Quibble at 1:19 as the PHB under the Material components section on page 203 says that, "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access these components, but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components." So you have to hold the components.
I've been recently doing this to my players, I players wanted to cast find familiar but owl feathers are a pretty popular ingredients and they tend to sold out fast and currently an endangered species in my world. So my wizard uses a recently killed griffin's feather and their familiar is bigger then normal familiar (flavour wise, more fat, different in a way) casting a spell is like cooking and sometimes you don't have what's available to you so we improvise it and make it our own unique way and thus creating our own variant of spells with some reflavouring 😊
@@The_Yukki cooking is also a science, if a recipe calls for sugar you can also use maple syrup, molasses, or honey but a different volume of it. I see magic as very similar to chemistry so some substitutions can work and some can't, water is only made of hydrogen and oxygen, but if all your going for is an explosion, well there are many ways to make a bomb.
@@jasonreed7522 baking is science, cooking is less so (outside of understanding what's actually going on. It doesnt take a PhD to understand that if you put meat on a pan its gonna brown, but there is science behind it.) Apply the example of sugar vs maple syrup in your recipe that calls for you to cream butter with sugar and you might have some issue. Or even a cake that doesnt require that specific process. Supplement brown sugar on top of a muffin with white sugar and watch as you get completely different result. Also spells call for specific amounts of specific components. F.e if you want to cast arcane lock you need (iirc) 25gp worth of gold powder. You cant supplement it with 25gp worth of platinum powder. Though I might allow some homebrewing. Like my time-based healing spell for a wizard (1st lvl heals as if it was cure wounds but only heals up the amount the target took during last round. So if you roll 13 on your d8+int and the target only took 3 damage last turn they get 3hp back)
@@The_Yukki thats a cool spell, and i definitely think that substitutions for magic components should be a negotiation between DM and player. For 1 spell it could work and for another it may not, maybe you ran out of sulfur so you try gasoline to cast fireball and get an unexpected result, or a fizzle. For the undead creature's eye in a gem worth 100gp, can you find a piece of amber with a bug in it that has intact eyes that is worth 100gp and then use a necromancy spell like raise dead on it because now a eyeball of an undead creature is inside a gem worth 100gp. The intent may have been to find a zombie and keep its eye and shove that in a diamond but something that technically fills the requirements has been met. Another side of substitutions is local varieties, maybe owl feathers are in short supply in the jungle but a toucan feather of similar size gets the job done with a slightly different flavor description but has functionally the same effect. I vote to reward creativity but have consequences for stupidity, maybe the spell just fizzles wasting the components, maybe something really bad happens and it blows up in your face, maybe you just made "entagling thorns" out of poison ivy instead changing the damage type to poison but otherwise being the same spell.
I started running icespire and now I require components for this pre-written adventure in specific, this one will definitely make the adventure a lot more fun for the party as we have a sorcerer and wizard along with some side quest options homebrewed in if they try to find the wackier components.
Component 1: a bag of shredded ones worth 200 bucks Componet 2: a tissue used by a goblin 1 is just expensive, 2 is dirt cheap but WTF has that or figured out it has magical properties. (If a party member is a goblin they could be very confused on why the warlock keeps picking her used tissues out of the trash when she is sick and placing them in temporal stasis jars) This is resolved in combat later and the goblin now willingly gives used tissues to the warlock but still judges him for it.
Idea for easier inventory management: blank laminated cards the size of playing cards, a dry erase marker, and transparent plastic or vinyl ID card holders. When an item is acquired the DM or receiving player writes the info for the item on the laminated card and places it into the card holder. A character's inventory is now a stack of cards that the player can leaf through during what would normally be "stack my dice time", meaning they'll be more aware of what they have on hand. When an item is consumed, the player hands the card back to the DM who can reuse them after cleaning off the dry erase marker. Fairly cheap, flexible, and reusable. Your thoughts?
I've done the Sidequest for a Spell Focus before, but not individual spell components, neat! _Definitely_ strikes me as something that would see more play in a low-magic setting where asking for a Magic Shop gets you funny looks rather than a high-magic setting where everyone has a Hextagram account.
4:57 "The Rite of AshkEnte, quite simply, summons and binds Death. Students of the occult will be aware that it can be performed with a simple incantation, three small bits of wood and 4cc of mouse blood, but no wizard worth his pointy hat would dream of doing anything so unimpressive; they knew in their hearts that if a spell didn’t involve big yellow candles, lots of rare incense, circles drawn on the floor with eight different colours of chalk and a few cauldrons around the place then it simply wasn’t worth contemplating." - From a novel of Terry Paratchett's Discworld
Mort. I always quote "Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one, but magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten."
I mean this is definitely a way to help implement components, have been struggling to find a more fun way to implement it then just go and look in every shop till you find what you need, or spellcasters avoiding spells because the components are to hard to get or to hard to come by
I often find if I can't come up with a way to do something, my players will be inventive enough to keep things moving. Sometimes it's best to leave solutions open-ended.
