D&D 5E Joke Material Components

[the Jester]

Those aren't joke components, they're components that represent the desired effect of the spell.

 

[Aloïsius]

I don't like them. No. I hate them, I really do. Magical components should be used for rituals, and they should be... magical. Demon blood, diamond the size of a fist, unicorn horn, dragon scales, angel's feathers... stuff like that. Joke components are awful, they are ignored at best and derail the game at worst.
Non-joke bland components are a mere hindrance. Replace them with a universal implement (like a wand or a staff), and I would be happy.

So, no bat guano for a fireball, but the blood of a medusa to cast a "stone to flesh" ritual.

 

[pemerton]

Those aren't joke components, they're components that represent the desired effect of the spell.

Three nut shells as the material component for Confusion is a joke - based on the slang usage of "nuts" to mean crazy.

A pinch of sesame seeds as the material component for Passwall is also a joke - based on the tale of Ali Baba and "open sesame" as the password for the bandits' cave.

Not only are they jokes, but they're jokes based on idiosyncracies of English usage that there is no reason to suppose make any sense in the fiction. In Greyhawk, when a Suel-speaking apprentice asks a Suel-speaking master why they use nuts as the material component for a Confusion spell, what answer does the master give? Am I supposed to imagine that "nuts" is a slang word for "crazy" in every single language in the D&D mulitverse? That every wizard is familiar with the tail of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves?

 

[CM]

I'm all for components that enhance or modify the spell in some way when used on the fly. I think both 3e and 4e had them.

Seriously though, this is something that screams "module" to me.

 

[Dwimmerlied]

These things also echo the practice of sympathetic magic.

Yeah that's how I always read it. It's not much of a stretch of my imagination to believe that the learned long-beards of olden days believed they could transmute rocks into gold and concoct an elixir of eternal youth; They borrowed heavily from old country magics such as sympathetic magic and elaborate symbolism (which in a way is the same thing). I never even realised it was meant to be a joke.

The game's magic system is supposed to emulate what it would have been like if those longbeards with their arrays of strange and wonderful spell components were actually able to do magic. So if the spell components are silly, well thats just because the idea of being able to cast fireballs is.

I'd probably be against components that were too silly, but if the humour element is based on how silly or over-obvious the similarities are now knowing what we know with the benefit of 1000 years of science, then awesome.

 

[Dwimmerlied]

In my playtest, I made the material component for Hold Person be dried sloth testicles. Mostly just so I could tie the party to a village that had a sloth ranch.

I wish my experience-awarding powers weren't so easily capped because this is ridiculous and the best laugh ive had this morning.

 

[Stormonu]

I've always considered the spell components for D&D 1) sympathetic magic and 2) fluff.

Mechanics-wise, I have no problem with casters having a component pouch that has X uses before it has to be refilled (say 50 uses, a spell uses 1 use per spell level), or uses up Y gold - I could care less what the components actually were, except in the case of "questable components" - like say, fresh unicorn blood.

Also, I like being able to use these components as clues - for example, when a wizard uses Spellcraft to figure out what spell someone else used ("Well, he just swallowed a spider, so he's obviously casting Spider Climb.") or as the basis for minor or major quests ("The local druid is willing to make some goodberries for us, but his sacred blackberry patch was absconded by Farmer Ned. We'll have to sneak over the fence at high moon and use the druid's silver sickle to collect the berries without starting up ol' Ned's dog Buford barking; I don't know how, but Ned's taught the dog to sic that druid on sight.").

 

[Dwimmerlied]

Three nut shells as the material component for Confusion is a joke - based on the slang usage of "nuts" to mean crazy.

A pinch of sesame seeds as the material component for Passwall is also a joke - based on the tale of Ali Baba and "open sesame" as the password for the bandits' cave.

Not only are they jokes, but they're jokes based on idiosyncracies of English usage that there is no reason to suppose make any sense in the fiction. In Greyhawk, when a Suel-speaking apprentice asks a Suel-speaking master why they use nuts as the material component for a Confusion spell, what answer does the master give? Am I supposed to imagine that "nuts" is a slang word for "crazy" in every single language in the D&D mulitverse? That every wizard is familiar with the tail of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves?

Yeah I guess that gaming in Greyhawk already stretches so much disbelief that trying to explain the sesame seeds might be the proverbial straw

 

[pemerton]

Is D&Dnext meant to be the unity edition or the grognard edition? I mean, we can't have warlords lest anyone who disliked 4e have their suspension of disbelief shattered, but material components based on punning that is not very funny even in the only language it makes sense in (ie contemporary English) are just light-hearted fun!

 

[Dwimmerlied]

Is D&Dnext meant to be the unity edition or the grognard edition? I mean, we can't have warlords lest anyone who disliked 4e have their suspension of disbelief shattered, but material components based on punning that is not very funny even in the only language it makes sense in (ie contemporary English) are just light-hearted fun!

I certainly never yet argued for or against neither warlords nor grognards :/