Spell components

[Spacehamster]

My role playing group find material components to be a bit annoying and a turnoff from playing casters, I thought of a solution, since there is a pouch for the cheaper components I just thought to add a greater spell component pouch that costs say 5000-10k and magically generate what you need with a limit for that you can only cast spells with a component price of higher then 500gp once per week or something. How does that solution sound?

[Segev]

The easiest solution to your problem would be to abstract it thusly:

Have the spellcaster(s) maintain a fund they use to buy their expensive material components. Deduct the listed price from that fund when they cast spells that use them. IC, they went shopping for them beforehand. OOC, you didn't bother, but maintain the mechanical balance the expensive material components are supposed to represent.


If you actually want to create a magic item that can serve as a generic focus to replace expensive material components, you're looking at something based on Wish, used to create wealth. Wish can make up to 25,000 gp worth of item per casting; create an item that does Wish, use-activated, and price it for its uses/day. Deduct 30% for it only working to substitute for expensive material components. IT will suffice for anything up to a True Resurrection (though some things might still require even more expensive components, such as the focus for a Trap the Soul spell of sufficiently high-HD critters).

[Spacehamster]

The easiest solution to your problem would be to abstract it thusly:

Have the spellcaster(s) maintain a fund they use to buy their expensive material components. Deduct the listed price from that fund when they cast spells that use them. IC, they went shopping for them beforehand. OOC, you didn't bother, but maintain the mechanical balance the expensive material components are supposed to represent.


If you actually want to create a magic item that can serve as a generic focus to replace expensive material components, you're looking at something based on Wish, used to create wealth. Wish can make up to 25,000 gp worth of item per casting; create an item that does Wish, use-activated, and price it for its uses/day. Deduct 30% for it only working to substitute for expensive material components. IT will suffice for anything up to a True Resurrection (though some things might still require even more expensive components, such as the focus for a Trap the Soul spell of sufficiently high-HD critters).

Thanks for the answer and good idea, on that note with a fund, is there a list online or in any book with spell component prices? :)

[Kazudo]

You could always just grant Eschew Materials, which takes care of any items that don't have a GP value associated with them. The rest are usually gemstones except in rare circumstances, so you could just handle treasure differently. Rather than receiving a Lapis Lazuli worth 200gp, the group receives 200gp in gems. Those gems can take the form of whatever is needed. Need a 100gp pearl for identify? Subtract 100gp from the gems stash. Need a diamond? Subtract 1000gp from the gems stash. Etc.

[Piggy Knowles]

I've actually been considering instituting the following houserule in my own games:

Spell components with spells work as described. If you don't have a spell component pouch and you want to cast fireball, you need to start scavenging some bat guano. However, the spell component pouch is an EXCEPTION to this rule. Spell component pouches are filled with a magically enhanced something (call it mana or fairy dust or I don't know, I haven't figured out the fluff of this yet), which acts as a substitute for spell components. So, your spell component pouch isn't somehow filled with an infinite quantity of tiny tarts and bat guano and spiderwebs that somehow stay intact despite being shoved into a belt pouch; it's instead filled with magic fairy dust, and a pinch of that fairy dust acts in place of standard spell components.

Unfortunately, this only works for fairly inconsequential spell components. For spells with more advanced components, the dust must be mixed with the dust of ground gemstones, of an approximate value to the substituted component. Many wizards keep their wealth in ground gemstones so that they can freely substitute, say, a pinch of diamond dust for that pearl the spell would otherwise require.

There is no substitute for unique items, however; a simulacrum still requires a bit of the target you are simulating, for example, and apocalypse from the sky requires an artifact that no amount of diamond dust will be able to imitate.

Basically, the idea is to get rid of the stupidity of the infinite spell component pouch with something that actually makes sense, while still keeping spell components around for those who like their flavor, and letting players more or less directly sub in their wealth for valuable material components.

[Segev]

Thanks for the answer and good idea, on that note with a fund, is there a list online or in any book with spell component prices? :)

The rules are actually pretty cut-and-dried: Anything that doesn't have a listed GP cost is considered to be "cheap enough" to be in the standard spell component pouch. While I don't know of any consolidated list of expensive material components by price, if you look at the spell description for whatever is being cast, it will state what the material component is and, if it's an expensive component, its GP cost.


Yes, this does mean that some rather odd things are "cheap enough" to have no cost, such as "a fragment of a piece of equipment used by a fighter of at least 15th level" (which is the material component for Heroics).