I agree, based on what party I'm dming it may be hard tho, I have a few groups and some is more inventive then others, and that makes it hard (for example a new group next to and old)
I always thought it would be interesting for a church to have a side business providing "life insurance" in the form of resurrections. You simply "donate" the diamond needed, plus some extra gold. The diamond is the enchanted such that if the player dies, the diamond starts glowing and the church knows that they need to do a resurrection.
I know this is an older vid but I do gotta say: the most common spell components are things that I allow players to use their focus for. However, things that are more specific (or priced) they need the components for. In a campaign I have planned in the future, which is going to have a far more stringent system for components where components will degrade over time if they're organic, or will start to chip if used too often if inorganic.
if they have a focus they shouldn't be using components without a gold cost. you've just debuffed your casters here by making the RAW not apply in certain cases.
@@lowriogilvie6665 That's the point. Casters will need their materials and martials aren't just going to sleep off all injuries. Otherwise they're going to be far too confident every time they go into battle and I want to kick their platform out from under them for at least one campaign. I'm also going to be horrible and make them keep track of their ammo.
@@TheFireMiner That sounds terrible I love it. I know I'd despise being a player in that situation, but in a campaign with higher stakes, it certainly works.
"Undead eye in a gem" - Amber is a semiprecious gem, made from fossilized tree sap. An undead force destroyed in ancient times by a grove of treants might be a source for this. Hell, a Treant might have such a thing STUCK to it.
An alternative for material components (for most spells) I came up with in 2nd Edition and carried into 3E: Casting Channels - a Casting Channel is an item imbued by the caster in a special process to serve in place of Material Components up to a certain level of spell, affected by the item’s ability to channel magic. The creation of a Casting Channel is a day long ritual, and you may only have one Channel at a time, switching Channels requires repeating the ritual with the item you wish to be your new Channel. A Channel must be an item that can be “pointed at” or “face” a spell target. The most common items used as Casting Channels are: Rings, Wands, Staffs, hats, amulets, brooches, and daggers. Mundane Item - Spells of 3rd level or lower. Magic Item - Spells of 6th level or lower. Artifact - 9th level or lower.
One thing I think is neat is allowing rarer replacement components. Maybe something like Zee Bashew brought up: moonstone. Generally it can replace components as long as they have little to no value(no listed value), but it might consume the moonstone piece, maybe a marble of moonstone would work.
I always try to go the route that magic is diverse, and multiple routes can be taken to produce a similar effect. Cantrips are free to use as long as they have a compinants pouch, the material is flavor. First and second level spells i do this too, but don't give it for free. They 'upgrade' their pouch to the appropriate level for the spell. As long as it does not state material is consumed, they will then have infinite of it. From there its a case by case basis. Anything consumed will always have to be bought / found. Ideas to make it can be bounced around. Lastly if theres enemy spellcasters they can loot pouches if the spellcaster had them. I dont itemize this, and will say they can find x number of needed material. By doing this I can offer benifits for specific spells, and it can be a fun way to flavour their progress. They find x ingredient that seems to work better. Now their Acid Arrow leaves a line of acid for a turn or something.
The idea of consuming some spell resources for greater effect has been something I've been interested in. For example, the spell False Life has a small amount of alcohol or distilled spirits as a spell component and the spell effect is that you gain a small number of temporary Hit Points. The, perhaps too obvious, way to utilize the spell component seems like it would be to drink it. The spell requires verbal and somatic components as well, which could be read as the action to pull out and open a flask or drinking horn and maybe even say a quick toast (something as simple as Cheers, Prost, of Skell) or something as catchall as "Down the hatch!". I enjoy the idea that if a character actually consumes from a prepared amount of the 'component' they have on them, perhaps they gain an extra 1-3 temporary HP per spell level cast, possibly effected by the potency or the 'component' (perhaps the extra benefit for casting at higher levels is only available with finer or more aged drinks). This gives a nice little extra mechanical benefit and could make players more interested in looking into better quality food and drink (okay, probably just drink) when going to town to resupply.
Sorry to be late for this; I just discovered & subbed to your channel. 🙂 I love this idea; it reminds me of a game supplement from an older RPG system called "GURPS" where magic exists in secrecy and magicians use a "Hermetic magic" system relying heavily on things like spell components, and the symbiology is indeed more important than the innate traits of the component. You make some very good points here.
Using substitute components could lead to Wild Magic-like effects. Probably not to the point of Fireball centered on the caster, but the spell backfires or has some other fitting effect. Grease with no butter but some snow from the ground could freeze the ground for a minute for the slipperiness. Alarm without the tiny bell and fine silver wire but string and some cans might only give the audible alarm without any option for the mental one. A nice substitute for the various wind spells I'd allow would be a fan (with proper arcane runes which would make it more expensive and declutter your spell pouch). Or maybe improvised on the spot. Fighting in a muddy field, the wizard wants to cast Earthen Grasp by just picking up a handful of wet dirt, packing it hastily into the required shape, which then springs forth from the ground.
