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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8070860" data-attributes="member: 29398">The reason people don't use them is because the designers in their infinite lack of wisdom have provided so many workarounds.Time was, S-component meant you had to have BOTH hands free and have your movements otherwise completely unrestricted for as long as it took you to cast the spell, otherwise you flat-out could not cast.&nbsp; Toning this down - which started with 3e and has continued since - has IMO done more to enhance casters than any other single change - well, other than Combat Casting; another dumb idea.V-component is easy: you can't cast if you can't speak clearly and-or cannot make sound.&nbsp; No reason ever not to use this one.M-component is the tricky one.&nbsp; Yes, tracking them all is a pain and for those components that don't cost anything the 3e idea of the 'components pouch' is a decent compromise.&nbsp; But components with a cost do need to be tracked just like any other significant expenses the character undertakes or possessions the character has.For brevity, I also added a fourth component to all my spell write-ups (which I've redone from scratch over the years): L.&nbsp; L means line of sight is required between the caster and (usually) the target; absence of L means the spell can be cast into an unseen space or behind a closed door.&nbsp; I did this to save having to type into every single bloody spell description whether line of sight was required or not.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8070860, member: 29398"] The reason people don't use them is because the designers in their infinite lack of wisdom have provided so many workarounds. Time was, S-component meant you had to have BOTH hands free and have your movements otherwise completely unrestricted for as long as it took you to cast the spell, otherwise you flat-out could not cast. Toning this down - which started with 3e and has continued since - has IMO done more to enhance casters than any other single change - well, other than Combat Casting; another dumb idea. V-component is easy: you can't cast if you can't speak clearly and-or cannot make sound. No reason ever not to use this one. M-component is the tricky one. Yes, tracking them all is a pain and for those components that don't cost anything the 3e idea of the 'components pouch' is a decent compromise. But components with a cost do need to be tracked just like any other significant expenses the character undertakes or possessions the character has. For brevity, I also added a fourth component to all my spell write-ups (which I've redone from scratch over the years): L. L means line of sight is required between the caster and (usually) the target; absence of L means the spell can be cast into an unseen space or behind a closed door. I did this to save having to type into every single bloody spell description whether line of sight was required or not. [/QUOTE]

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