materal components

[nysisobli]

am i the only one who still makes wizards use them?

[Glimbur]

We have never worried about them in any game I was in, with the exception of expensive ones like diamond dust. It generally wouldn't have made a difference anyway, I haven't seen many casters without component pouches.

[RTGoodman]

If you're talking about making your wizards list every single thing they have in their spell component pouches, then... yes.

If a caster has a couple of component pouches, and makes sure to write down any other expensive components (i.e., those not covered by Eschew Materials), then I don't worry about it.

[sofawall]

If it costs money, yes. If not, no. Spell Component pouches are wonderful things.

[tyckspoon]

Simply use them as the rules are written, or actually care about the exact components a caster has on hand? Most people seem to play it the way the books have it, which trivializes most components: if you have (1) a spell component pouch and (2) at least one free hand to fiddle with said pouch you can cast your spell. Focuses and costly components are the only things you need to pay any real attention to.

Almost nobody actually forces their casters to list out every individual packet of mundane spell reagents they carry. It's a bookkeeping nightmare that bloats caster character sheets even further. If you really want your casters to sometimes care about getting resupplied, a supply roll system is a pretty good solution- for example, make a note of every spell that is cast during a day. When the party sets up camp for the night, throw a d20 for each spell. If you roll low enough (say, less than or equal to how many times that spell was cast) then the pouch has run out of components for that spell. The character will have to make an appropriate skill check/buy a new pouch/spend a little time gathering components [it should pretty much never take more than a bit of time to find spider web for a Web spell, for example] before he can use the spell again.

[vampire2948]

In the campaign setting i'm writing, various types of spell component are rare or non-existant in parts of the world. Turning some of them into items worth 1gp or so per spell. [Spell component pouches do exist, but only for certain components.]

Should be a fun way of limiting any party's spellcasting ability.. perhaps.

Anyway - In regular adventures, I just make sure they all have pouches.

[nysisobli]

but see when you make them buy every component, and they don't plan ahead, and you give them weight. It nerfs casters into the ground, maybe thats why ive never thought wizards were over powered

[DragoonWraith]

But it "nerfs" them by making them not fun, rather than simply balanced.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

In the campaign setting i'm writing, various types of spell component are rare or non-existant in parts of the world. Turning some of them into items worth 1gp or so per spell. [Spell component pouches do exist, but only for certain components.]

Sounds like you'll be needing Excel, and lots of it.

but see when you make them buy every component, and they don't plan ahead, and you give them weight. It nerfs casters into the ground, maybe thats why ive never thought wizards were over powered

Summon Material Component is either a cantrip or a first level spell.

[Kylarra]

but see when you make them buy every component, and they don't plan ahead, and you give them weight. It nerfs casters into the ground, maybe thats why ive never thought wizards were over powered

Do you also make fighters buy whetstones to sharpen their swords? Perhaps individual parts to repair armor? What about laces for their boots? Individual items of clothing? Perhaps new horseshoes for their mounts? Bedding wears down too, also leather straps on those packs they carry.

You could get into an overly simulationist mode, but that sort of game really isn't what D&D is designed for, and most (if not all) of the [costless] material components are jokes that have been played too far.

[Milskidasith]

It doesn't nerf casters to have to waste time figuring out all that; it just makes it about as fun as playing D20 Accounting.

Hell, if I had somebody make me keep track of all the spell components I needed like that, I'd just build my character to cast Holy Word at the highest caster level possible.

[Steward]

Well, I have a Harvard-trained accountant and two personal secretaries assisting me whenever *I* play. If you're too lazy to come prepared, why should the DM alter his interpretation of RAW?

[Pharaoh's Fist]

No, just take Eschew Materials.

And summon antimatter.

[Milskidasith]

Yeah, but Eschew Materials is a terrible feat anyway, plus if they say the material components are worth around 1gp, some of them aren't going to work under the ruling of the spell.

Holy Word just requires you to be able to talk and you can break the GM's campaign on your divinely empowered knee.

[erikun]

I almost always pick up Eschew Materials. Use that spell component pouch or the relevant stuff, or wander around town looking like a carpenter, or cast spells after being thrown into the dungeon without worrying about gathering up body parts from a dozen different types of vermin.

