[3.5] List of spells without material components and stuff

[Eccentric Elf]

Context (skip to the next section if you can't be bothered to read)
I'm in the early stages of making a scenario for my D&D group. I feel they've grown too confident and too used to being able to apply the same solutions in battle. I'm planning on having a scenario where my party wakes up without armor, weapons, items and even clothes and forcing them to scrounge for resources. It'll be a fun way to get them to be creative. I'm not sure how advanced I'm going to make this scenario (like, if I'm going to introduce concepts like hunger, temperature etc) since we've been keeping it pretty simple thus far.

So denying the adventurers is a great way to barr them from the abilities they've grown too dependent on. But one problem is how I'm going to introduce them to this idea without having them do a lot of paperwork on the spot. I'm already planning on remaking their character sheets without items etc, but making them look up every spell without a material component seems excessive.

My party consists of several spellcaster; A druid, a duskblade, a paladin and a sorcerer. (The other members being a Scout and a Knight)

Question
-Is there any easy way to find a compiled list of spells not requiring material components (or other components)? My several google searches have yielded me little.
-Do you have any other ideas to challenge my party? (refer to previous section, I guess you should have read it after all) The druid is a problem. I don't want him to be able to access animal forms early on.

Any thoughts you have are more than welcome.
Also, please excuse my English, I'm not a native speaker.

[CubeB]

Well, if any spellcaster has Eschew Materials, then they don't need material components.

But that seems to defeat the purpose..


I also wouldn't focus on spells with just no material components. A lot of material components are actually fairly easy to find in a dungeon.

For example, you could get the components for Kelgore's Firebolt (PHB II) by using the survival skill to start a fire, then harvesting the ashes.

[Slipperychicken]

What solutions do they apply to every challenge? Maybe you could fix it through encounter design?

[Eccentric Elf]

Well, if any spellcaster has Eschew Materials, then they don't need material components.

But that seems to defeat the purpose..


I also wouldn't focus on spells with just no material components. A lot of material components are actually fairly easy to find in a dungeon.

For example, you could get the components for Kelgore's Firebolt (PHB II) by using the survival skill to start a fire, then harvesting the ashes.

Noone in the party has the Eschew Materials feat.
I'm planning on controlling what they find in the dungeon. My problem is that lines with your example, which is what I want them to do.

Thanks for the reply!

[Eccentric Elf]

What solutions do they apply to every challenge? Maybe you could fix it through encounter design?

It might be my inability to express what I really meant; my problem is that they handle every battle the same way, use the same move, same spell w/e. My idea was that I could force them (in this instance) to use spells and abilities that they normally don't do. Making them think in other terms.

But do you have any ideas for challenging encounters I could use(/steal)?

Thanks for the reply

[Slipperychicken]

It might be my inability to express what I really meant; my problem is that they handle every battle the same way, use the same move, same spell w/e. My idea was that I could force them (in this instance) to use spells and abilities that they normally don't do. Making them think in other terms.


I know that. I just meant to ask precisely which moves and spells they apply to every combat. Using that information, I intend to recommend an idea or two for encounters which take them outside their "comfort zone".

[Diarmuid]

Also, unless you preface it properly and justify it accordingly, the whole "you wake up naked" thing is pretty much the eptiome of rail-roading and in essence communicates that you've given up as a GM.

What others are asking are questions to help understand how you're currently building encounters and what strategies the party is employing. If your encounters are all 5-8 melee based bad guys encountered within 50' of the party then that's likely the crux of the problem.

[Eccentric Elf]

I know that. I just meant to ask precisely which moves and spells they apply to every combat. Using that information, I intend to recommend an idea or two for encounters which take them outside their "comfort zone".

Ah sorry. Well.
The Druid - He usually just jumps into animal shape, throws bull's strength on himself (along with other spells) and beging to attack.
The Duskblade - She almost always Power Attacks or channels either Shocking Grasp/Vampiric Touch
The Knight - Attacks or Power Attacks, uses his class skills more rarely then what I'd like him to.
The Paladin - Attacks or Smites Evil
The Scout - Has this build centered upon her moving around and gaining bonuses to attack, has an ability (can't remember what) that allows her to 5-foot step two times during her turn to move. This is probably the most of what she does.
The Sorcerer - Well, I play this one. And it's har to criticize myself. So I'm not going to bother. I probably rely on Scorching Ray too much though.

Hope this helps!

[Eccentric Elf]

Also, unless you preface it properly and justify it accordingly, the whole "you wake up naked" thing is pretty much the eptiome of rail-roading and in essence communicates that you've given up as a GM.

What others are asking are questions to help understand how you're currently building encounters and what strategies the party is employing. If your encounters are all 5-8 melee based bad guys encountered within 50' of the party then that's likely the crux of the problem.

I was planning on having a sort of "mystery" setting, where one objective would be to find out why they woke up where they did. I'm far from done with the story. But they are eventually going to get all of their items back (which I thought could be a nice motivation to keep going/investigating).

I usually try to include at least three different 'bad guys' in each encounter. For instance a spellcaster, two fighters and a monster that grapples to give you an example. But as you've probably guessed, my experience with DMing is quite limited, so I think I make the encounters too simple.

One idea I had for this encounter would have the party meet a monster trying holding an NPC hostage and threatning her with a knife. They've no spells or ranged weapons (or melee ones), so what would they do? They could try to run up to the monster, try to grab the knife from him. Or try to find rocks to throw at him. Etc.

[Zirconia]

It might be worth looking up the Tuckers Kobolds story, from back in the D&D days. The basic idea is that relatively weak foes can be quite dangerous if they have a prepared defensive situation, so they can't be directly attacked easily. Traps, tunnels behind the walls, barrels of flaming oil to drop while people are stuck behind portcullises, etc.

Another possibility, different from what you had in mind, is a plain investigation. All those fighting tactics become less viable when they need to question people in a town to gather information. That could even lead into your "trapped and weaponless" scenario, if whoever they are tracking down gets wind of them and, say, poisons their food with a sleep poison. They could then be awoken in your scenario by a fellow prisoner who is not much of a fighter so needs help escaping.

[Eccentric Elf]

It might be worth looking up the Tuckers Kobolds story, from back in the D&D days. The basic idea is that relatively weak foes can be quite dangerous if they have a prepared defensive situation, so they can't be directly attacked easily. Traps, tunnels behind the walls, barrels of flaming oil to drop while people are stuck behind portcullises, etc.

Another possibility, different from what you had in mind, is a plain investigation. All those fighting tactics become less viable when they need to question people in a town to gather information. That could even lead into your "trapped and weaponless" scenario, if whoever they are tracking down gets wind of them and, say, poisons their food with a sleep poison. They could then be awoken in your scenario by a fellow prisoner who is not much of a fighter so needs help escaping.

Thanks! Great advice :)