zarionofarabel
Hero
Yes. What's the point of having spells have material components if you are just going to ignore said material components.
D&D General Do you track material components?
- Thread starter Fauchard1520
- Start date
R_J_K75
Legend
Yes we didDidn't we just do this thread a few months ago...?
Neonchameleon
Legend
The default in the rules has been to not track non-expensive spell components for almost 20 years now - and most tables weren't tracking them long before that. (Those diamonds you need for resurrection, of course they get tracked).
D&D 3.0 introduced as a default the spell component pouch. A cheap (5GP IIRC) pouch full of all the common spell components you'd need for adventuring precisely so you had rules justification to handwave away the nonsense of tracking spell components. Of course this was a nonsense when you thought too hard about it; a spell component pouch in theory contained an infinite number of live spiders.
4e, being as it normally was more logical with better character theming and world building realised that no one was tracking spell components and they mostly served to give people vague smiles when they realised that the reason the mind reading spell cost a penny was "a penny for your thoughts" and instead used spell focuses that were character driven in a way components weren't. Meanwhile the nature of your personal holy symbol (I had a priest of Selune whose holy symbol was a defaced black disk of Shar, with a crescent moon added at one point) or whether you use a wand, a staff, or a dagger/athame to focus your spells is much more of a character-driven hook than that you use the exact same material components as everyone else to cast spells. And you don't have the infinite pennies you can't actually buy anything with of the spell component pouch.
5e took both the 3.0 and 4e approaches, allowing characters to have their own focuses or to have component pouches. This even manages to make spell components into a character choice.
D&D 3.0 introduced as a default the spell component pouch. A cheap (5GP IIRC) pouch full of all the common spell components you'd need for adventuring precisely so you had rules justification to handwave away the nonsense of tracking spell components. Of course this was a nonsense when you thought too hard about it; a spell component pouch in theory contained an infinite number of live spiders.
4e, being as it normally was more logical with better character theming and world building realised that no one was tracking spell components and they mostly served to give people vague smiles when they realised that the reason the mind reading spell cost a penny was "a penny for your thoughts" and instead used spell focuses that were character driven in a way components weren't. Meanwhile the nature of your personal holy symbol (I had a priest of Selune whose holy symbol was a defaced black disk of Shar, with a crescent moon added at one point) or whether you use a wand, a staff, or a dagger/athame to focus your spells is much more of a character-driven hook than that you use the exact same material components as everyone else to cast spells. And you don't have the infinite pennies you can't actually buy anything with of the spell component pouch.
5e took both the 3.0 and 4e approaches, allowing characters to have their own focuses or to have component pouches. This even manages to make spell components into a character choice.
BacchusNL
Explorer
Maybe it's just me but this isn't something that differs much from table to table. The rules are pretty clear on them. Sure, if you want to cast a revivify you will have to buy diamonds but all the casting materials that don't have a stated gold cost are freely available through a casting focus.
jasper
Rotten DM
Ditto. And if you the player don't like playing "Accountants and Spreadsheets"; please don't run a spellcaster. Thanks for reminding me to update the 5e Spell Cost.
FYI
Grand total 91,342 gp 3 sp 2 cp
Consumed 41,825 gp or 60,155 gp
Non consumed 31,187 gp 3 sp 2 cp
Includes Elemental Evil, Sword Coast, Tasha’s, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Last edited:
Bacon Bits
Legend
No. In many cases, if it's an expensive material component we just mark off the gp, too. Availability needs to be a major limiting factor of the spell component for us to care that much (i.e., more than just "a diamond").
John R Davis
Hero
Because you don't need them if you have a spell focus and they cost less than 1gp
Istbor
Dances with Gnolls
Any materials that aren't easy to find or cause a decent amount of GP.
It is a check on the power of casters, and I feel it makes sense that someone can't just walk into a town and buy some diamonds and rubies without considerable cost.
It also means my party, even post resurrection spells, consider more carefully what they get themselves into.
It is a check on the power of casters, and I feel it makes sense that someone can't just walk into a town and buy some diamonds and rubies without considerable cost.
It also means my party, even post resurrection spells, consider more carefully what they get themselves into.
zarionofarabel
Hero
Spell focus is a feat? A 5e thing I guess. Anyway, if it is a feat that allows you to ignore material components then that's the point of taking it right? So then you can ignore the material component part of the requirements of the spell. Without it you would need to have those components, thus I would have to track them.
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