Of course, you can get around most components without a listed value simply by having a focus. One good source of material components can be defeated enemy spellcasters. If they cast a particular spell, or even if it's just on their prepared spell list, it's going to be on their person if wasn't consumed when, and if, they cast it. Even for consumed components, they may have additional copies on their person planned for additional castings. Of course, There are some components that must be unique to the caster. If you find a personalized Contingency statuette, could you use Fabricate to change it to a statue of yourself if you have a suitable proficiency?
The original material component for Lightning Bolt was a crystal or copper rod and a bit of wool. You rub the wool on the crystal or copper, generating a static charge. Then the magic amplifies it into a full lightning bolt. The original material component for Fireball was a bit of bat guano, which is HIGHLY flammable. The magic just amplified the explosive/flammable nature of what was already there, and BOOM. So when looking to create new material components, look at what would create a tiny imitation of the effect in question. Something flammable for fire spells, something that bends or distorts light for illusions (prisms are fun), etc. Then just ramp it up.
I'd honestly love tracking material components and other resources in a long term campaign but for oneshots and shorter campaigns it makes more sense to just assume spellcasters are prepared (unless it's maybe something like the diamonds for revival spells and part of the character's main traits is that they're super poor or something but even then it's a bit of a stretch)
One thing that could be fun would be to have certain spell components built into jewelry, clothing, or trinkets. For example, with the bat fur, you could have someone offer a set of gloves made of bat skin with the fur still on. Or they can get a peal necklace with one pearl suitable for the Identify spell. This could help the players identify other spellcasters and give a clue for what spells they might have. For example, the Sleep spell requires a pinch of sand, rose petals, or a cricket. If the players come across an aristocrat or mage who is always seen holding a rose or has a vial of sand built into a piece of jewelry then it could cue them into them knowing the sleep spell.
I love keeping track of ammo. If I run out because of a long setting far away from a Fletcher I have to try and make my own or start to rely on melee which is a lot riskier for my playstyle.
I like the idea of exotic spell components that act like consumables that only activate when a caster casts, creating a new or interesting effect. I'm less wild about players having to constantly hunt for basic components; i think even more complexity and involvement can be too much of a barrier for an already involved class archetype.
someone asked me why the components always cost like 100g etc when an item requires an expensive one. my answer The vendors realized magic people need this at this size, quality, whatever and decided on a nice round price to make it easier for them to sell on the fly instead of like 97g 8s 4c they just rounded up to 100 and eventually all of them did for that same pearl.
I'm playing a hexblade, who's in the ice wind dale and I'm trying to figure out how to get tears inside a 300gp gem, or an undead eyeball inside a 150gp gem
For the first one cry about it and see if I’ve counts the second take an undead creature’s eye and see if ice works might make the result insanely fragile tho
I think the fabricate spell lets you manipulate matter so probably get the gems and then use fabricate to mold them around the object (of tears maybe make a bowl out of the gem then cry into it then do a second casting, or have it be a gap that mending can fix) Also, if you get a piece of amber with a bug in it of correct value, can you use necromancy on the bug to now have a undead creature (and therefore its eyes) inside a valuable gem? Either way a zombie mosquito inside amber sounds like an awesome item to have even if it doesn't work for this particular spell. (And follow-up, do you only destroy 1 eye at a time with this method or does the whole thing get consumed?)
Here's my idea; gathering free and mundane components for one-time-use spells can be tedious. You could have a sidequest to get some bat fur, and then never need to do it again, but what I'm thinking is that for lesser spell components like that, the process of preparation includes gathering and using the components. But then this gives me another idea, if the spell is prepared beforehand, why bother with material components? Perhaps components are only used when a spell is cast without preparation, allowing magic users some extra spell castings.
i run a fighter with hunting skill. his source of income is hunts beast for component part or just rare components. Beholder small eyes used for potions of levitation worth 500gp each!!
Spell components are a wonderful tool for any DM looking to ban casters from their game! Jokes aside I find playing a wizard already tough financially as getting new spells is expensive and a few sessions in - I am still saving up for that pearl for "Identify".
pro tip get a rogue to steal a whole neckless of them or get the hard to seduce them off a noble woman trying to get your party members help they'll usually do it especially for spells like identify were they benifite
@@kellynolen498 Getting the rogue to steal is no problem - getting the rogue to share is! So I built my wizard with some roguish proficiencies, just waiting to find that pearl)))
I did this many years ago when I was playing in mage in 2E. There is a spell component list out there with prices. This was a lot of fun. But the player has to be willing to do this. It did cause some tensions in the group and part of members did not want to give up money to buy spelled opponents that were very expensive Then I refused to cast those spells. It changed their minds.
In my setting, I made gems a really rare thing because "Gemstone" can be used as a spell material. People don't wear jewelry anymore than I would wear a necklace made of fuel rods.
im thinking my ruling on this, since an arcane focus and component pouch replaces all material components without a gold cost, would be that the focus or pouch only has the power or items to replace cantrips and first level spells, and any spell beyond that requires players to go out and fetch the components themselves.
