By RAW, does fabricate require you to spend money on RAW materials TWICE?

[RoboEmperor]

I know I made a topic about fabricate earlier, but this has been bothering me too much!

1. Fabricate has both a target and material components!
2. By RAW, material components is annihilated by the spell's energies
3. Fabricate's material components is the raw materials of the item to be crafted.

SO! DOES THIS MEAN? You need to buy raw materials twice? One set to be used as material components and another set to be the target of this spell?

[BowStreetRunner]

You convert material of one sort into a product that is of the same material.Essentially, the material component is consumed and the magic then creates a 'product'. Unlike real crafting the entire material component is consumed making the product, so there is no by-product as a result. So if you were turning a piece of wood into a shelf there would be no sawdust, no leftover pieces, just a shelf where a piece of wood used to be.

This is not the only instance where the material component IS the target. I can't name any off the top of my head, but I do know that this is a common convention where the target is effectively consumed by the spell.

[erok0809]

Essentially, the material component is consumed and the magic then creates a 'product'. Unlike real crafting the entire material component is consumed making the product, so there is no by-product as a result. So if you were turning a piece of wood into a shelf there would be no sawdust, no leftover pieces, just a shelf where a piece of wood used to be.

This is not the only instance where the material component IS the target. I can't name any off the top of my head, but I do know that this is a common convention where the target is effectively consumed by the spell.

I actually really like that explanation for how the spell works. Rather than the magic shaping the thing in front of your eyes, it all disappears into the "magic realm" then pops back out a couple seconds later as the item you want. That seems cooler to me, like the universe couldn't let you see it do the work, so it had to take it back to its workshop then bring it back when the work was done.