernatural Abilities (Su)

Supernatural abilities are magical and go away in an antimagic field but are not subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or to being dispelled by dispel magic. Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise. Supernatural abilities may have a use limit or be usable at will, just like spell-like abilities. However, supernatural abilities do not provoke attacks of opportunity and never require Concentration checks. Unless otherwise noted, a supernatural ability has an effective caster level equal to the creature’s Hit Dice. The saving throw (if any) against a supernatural ability is:

10 + ½ the creature’s HD + the creature’s ability modifier (usually Charisma).
...but it says nothing about XP costs, meaning that any spell converted to a supernatural ability would retain any such costs it might have had.

Am I correct on this, or is there a passage somewhere proving my suspicions incorrect?

[lsfreak]

There are rules on page 139 of ToM that explicitly supersede the DMG. All it does, though, is clarify that they don't have somatic components. Says nothing about material or XP components.

I haven't gone through and looked, but my suspicion is that there are no Core Su abilities based on spells, and so WotC didn't feel the need to spell out what parts of spells are ignored. When they later introduced Su abilities based off spells, they didn't realize the problem. My stance is to interpret Su abilities as "Spell-Like Plus," assuming that the intent was to ignore any components, but there's no RAW that I know of that supports that.

[Karnith]

I haven't gone through and looked, but my suspicion is that there are no Core Su abilities based on spells,
Actually, there are. Nightmares (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nightmare.htm), for example, have Supernatural abilities that function as Astral Projection and/or Etherealness, usable at will. I'm not sure if it's one ability, or two. Hence "and/or."

[Nettlekid]

This isn't quite watertight, but the Dweomerkeeper's Supernatural Spell ability states that it does not require any components, "just as if she were using a supernatural ability instead of a spell," so shouldn't that mean that Supernatural abilities don't require components?

[lsfreak]

Actually, there are. Nightmares (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nightmare.htm), for example, have Supernatural abilities that function as Astral Projection and/or Etherealness, usable at will.

Well, what looking I did do clearly wasn't thorough enough. This seems like a rather large oversight for WotC, as Astral Projection does have an expensive material component. I still think that RAI appears to be that Su > SLA > Spells, with each step up or down increasing or decreasing the restrictions. It seems to have been their assumption with things like Dweomerkeeper and Shadowcasters, as well as the organization of the abilities within both the DMG and MM, and then the Rules Compendium (hilariously enough, RC overwrites ToM's addition, making it again ambiguous as to whether Su have somatic components or not :eyeroll: ).