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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9181690" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Components were rarely a serious concern for spellcasters- most could be easily acquired, and how many bits of fur, glass rods, pinches of guano and sulphur, or scraps of blessed leather you had laying around was just tedious and pointless busy work.If the DM wants to prevent you from casting spells, they can just have your component pouch get wet, destroyed, lost, or whatever.  Just like how some DM's took perverse pride in doing so to a Wizard's spellbook because they somehow believed it was meant to be a necessary limitation to the Wizard's power.As if the laundry list of other Wizard weaknesses weren't enough (terrible hit points, terrible AC, terrible ability to do anything other than cast spells, limited spell slots, slow advancement, things are more likely to make saving throws as you gain levels, easily interrupted casting, lowered AC while casting, creatures immune to random spells, creatures with bonuses to saving throws, creatures with resistance to some or all forms of magic, spells that aged/debilitated/had a chance to kill you for having the gall to cast them, vague or badly worded spells open to DM interpretation, DM's who insisted that you should have to make rolls in order to not fry yourself or your party with fireball, etc.).You (generic you, not indicating any particular person) really shouldn't try to balance mechanics by making them annoying.  That just turns people away from interacting with them.  Far better to identify what the real problems are and deal with them directly.*Is a spell too good.  Nerf or remove the individual spell.*Do you not want someone casting the same spell all the time?  Make other spells viable alternatives.*Do your players have too many spell slots?  Give them reasons to cast more spells over the course of a day (this doesn't mean more encounters- find reasons to make them use some utility spells to overcome obstacles and solve problems).*Are spells overshadowing the skills and abilities of other classes?  Find ways to showcase how skills can be better than spells- ie, you can employ them more often.  Or buff the skills and abilities of other classes.The only reason to worry about material components without costs is if you're running the kind of game where gold is scarce, and you already want people to track each and every last torch, arrow, 50' length of rope, waterskin, and daily food ration so you can chuckle with glee* when they find themselves starving, thirsty, in pitch blackness.*this is hyperbolic, I don't really expect there are many DM's who are so mean-spirited (at least, anymore...).  There are many reasons to want to run the kind of game where detailed tracking of resources is important.  There are many reasons why that level of bookkeeping isn't very much fun for some people, and why D&D has only paid lip service to the idea ever since Gary (presumably) created Bags of Holding, Decanters of Endless Water, and spells that create food and such.  Why Rangers don't have a spell to conjure arrows is beyond me, lol.</blockquote>

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