What happens if ALL expensive material/EXP components are removed?

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

Theoretically, how does the game's balance change if ALL abilities no longer had EXP components nor expensive material components? I know there are plenty of ways to circumvent or reduce them by RAW now, but what would likely happen if these became standard?

Note that Baldur's Gate and Infinity Engine games (3E for Icewind Dale II and 2E otherwise) were classics despite or because of this rule for spells. (To my knowledge, spells also didn't give the normal stat penalties for using them. No CON reduction for casting identify, for example.)

[The Viscount]

My first thought is that necromancy, particularly the spells that make creatures such as animate dead and create undead suddenly become a lot more viable, and the restriction shifts to having bodies.

Of course spells such as resurrection or true resurrection now become very easy to cast, though raise dead and resurrection still have the level loss hindering their use.

Once anyone unlocks wish or miracle they can use it to remove all obstacles in their way first.

Everyone can start popping symbol of x on their shield.

In short balance is altered. Most spells with a costly component are put there to prevent spamming more than to balance power, so a fair number of stronger spells now become more frequently used.

[Calthropstu]

Every mage's 9th+ level slots are ultimately filled with wish.
A once per day wish item goes from a price of "nope" to a mere 159k.
So yeah. Consider your game insta-broken at high levels.

[Random Sanity]

Permanency becomes auto-take.

[Jack_Simth]

Greetings, all!

Theoretically, how does the game's balance change if ALL abilities no longer had EXP components nor expensive material components? I know there are plenty of ways to circumvent or reduce them by RAW now, but what would likely happen if these became standard?The classes that need the help the least (Wizards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, etcetera) get a boost, while the classes that need help the most (Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian, etcetera) just get whatever the big boys give them.

Permanency is a "yes please" spell.
Spell Traps become a lot more common (Symbol line especially, but also Sepia Snake Sigil, Fire Trap, and several others). And are always made Permanent if the option exists.
(Limited) Wish now becomes a "bread and butter" spell.
At 17th, Wizards are suddenly completely flush with magic items of all stripes, as is anyone they like (Wish's Magic Item creation clause is almost never used as-is because the XP costs get nuts fast; with that removed, well...).

[Buufreak]

As well as listed above things, on an irl level all those who avoid playing casters because they think there is too much book keeping suddenly have a whole new caste to play in, further flooding the world with casters. Kinda a double wammy.

[AvatarVecna]

Gate and Wish are now slightly more competitive with Shapechange. Basically all resurrection magic is substantially easier, further cheapening death as a consequence. The lower-level Animate Dead and sundry become less valuable, while the high-levels ones loose some of their utility because the ability to mass-animate for cheap was the benefit there (but also this barely matters because Fell Animate already lets you animate without expensive components).

None of this is anything that wasn't already kinda the case in higher-op games anyway, where even if you're some chump who still spends money/XP, you're at least the kinda guy who can get enough of both without any difficulty.


Every mage's 9th+ level slots are ultimately filled with wish.
A once per day wish item goes from a price of "nope" to a mere 159k.
So yeah. Consider your game insta-broken at high levels.

Also like...first off, it kinda was already unless some good work was being put into to prevent it from being so, this just makes it easier? But also I'm not sure how you're arriving at that price? An at-will Command Word "CL 17 Wish" item would be 275400 gp (9x17x1800), and making that 1 charge per day cuts it down to 55080? I mean, a 1/day "CL 17 Wish" command word item would normally be like 555k, so regardless it's waaaaaaaay cheaper with this rule-change, but still.

[Endarire]

What happens if the only things that require money/EXP are for item creation, including wish, miracle, and such?

[AvatarVecna]

What happens if the only things that require money/EXP are for item creation, including wish, miracle, and such?

Do you mean that spells still require XP costs to be built in when making magic items of them, or do you mean that making items via Wish/Miracle/etc should still cost XP, or both? because TBH, if it's the first one but not the second one, that still means wishing for a Ring Of Infinite Strength is totally viable.

[Biggus]

At levels where True Resurrection is available, death becomes a pretty trivial occurrence. Even if you don't have a Cleric in the party, it only costs 1,530GP to have someone cast it instead of 26,530GP.

[Telonius]

Any beings at all interested in alignment will just give up, as Atonement is now super-easy and cheap.

The gods get the equivalent of a DOS attack, as all the Clerics simultaneously cast Commune to figure out what to do.

[Thunder999]

At low levels you barely notice, though animate dead becomes much more common, indeed anyone able to cast it animates anything they find because free permanent minions are a gimme.

As we get to mid levels we start to see changes, commune is now a daily spell, you quiz your deity for information about anything you plan to do.
Everything capable of being made permanent is made permanent, mostly this just means that your wizard (and anyone with adequate UMD, magic domain etc.) has permanent tongues, see invisibility, arcane sight and darkvision earlier than normal (as they normally either wait until the xp cost is relatively less, or buy scrolls with the cost included). The big change with permanency is that it suddenly becomes perfectly affordable to give everyone a permanent telepathic bond with every other party member, which is useful, but not usually worth the cost. But then we get the interesting stuff, people put permanent symbol spells on their gear, providing action free offense, medium sized adventurers are now rare, as everyone is either enlarged for reach and strength or reduced for AC and bonus to hit. Free permanent alarms enable wizards to setup vast networks of them anywhere they want, letting them remotely track movement of others within any area they own as they move through a grid of alarms.
Planar ally is now more useable, though planar binding is still better since the payment isn't a material component.
Limited wish is now an every day spell and eventually fills the majority of anyone who can cast its 7th level slots, greater rods of quicken are used by every save focused caster to drop a -7 penalty on enemy saves.

Then we hit the high levels, trap the soul is now much easier to use, no need to figure out HD, wish and miracle would be used in most 9th level slots, but it's more slot efficient to gate in a solar, who can cast both, so most clerics and wizards prepare a wish/miracle or two for duplicating effects with saves and let the called outsiders handle the rest.