[Weezer]

I usually ignore them, both as player and DM. I make an issue of having the components once they get high enough levels that most costs are pocket change except for pretty expensive components. I probably should enforce it but I'm just rather lazy.

[BobVosh]

Far too lazy. I even use all material compenents that cost large amounts of gold cost just that. Gold.

[Tempest Fennac]

I tend not to see much point in them, so I just assume that having a componant pouch is enough unless the componant has a price (I remember JellyPooga trying to make a houserule to make them more important and it ended up being really complicated due to the need to track individual componants.

[oxinabox]

I let everyhting be done wit h spell compnant pounchs.
I consider most matrails to be another way of saying have a hand free, but mostly just fluff.

when i play a caster I always 2 Spell companat pouchs. just incase the DM decides one 'runs out'.
From nopw on I'm going to specipy that my spare is strappecd the the inside off my thigh.
If it's found there then...
Well they always said elves got off on weird things...

[Aik]

They make good colour, but I don't see the point in tracking them. When my character pulls out a pebble you can be damn sure she means business though :)

[Kobold-Bard]

Except for ones with a listed price a Spell Components pouch is fine. At least until the Caster is immobilised, grappled or otherwise unable to reach them. That's where Eschew Materials earns it's keep. Without it if your Wizard is separated form his stuff and all your Spell Mastery spells need an Owlbear's tongue or a dandelion stalk, you're just as screwed as everyone else. Hence why I always take it just in case.

[bosssmiley]

am I the only one who still makes wizards use them?

Yes. Most material components no more than a collection of geek jokes and literary references. Anything which can be pulled from a material component pouch is flavour text. Pay the required GP & XP costs for the big ticket stuff and fluff the components as you will.

[nysisobli]

The reason i do it, is its much easier to monitor the spells your wizard uses, if you don't want spells in your game. Without saying no. you can't have that core spell

[Morty]

I'd have an easier time using material components if they weren't so darned silly. Literary references are fun, but not as the part of the rules. And some of them are simply headdesk-worthy, like a "tiny replica of an archery target" for True Srtike.
Material components for spells are good idea though, and it's been done better in some systems - like in WFRPG where you don't need components for spells, but having them makes it easier to cast. I'm also fine with more serious, strong spells using expensive components.
On a side note, I remember that at least one of the authors of War of The Spider Queen series was a real stickler about material components - every time the protagonist wizard cast a spell, there was a description of him throwing around, holding, etc. the components. And when his puch was taken away from him, he could only shoot magic missles around.

[Zadus]

Spell components are a bad joke. To scry you hook up lemons via copper wire to a specially coated mirror making a magic television. Fireball has you actually making a small amount of gunpowder and Acid Arrow forces you to quickly make a small acid covered dart. There has to be more.

Its always miffed me how a wizard can pack around a bag of bat **** and still have a social circle.

Every caster is given Eschew Materials as a bonus feat in our games. Its saves a lot of grief and I flinch less.

[Kylarra]

The reason i do it, is its much easier to monitor the spells your wizard uses, if you don't want spells in your game. Without saying no. you can't have that core spell

So you're trying to say that passive aggression is a better means than confronting the problem directly... only you aren't. "You can't find that spell component" is a slap in the face compared to "you can't have that spell". One presumes the wizard already wasted a "free slot" or money scribing the spell into their book only to have you prevent them from ever using it, the other keeps them from wasting their time.

[waterpenguin43]

My DM just assumes that if you have a material component pouch, you have all the components without a price.

[AslanCross]

but see when you make them buy every component, and they don't plan ahead, and you give them weight. It nerfs casters into the ground, maybe thats why ive never thought wizards were over powered

It turns wizards into accounting homework. Some people actually like accounting homework. It's not necessarily a fix.

I go with "If your material component costs nothing and you have your pouch, you're fine; you only have to keep track of M components if they have a price."

[lsfreak]

The problem with requiring material components is that they have absolutely no relationship to how powerful a spell is. They are pure fluff, nothing more. Many of the most powerful spells, like Enervation, Time Stop, the whole Suggestion/Charm/Dominate lines, the most powerful illusions, and so on have no material components, while piddly spells (including many damage spells that are painfully weak already) do have them.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I've told everyone I'd be a hardass about Material Components if they ever played a Wizard because I don't want anyone to play a Wizard.

Still hoping to God they never call my bluff. >_>