Luckily using a Arcane/Druidic Focus or Holy Symbol can be used for any spell that doesn't consume Material Components, unless the spell requires a certain value of said components.
Every time my DM states we're tracking coin weight, my entire table sighs. This being said, I am looking as using a table to show the components for each of my spells. That's fun flavor. Hopefully my component pouch list will work for him. In DnD Beyond, you can have a pouch, overwrite the weight to equal a component pouch, name it a component pouch, cost it out as a component pouch, and then add custom items for each content. Obviously the weight of a bit of bat guano or a single flea should be zero.
Also if components are needed in your campaign then in cities where magic is prevalent you might see various niche businesses pop up maybe there’s a bat farm in town for all your fur and guano needs things like this can give you ideas if you’re struggling to populate a place with businesses and it can snowball from there perhaps the bat farm is in the forest outside town and the apothecary or component show hasn’t heard from them in a few weeks that can then lead your players down yet another adventure in order to fix the supply line
Ive been thinking about mana as a resource, maybe spells could use mana (or spells slots) and if you have the components then it uses less or does more damage/greater effect? this way it can be both ignored and rewarded for compliance!!!! I am defo using this in my future games!
Summon Undead requires a gilded skull, worth at least 300gp. Not consumed. How to get the skull? Collect an animal skull. The spell does not specify it has to be a human/humanoid skull, so any skull will do. Feel free to choose a skull that looks interesting or pleasing. Bring the skull to jeweller (the kind that _makes_ jewellery, not the kind that merely trades it) and commission a custom skull. Specify that it has to be worth at least 300gp once it's done, merely demanding that much in compensation is insufficient. Leave, and return when the skull is done. The gold, craftsmanship, and potential other ingredients such as gemstones, will by this time have ensured that the skull is indeed worth 300gp (if not, threaten the jeweller or just refuse to pay; repeat until you have a viable skull). Congratulations, you can now cast Summon Undead. Similar methods can be used for other spells with similar ingredients. Especially Summon Aberration seems popular.
How about a component pouch as an arcane focus for flavor and roleplay you don't need to find material components that way you can use components without the hassle
A spell focus only lets you ignore materials that dont have a gold piece value. Whether the material is consumed or not is a separate issue. Most components without a goldpiece value are not consumed. If it has a goldpiece value, RAW, you have to have that specific item even if you have a focus. Also this only applies if your class can use Focuses. Eldritch Knights, Arcane Tricksters, and Rangers dont get the Focus ability, and thus technically have to use a Component Pouch. At least in 5e that is.
The so-obvious-you'll-miss-it problem with making "unusual" components "realistically" difficult to obtain is that those spells were *written* under the presumption that the exact details of what "material components" are is pure fluff that will be abstracted away into "the material component pouch". So you're introducing comparative limitations between spells that weren't intended to be actual differences in the difficulty of using those spells.
Want to have spell components, but don't to be hassled with inventory .... how about every time you level up (or if you use milestones), you need to refill the component pouch. Or, you have to buy a new component pouch for each of the levels of spells you can cast, so there are 1st level pouches, 2nd level pouches, and so on. Not all mages need all the components because they only need the bits for the spells they cast, so maybe the magic shop owner will customize their pouches? Do you only cast Fireball? Gonna need a lot of guano. Or bitumen, something like that. Also, if you fail a save vs. something badly enough, maybe one of your pouches is destroyed, meaning you can't cast anything from that level until it's replaced.
The rules literally state that if a component doesn't have a cost then it can be replaced with an arcane focus, I don't get why so many people think that arcane focuses aren't useful or that they need to ignore material components to make the game fun and balanced for everyone. The point is that you use a focus for everything that isn't a high power spell and you get components for everything else. If you are playing with components or a component pouch, then these rules about collecting stuff is great, but the idea that it needs to be included to make having components fun and interesting is a bit weird. Every time this comes up I feel like no one actually reads the rules before trying to sound like they know what they're talking about.
Can someone explain to me how to price non gold material components. One of my spellcasters wants to start off with 0 material components or a focus and I have yet to find any alleged pricing for them. Like a stick that has been struck by lightning? How do you price something like that?
![Kodak Black - Sharp Vibes [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oEV0OoLJeIs/mqdefault.jpg)
Quibble at 1:19 as the PHB under the Material components section on page 203 says that, "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access these components, but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components."
So you have to hold the components.
I've been recently doing this to my players, I players wanted to cast find familiar but owl feathers are a pretty popular ingredients and they tend to sold out fast and currently an endangered species in my world. So my wizard uses a recently killed griffin's feather and their familiar is bigger then normal familiar (flavour wise, more fat, different in a way)
casting a spell is like cooking and sometimes you don't have what's available to you so we improvise it and make it our own unique way and thus creating our own variant of spells with some reflavouring 😊
Brilliant! I love how you've incorporated your world's economy with item scarcity.
Eh, idk about the cooking thing. I see it more like a precise science. You won't be able to make water without hydrogen and oxygen.
@@The_Yukki cooking is also a science, if a recipe calls for sugar you can also use maple syrup, molasses, or honey but a different volume of it.
