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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 3769629" data-attributes="member: 40961">Ok.  I think it was my post that kicked this off, so I'm going to muse a bit.I don't think we can firmly know what should be done with components or spell books, because the changes that are being made to spell casting seem pretty dramatic, and likely to directly impact this aspect of play.At will spell casting is NOT conducive to having to have components.  If you can cast an energy blast once every six seconds from sun up to sun down, you shouldn't need a piece of a rat tail with a string tied around it for every single one.  Obviously you won't be able to realistically carry that, and hand waving it hurts realism more than having the rat tail helps in the first place.  The better design would be to simply not have a material component for that spell.  Suddenly, through better game design, the conflict, the bookkeeping, and the headache all vanish.But if some spells are per day, those will be cast rarely.  If you can only cast your Super Awesome Spell once every 24 hours, counting components is less obnoxious.  Once every day, you might use up one.  No big deal.  And you could hand wave them like you do under the current system, if the component is something easily obtainable that exists for flavor like a tiny rough hewn clay man or something.I'd also like it if there was an extra tier of spells beyond the per day level, where casting them required you to obtain expensive and difficult components.  If you need to light a fire from the wood of the sacred trees of MysticalLand, toss the feather of a phoenix into the flames, then douse it with unicorn milk, that's entirely another story.  Now casting the spell becomes a campaign centerpiece.  I wouldn't want a list of spells like this, because they should be plot specific, but I wouldn't mind guidelines for DMs to create them.  This is the place where I think that components fit in best.As for spellbooks, under 3.5 I just hand wave them.  But in 4e, I think we can assume that at will and per encounter spells won't need spell books to be used.  Per day spells might.  But that means that a wizard won't need a full library with him at all times (or the standard issue magical spell book in the DMG).  He'll just need one book to cover his per day spells, and if he loses it, he can still function pretty well.  So the downside of a spell book won't exist as strongly, meaning there's less reason to eliminate them.This is of course all speculation about what's happening with magic in 4e.</blockquote>

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