D&D 5E Basic question: Do material components get consumed?

[Staffan]

Well, 3e anyway was the same in that some spells consumed their components and some didn't. The difference here is that in 3e the default was that components were consumed, in 5e the default is that they are not.

To be precise, in 3e a non-consumed component was called a Focus (or Divine Focus, in the case of a holy symbol or the equivalent), not a Material Component. As I recall, there were rather few spells that had non-divine Focuses.