I see magic as very similar to chemistry so some substitutions can work and some can't, water is only made of hydrogen and oxygen, but if all your going for is an explosion, well there are many ways to make a bomb.
@@jasonreed7522 baking is science, cooking is less so (outside of understanding what's actually going on. It doesnt take a PhD to understand that if you put meat on a pan its gonna brown, but there is science behind it.)
Apply the example of sugar vs maple syrup in your recipe that calls for you to cream butter with sugar and you might have some issue. Or even a cake that doesnt require that specific process. Supplement brown sugar on top of a muffin with white sugar and watch as you get completely different result.
Also spells call for specific amounts of specific components. F.e if you want to cast arcane lock you need (iirc) 25gp worth of gold powder. You cant supplement it with 25gp worth of platinum powder.
Though I might allow some homebrewing. Like my time-based healing spell for a wizard (1st lvl heals as if it was cure wounds but only heals up the amount the target took during last round. So if you roll 13 on your d8+int and the target only took 3 damage last turn they get 3hp back)
@@The_Yukki thats a cool spell, and i definitely think that substitutions for magic components should be a negotiation between DM and player. For 1 spell it could work and for another it may not, maybe you ran out of sulfur so you try gasoline to cast fireball and get an unexpected result, or a fizzle.
For the undead creature's eye in a gem worth 100gp, can you find a piece of amber with a bug in it that has intact eyes that is worth 100gp and then use a necromancy spell like raise dead on it because now a eyeball of an undead creature is inside a gem worth 100gp. The intent may have been to find a zombie and keep its eye and shove that in a diamond but something that technically fills the requirements has been met.
Another side of substitutions is local varieties, maybe owl feathers are in short supply in the jungle but a toucan feather of similar size gets the job done with a slightly different flavor description but has functionally the same effect. I vote to reward creativity but have consequences for stupidity, maybe the spell just fizzles wasting the components, maybe something really bad happens and it blows up in your face, maybe you just made "entagling thorns" out of poison ivy instead changing the damage type to poison but otherwise being the same spell.
Material components like traveling, and mass combat is one of the most overlooked things in d&d.
I started running icespire and now I require components for this pre-written adventure in specific, this one will definitely make the adventure a lot more fun for the party as we have a sorcerer and wizard along with some side quest options homebrewed in if they try to find the wackier components.
Ooo, that's going to be a tough environment to find components in.
6:05 I see...
6:07 Well, that escalated quickly
Sometimes you have to be rich, sometimes you have to be weird.
Component 1: a bag of shredded ones worth 200 bucks
Componet 2: a tissue used by a goblin
1 is just expensive, 2 is dirt cheap but WTF has that or figured out it has magical properties. (If a party member is a goblin they could be very confused on why the warlock keeps picking her used tissues out of the trash when she is sick and placing them in temporal stasis jars) This is resolved in combat later and the goblin now willingly gives used tissues to the warlock but still judges him for it.
Idea for easier inventory management: blank laminated cards the size of playing cards, a dry erase marker, and transparent plastic or vinyl ID card holders. When an item is acquired the DM or receiving player writes the info for the item on the laminated card and places it into the card holder. A character's inventory is now a stack of cards that the player can leaf through during what would normally be "stack my dice time", meaning they'll be more aware of what they have on hand. When an item is consumed, the player hands the card back to the DM who can reuse them after cleaning off the dry erase marker. Fairly cheap, flexible, and reusable. Your thoughts?
I imagine it would tend to smear or mess up, so regular index cards with pen/pencil writing on it would likely work better
I thought the ruling was a focus could be use in place of any material component until it had a gold value listed or is consumed
I've done the Sidequest for a Spell Focus before, but not individual spell components, neat!
_Definitely_ strikes me as something that would see more play in a low-magic setting where asking for a Magic Shop gets you funny looks rather than a high-magic setting where everyone has a Hextagram account.
4:57 "The Rite of AshkEnte, quite simply, summons and binds Death. Students of the occult will be aware that it can be performed with a simple incantation, three small bits of wood and 4cc of mouse blood, but no wizard worth his pointy hat would dream of doing anything so unimpressive; they knew in their hearts that if a spell didn’t involve big yellow candles, lots of rare incense, circles drawn on the floor with eight different colours of chalk and a few cauldrons around the place then it simply wasn’t worth contemplating."
- From a novel of Terry Paratchett's Discworld
I knew this quote at the fourth word.
Thank you.
Mort. I always quote "Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one, but magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten."
I mean this is definitely a way to help implement components, have been struggling to find a more fun way to implement it then just go and look in every shop till you find what you need, or spellcasters avoiding spells because the components are to hard to get or to hard to come by
I often find if I can't come up with a way to do something, my players will be inventive enough to keep things moving. Sometimes it's best to leave solutions open-ended.
