Magical Nerf - The Material Method (PEACH)

[MeTheGameGuy]

Fighters hit stuff with a sword. As they level, they hit stuff with a sword better. Wizards begin by tossing Magic Missiles. As they level, they learn to toss Fireballs, bend the fundamental fabric of reality with Wish, and stop time with, surprisingly, Time Stop. Wizards are overpowered.

Here's a solution! Go through every single spell which will be in your campaign. If your campaign will have metamagic, go through the metamagic feats too. Think up a material component or focus for it. A few suggestions:

Telekinesis - A glove.
Weird - A Book of Vile Darkness.
Symbol - A pencil.
Still Spell - A straitjacket.
Shield Other - A miniature golden shield.
Prismatic Spray - Three silver prisms.
Teleport - A map with your destination on it.
Maximize Spell - A magnifying glass.
Silent Spell - A ventriloquist's dummy.

All spells you consider overpowered must have some material component. All usable metamagics should have a material component. Metamagic components are used when preparing the spell, not when casting. For a Still Spell, all components are used at time of preparation, so you can actually use the Still Spell without needing to manipulate components.

Then take away component pouches. That's right. Every single material component (what the heck is a bat guano?) must be found somewhere. Your wizard can still Fireball-spam, but only if he can find lots and lots of bat guano and sulfur.

Another option is to keep the pouches, but have them be empty. The PCs must fill the component pouches. In this case, the pouch simply becomes convenient storage for those components you can find.

[Zeta Kai]

Actually, I tried something just like this a while ago, & I discovered the major flaw in this system: it requires the spellcasters to dominate the game session, hunting down whatever bizarre objects I demanded that they fetch. My campaign's wizard became obsessed with his inventory, constantly trying to hog game time cutting mushrooms & scraping excrement from bird cages (I swear I'm not a sadistic DM :smallwink:). It does slow down the pwnage of spellcasting, but it takes time away from the non-casters, & eventually makes them feel like their not able to get a turn in edgewise, so to speak.

[Innis Cabal]

I can say i absolutly do not support this idea in any form. Spells already have material components, nerfing magic this far is absolutly overstepping logic and punishing the mage. Sorcerer's would be worthless to play in this manner, their already limited number of spells butchered and made to cost twice as much, and lets not forget about weight, and carrying loads. Punishing people for playing mages is not a nerf