How to Fix Eschew Materials

[Ashtagon]

@Fizban

But is the caster required to declare and track them, or not?

That seems to vary by GM. I've seen it go both ways, where the spell component pouch is essentially a specialised and preloaded bag of holding, or where the GM expects the player to track every live spider. With this fix, I'm explicitly calling out tracking individual components as a thing that doesn't happen.

Note that the supercharged spell components in Unearthed Arcana and various supplements implicitly assumed that individual uses were being tracked.

What about joke components that would clearly be hard to obtain or maintain, but are normally presumed part of the standard pouch?

Can you given some examples?

You've specified that it takes up a hand: does that mean arcane casting is now two-handed, but only for spells that lack standard joke components? What if you have more than one hand item that you want to be able to use? What about all classes that normally use a weapon and their off hand for spellcasting- how do they switch between spells that use the hand focus and those that use normal components?

Arcane spell casting that has a Material component has always required a hand in order to manipulate that spell component. This isn't intended to be a change in the "handedness" of spellcasting (3.x.pf seems to assume one-handed spellcasting as the default). The open hand that would be used to magically gesture for non-Material-component spells is instead being used to magically wave the Arcane Focus.

If a spellcaster happens to have his attuned Arcane Focus item in hand when he wants to cast a spell that does not require a Material component, I'd say that's fine, but is an exception to the general rule that such spellcasting would require an open hand.

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If I were going for a full-on fix, I would require that spellcasting require that the caster not be grappled, and have both hands available for magical gestures and/or waving an Arcane Focus around in a meaningful fashion. But that's a major change from RAW that affects balance, rather than just fixing a hole in game world logic that damages suspension of disbelief.

Aside: anyone know where the "orb" came from, aside from 4e? It seems to me a desperate attempt to find some sort of casting implement that isn't a stick, but which also must be held in the hand like a stick rather than giving you a free hand like jewelry (bracelet, etc) would. The best way to give big sticks a purpose is by letting them cast more/more general spells while smaller concealable sticks have narrow use and wearables are expensive, but none of this translates to DnD casting smoothly at all since even the casters with explicitly limited spells known never stop gaining and expect to have all their spells available at all times.

afaik, 4e was the first time it was suggested in D&D as an Arcane Focus. GURPS allows for powerstones, but those are typically much smaller , the sort of thing that might be mounted on a ring, necklace, earring, brooch, or other piece of small jewellery. The 4e orb seems to be something maybe three inches across; large enough to occupy one hand, without much danger of being casually dropped.

Orbas have of course existed in RPGs since the earliest days. D&D had crystal balls. 1e Dragonlance had the dragon orbs, and more varieties have appeared since then. Table-mounted versiosn have a long history in fortune telling circles.