I agree, based on what party I'm dming it may be hard tho, I have a few groups and some is more inventive then others, and that makes it hard (for example a new group next to and old)
I always thought it would be interesting for a church to have a side business providing "life insurance" in the form of resurrections. You simply "donate" the diamond needed, plus some extra gold. The diamond is the enchanted such that if the player dies, the diamond starts glowing and the church knows that they need to do a resurrection.
I know this is an older vid but I do gotta say: the most common spell components are things that I allow players to use their focus for. However, things that are more specific (or priced) they need the components for.
In a campaign I have planned in the future, which is going to have a far more stringent system for components where components will degrade over time if they're organic, or will start to chip if used too often if inorganic.
if they have a focus they shouldn't be using components without a gold cost. you've just debuffed your casters here by making the RAW not apply in certain cases.
@@lowriogilvie6665 That's the point. Casters will need their materials and martials aren't just going to sleep off all injuries. Otherwise they're going to be far too confident every time they go into battle and I want to kick their platform out from under them for at least one campaign.
I'm also going to be horrible and make them keep track of their ammo.
@@somewhereelse1235 My last campaign gave us a point of exhaustion for getting pulled back up in combat. It was... spooky.
@@TheFireMiner That sounds terrible I love it. I know I'd despise being a player in that situation, but in a campaign with higher stakes, it certainly works.
"Undead eye in a gem" - Amber is a semiprecious gem, made from fossilized tree sap. An undead force destroyed in ancient times by a grove of treants might be a source for this. Hell, a Treant might have such a thing STUCK to it.
Your guides and tips have been *extremely* valuable. I will definitely tip more when I can. I appreciate your work on the subject immensely.
An alternative for material components (for most spells) I came up with in 2nd Edition and carried into 3E: Casting Channels - a Casting Channel is an item imbued by the caster in a special process to serve in place of Material Components up to a certain level of spell, affected by the item’s ability to channel magic. The creation of a Casting Channel is a day long ritual, and you may only have one Channel at a time, switching Channels requires repeating the ritual with the item you wish to be your new Channel. A Channel must be an item that can be “pointed at” or “face” a spell target. The most common items used as Casting Channels are: Rings, Wands, Staffs, hats, amulets, brooches, and daggers.
Mundane Item - Spells of 3rd level or lower. Magic Item - Spells of 6th level or lower. Artifact - 9th level or lower.
One thing I think is neat is allowing rarer replacement components. Maybe something like Zee Bashew brought up: moonstone. Generally it can replace components as long as they have little to no value(no listed value), but it might consume the moonstone piece, maybe a marble of moonstone would work.
I’m tempted to introduce a spell component merchant who is a necromancer. 😁💀
I always try to go the route that magic is diverse, and multiple routes can be taken to produce a similar effect. Cantrips are free to use as long as they have a compinants pouch, the material is flavor. First and second level spells i do this too, but don't give it for free. They 'upgrade' their pouch to the appropriate level for the spell. As long as it does not state material is consumed, they will then have infinite of it.
From there its a case by case basis. Anything consumed will always have to be bought / found. Ideas to make it can be bounced around.
Lastly if theres enemy spellcasters they can loot pouches if the spellcaster had them. I dont itemize this, and will say they can find x number of needed material.
By doing this I can offer benifits for specific spells, and it can be a fun way to flavour their progress. They find x ingredient that seems to work better. Now their Acid Arrow leaves a line of acid for a turn or something.
The idea of consuming some spell resources for greater effect has been something I've been interested in.
For example, the spell False Life has a small amount of alcohol or distilled spirits as a spell component and the spell effect is that you gain a small number of temporary Hit Points. The, perhaps too obvious, way to utilize the spell component seems like it would be to drink it. The spell requires verbal and somatic components as well, which could be read as the action to pull out and open a flask or drinking horn and maybe even say a quick toast (something as simple as Cheers, Prost, of Skell) or something as catchall as "Down the hatch!". I enjoy the idea that if a character actually consumes from a prepared amount of the 'component' they have on them, perhaps they gain an extra 1-3 temporary HP per spell level cast, possibly effected by the potency or the 'component' (perhaps the extra benefit for casting at higher levels is only available with finer or more aged drinks). This gives a nice little extra mechanical benefit and could make players more interested in looking into better quality food and drink (okay, probably just drink) when going to town to resupply.
Sorry to be late for this; I just discovered & subbed to your channel. 🙂 I love this idea; it reminds me of a game supplement from an older RPG system called "GURPS" where magic exists in secrecy and magicians use a "Hermetic magic" system relying heavily on things like spell components, and the symbiology is indeed more important than the innate traits of the component. You make some very good points here.
Using substitute components could lead to Wild Magic-like effects. Probably not to the point of Fireball centered on the caster, but the spell backfires or has some other fitting effect.
Grease with no butter but some snow from the ground could freeze the ground for a minute for the slipperiness.
Alarm without the tiny bell and fine silver wire but string and some cans might only give the audible alarm without any option for the mental one.
A nice substitute for the various wind spells I'd allow would be a fan (with proper arcane runes which would make it more expensive and declutter your spell pouch).
