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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8140066" data-attributes="member: 87792">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&amp;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 &quot;a penny for your thoughts&quot; 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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 8140066, member: 87792"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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