LordOfTheWaffleHouse
Explorer
These two things are not all that different.
The ultimate role of the DM is to keep the internal consistency of the world. Brandon Sanderson once said in a writing class that the thing that makes your magic system great is not what it CAN do, it's what it CANNOT do. This comes from a literary concept called internal consistency.
Rule 0 is often thought of as conflicting with internal consistency, but it doesn't have to do so. Rule 0 has always been "Use what works at your table because the goal is to have fun" aka "add/change/remove rules as you see fit because the goal is to have fun". Older editions simply put the world building and internal consistency very squarely on the shoulders of the DM, to ensure monsters behaved as they should for their race/backstory/abilities, that heroes and villains acted according to their internal rule set, that water was wet, so on and so forth, was the DM's responsibility. Going with Rule 0 as an example, it is a "Rule" in dnd that spell casters need either a component pouch or arcane focus to cast spells without material components in 5e. Without it, they need to have on hand "pieces of eggshell from two different kinds of creatures" in order to cast rary's telepathic bond at all. Does the responsibility of keeping track of this fall to the DM or the players? Does it not create an additional form of interaction with the world? Is this beneficial or detrimental? Observe the following two hypothetical scenarios:
A) Meldorf the Lord of the Drowned Tower faces the party, Jorkin the ranger, Bardlin the Druid, and Yorzilla the fighter. Round one, Bardlin casts silence on top of the Meldorf using his Sprig of Mistletoe, followed by Yorzilla running up to Meldorf and attempting, but ultimately failing, to wrestle the staff out of the Mage's hands. Meldorf then runs out of the zone of effect of silence, taking a single slash across his back as he does so from Yorzilla, and casts Psychic Scream once out of the silence zone, causing significant damage to the trio and bringing Bardlin to zero hit points, causing him to fall down and drop his Sprig of Mistletow. Meldorf then uses a bonus action granted by his staff to cast fireball, causing Bardlin to take 2 failed death saves and burning the Sprig of Mistletoe to ash and reducing both Jorkin and Yorzilla to under 20 hit points each. Jorkin runs up to Bardlin and shoves a health potion down his throat, reviving him. Then, at the top of round 2, Bardlin casts Wind Walk, turning the trio into gaseous clouds which then escape through a crack in the wall as Meldorf swears to track the interlopers down.
B) Meldorf the Lord of the Drowned Tower faces the party, Jorkin the ranger, Bardlin the Druid, and Yorzilla the fighter. Round one, Bardlin casts silence on top of the Meldorf using his Sprig of Mistletoe, followed by Yorzilla running up to Meldorf and yanking the staff out of the Mage's hands. Meldorf then pulls out a dagger and runs out of the zone of effect of silence, taking a single slash across his back as he does so from Yorzilla, and casts Steel Wind Strike once out of the silence zone, hitting Yorzilla once and then one of his servants 30 feet above on a balcony overlooking the room. Meldorf then laughs maniacally, fleeing the party through the balcony and swearing revenge.
Do you know where the internal consistency is lost here? In the first scenario, Meldorf is a wizard using his staff as an arcane focus, and Bardlin is a druid using a sprig of mistletoe as a focus. Bardlin's focus was destroyed by the fireball, so he should not be able to freely cast Wind Walk. It has a material component of "fire and holy water". There was plenty of fire on the ground, but no holy water. This internal consistency provides a bit of danger to the game, as the rules state that when a creature is dropped to zero hit points, they fall unconscious and fall prone. Falling unconscious results in you dropping ALL held items, including weapons and casting focuses, and fireball sets any UNEQUIPPED items on fire. In the second scenario, though he lost his staff, Meldorf can cast Steel Wind Strike as long as he has a melee weapon worth at least 1 sp. A dagger is worth 2 gp, so he keeps within the internal consistency of the magic system, but the DM at no point hints at there being a nameless servant 30 feet up on a balcony for the BBEG to use steel wind strike to jump to and escape.
Now here's the question; who has the responsibility in this scenario? Should the DM ignore spell components? Should Fireball not destroy arcane focuses like sprig of mistletoe? Does the player have the responsibility to ask about any minor spell components he should have? Or does the DM have the responsibility to stop and ask "Do you have the components"? SHOULD the DM bother with this at all or should it just be "Rule of cool"? Generally speaking, I would say that this falls to all players. Just as the DM should be keeping track of the world and the players, making sure no one is adding extra gold or items to their character sheets in between sessions, the players also have the responsibility of not being cheaters. Similarly, the DM shouldn't be asking the players things like "Do you want to counterspell that" he should be simply giving them enough time to react to actions he performs, and players should be speaking up when they want to do something. There is no distinction between it being "GM centric" or "group focused" because it has always been both.