Or maybe improvised on the spot. Fighting in a muddy field, the wizard wants to cast Earthen Grasp by just picking up a handful of wet dirt, packing it hastily into the required shape, which then springs forth from the ground.
Of course, you can get around most components without a listed value simply by having a focus.
One good source of material components can be defeated enemy spellcasters. If they cast a particular spell, or even if it's just on their prepared spell list, it's going to be on their person if wasn't consumed when, and if, they cast it. Even for consumed components, they may have additional copies on their person planned for additional castings. Of course, There are some components that must be unique to the caster. If you find a personalized Contingency statuette, could you use Fabricate to change it to a statue of yourself if you have a suitable proficiency?
The original material component for Lightning Bolt was a crystal or copper rod and a bit of wool. You rub the wool on the crystal or copper, generating a static charge. Then the magic amplifies it into a full lightning bolt.
The original material component for Fireball was a bit of bat guano, which is HIGHLY flammable. The magic just amplified the explosive/flammable nature of what was already there, and BOOM.
So when looking to create new material components, look at what would create a tiny imitation of the effect in question. Something flammable for fire spells, something that bends or distorts light for illusions (prisms are fun), etc. Then just ramp it up.
I'd honestly love tracking material components and other resources in a long term campaign but for oneshots and shorter campaigns it makes more sense to just assume spellcasters are prepared (unless it's maybe something like the diamonds for revival spells and part of the character's main traits is that they're super poor or something but even then it's a bit of a stretch)
Consider that the material required for fireball is guano and sulphur, making it just a dash of charcoal short of being gunpowder.
One thing that could be fun would be to have certain spell components built into jewelry, clothing, or trinkets.
For example, with the bat fur, you could have someone offer a set of gloves made of bat skin with the fur still on. Or they can get a peal necklace with one pearl suitable for the Identify spell. This could help the players identify other spellcasters and give a clue for what spells they might have. For example, the Sleep spell requires a pinch of sand, rose petals, or a cricket. If the players come across an aristocrat or mage who is always seen holding a rose or has a vial of sand built into a piece of jewelry then it could cue them into them knowing the sleep spell.
I love keeping track of ammo. If I run out because of a long setting far away from a Fletcher I have to try and make my own or start to rely on melee which is a lot riskier for my playstyle.
I like the idea of exotic spell components that act like consumables that only activate when a caster casts, creating a new or interesting effect. I'm less wild about players having to constantly hunt for basic components; i think even more complexity and involvement can be too much of a barrier for an already involved class archetype.
someone asked me why the components always cost like 100g etc when an item requires an expensive one.
my answer
The vendors realized magic people need this at this size, quality, whatever and decided on a nice round price to make it easier for them to sell on the fly instead of like 97g 8s 4c they just rounded up to 100 and eventually all of them did for that same pearl.
I go a step further and use the monster harvesting guides where they can salvage parts from monsters and make gear out of them
I'm playing a hexblade, who's in the ice wind dale and I'm trying to figure out how to get tears inside a 300gp gem, or an undead eyeball inside a 150gp gem
For the first one cry about it and see if I’ve counts the second take an undead creature’s eye and see if ice works might make the result insanely fragile tho
I think the fabricate spell lets you manipulate matter so probably get the gems and then use fabricate to mold them around the object (of tears maybe make a bowl out of the gem then cry into it then do a second casting, or have it be a gap that mending can fix)
Also, if you get a piece of amber with a bug in it of correct value, can you use necromancy on the bug to now have a undead creature (and therefore its eyes) inside a valuable gem? Either way a zombie mosquito inside amber sounds like an awesome item to have even if it doesn't work for this particular spell. (And follow-up, do you only destroy 1 eye at a time with this method or does the whole thing get consumed?)
Another fun uncommon component is a red dragon scale
Thanks for the content.
Here's my idea; gathering free and mundane components for one-time-use spells can be tedious. You could have a sidequest to get some bat fur, and then never need to do it again, but what I'm thinking is that for lesser spell components like that, the process of preparation includes gathering and using the components.
But then this gives me another idea, if the spell is prepared beforehand, why bother with material components? Perhaps components are only used when a spell is cast without preparation, allowing magic users some extra spell castings.
i run a fighter with hunting skill. his source of income is hunts beast for component part or just rare components. Beholder small eyes used for potions of levitation worth 500gp each!!
Spell components are a wonderful tool for any DM looking to ban casters from their game! Jokes aside I find playing a wizard already tough financially as getting new spells is expensive and a few sessions in - I am still saving up for that pearl for "Identify".
pro tip get a rogue to steal a whole neckless of them or get the hard to seduce them off a noble woman
trying to get your party members help they'll usually do it especially for spells like identify were they benifite
@@kellynolen498 Getting the rogue to steal is no problem - getting the rogue to share is! So I built my wizard with some roguish proficiencies, just waiting to find that pearl)))
I did this many years ago when I was playing in mage in 2E. There is a spell component list out there with prices. This was a lot of fun. But the player has to be willing to do this. It did cause some tensions in the group and part of members did not want to give up money to buy spelled opponents that were very expensive Then I refused to cast those spells. It changed their minds.
