Do Material costs always balance spells?

[Starbuck_II]

I was looking over Wu Jen spell Hail of Stone: SR:yes, Save: None, Area: (5 feet, 40 feet) Cyclinder. 1d4/level (max 5d4).
So like a magic missile that maxes out at level 5.
Material cost: 5 gp worth jade statue.

Except for material cost it is pretty awesome by level 3 or 4.
Nothing except SR creatures can dodge it.
Only balancing factor is material cost.

Do you think material costs always balance spells?

[TheOOB]

Even at level 5 the spell only deals 12.5 damage on average, which isn't all that fantastic. A greatsword wielding warrior with 18 strength will do 13 damage on an average hit and that doesn't doesn't cost a spell slot or a 5gp material component.

The spell is pretty powerful at really low levels for a damage spell, so I think the expensive (relitivly) material component is a good factor to make it not automatically better then magic missile, but the spell still isn't all that great.

[Kel_Arath]

honestly the spell is only good agains swarms and the like, or if the enemy uses lots of ravens to spy (ahahaha, good times)

[Dhavaer]

I always saw it as a weak spell made useless by the material cost. At level 2 it would have been decent, since it does slightly more damage than Magic Missile, but 5gp is a lot to spend on one direct damage spell. Kelgore's Firebolt is much better, even with the save.