In my setting, I made gems a really rare thing because "Gemstone" can be used as a spell material. People don't wear jewelry anymore than I would wear a necklace made of fuel rods.
Wearing bling is the equivalent of open carrying if you're a magic user
That's super clever >:0
im thinking my ruling on this, since an arcane focus and component pouch replaces all material components without a gold cost, would be that the focus or pouch only has the power or items to replace cantrips and first level spells, and any spell beyond that requires players to go out and fetch the components themselves.
Luckily using a Arcane/Druidic Focus or Holy Symbol can be used for any spell that doesn't consume Material Components, unless the spell requires a certain value of said components.
Every time my DM states we're tracking coin weight, my entire table sighs. This being said, I am looking as using a table to show the components for each of my spells. That's fun flavor. Hopefully my component pouch list will work for him. In DnD Beyond, you can have a pouch, overwrite the weight to equal a component pouch, name it a component pouch, cost it out as a component pouch, and then add custom items for each content. Obviously the weight of a bit of bat guano or a single flea should be zero.
Also if components are needed in your campaign then in cities where magic is prevalent you might see various niche businesses pop up maybe there’s a bat farm in town for all your fur and guano needs things like this can give you ideas if you’re struggling to populate a place with businesses and it can snowball from there perhaps the bat farm is in the forest outside town and the apothecary or component show hasn’t heard from them in a few weeks that can then lead your players down yet another adventure in order to fix the supply line
Ive been thinking about mana as a resource, maybe spells could use mana (or spells slots) and if you have the components then it uses less or does more damage/greater effect? this way it can be both ignored and rewarded for compliance!!!! I am defo using this in my future games!
All I’m saying is if as I a rogue, if I have to gather ingredients to make poison , the magic user can gather materials for spells.
Summon Undead requires a gilded skull, worth at least 300gp. Not consumed.
How to get the skull?
Collect an animal skull. The spell does not specify it has to be a human/humanoid skull, so any skull will do. Feel free to choose a skull that looks interesting or pleasing. Bring the skull to jeweller (the kind that _makes_ jewellery, not the kind that merely trades it) and commission a custom skull. Specify that it has to be worth at least 300gp once it's done, merely demanding that much in compensation is insufficient. Leave, and return when the skull is done. The gold, craftsmanship, and potential other ingredients such as gemstones, will by this time have ensured that the skull is indeed worth 300gp (if not, threaten the jeweller or just refuse to pay; repeat until you have a viable skull).
Congratulations, you can now cast Summon Undead.
Similar methods can be used for other spells with similar ingredients. Especially Summon Aberration seems popular.
How about a component pouch as an arcane focus for flavor and roleplay you don't need to find material components that way you can use components without the hassle
Might be homebrew rule. But i heard that if you have a spell focus you can ignkre materials that are not consumed.
A spell focus only lets you ignore materials that dont have a gold piece value. Whether the material is consumed or not is a separate issue. Most components without a goldpiece value are not consumed.
If it has a goldpiece value, RAW, you have to have that specific item even if you have a focus.
Also this only applies if your class can use Focuses. Eldritch Knights, Arcane Tricksters, and Rangers dont get the Focus ability, and thus technically have to use a Component Pouch. At least in 5e that is.
The so-obvious-you'll-miss-it problem with making "unusual" components "realistically" difficult to obtain is that those spells were *written* under the presumption that the exact details of what "material components" are is pure fluff that will be abstracted away into "the material component pouch". So you're introducing comparative limitations between spells that weren't intended to be actual differences in the difficulty of using those spells.
Want to have spell components, but don't to be hassled with inventory .... how about every time you level up (or if you use milestones), you need to refill the component pouch. Or, you have to buy a new component pouch for each of the levels of spells you can cast, so there are 1st level pouches, 2nd level pouches, and so on. Not all mages need all the components because they only need the bits for the spells they cast, so maybe the magic shop owner will customize their pouches? Do you only cast Fireball? Gonna need a lot of guano. Or bitumen, something like that.
Also, if you fail a save vs. something badly enough, maybe one of your pouches is destroyed, meaning you can't cast anything from that level until it's replaced.
I wonder what would be the best material components for a necromancy wizard.
Dead bodies probably.
The rules literally state that if a component doesn't have a cost then it can be replaced with an arcane focus, I don't get why so many people think that arcane focuses aren't useful or that they need to ignore material components to make the game fun and balanced for everyone. The point is that you use a focus for everything that isn't a high power spell and you get components for everything else.
If you are playing with components or a component pouch, then these rules about collecting stuff is great, but the idea that it needs to be included to make having components fun and interesting is a bit weird. Every time this comes up I feel like no one actually reads the rules before trying to sound like they know what they're talking about.
Can someone explain to me how to price non gold material components. One of my spellcasters wants to start off with 0 material components or a focus and I have yet to find any alleged pricing for them. Like a stick that has been struck by lightning? How do you price something like that?
A 1000 gold pearl just to cast identify is dumb...