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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Claudius Gaius" data-source="post: 3940472" data-attributes="member: 57946">This works and is flavorful, but usually has unexpected consequences. Rare ingredients derived from creatures tend to lead to the party dissecting everything they kill, keeping the parts their casters can use, and selling the rest - effectively gaining both extra treasure and a slight power boost from their encounters. It's a bookkeeping nightmare unless the "components" are very generic, in whch case a general market is sure to spring up and much of the flavor is lost. If they're very specific, they'll only get used on major offensive spells and such unless they can be acquired very very cheaply. Trying to sort out the list of ingredients - how every possible variation might interact with each spell - is a very big job. After all, if a bat with the fire subtype is good, is one with the fire subtype and the infernal template better? What if we stack the half-elemental and half-fiend templates on the bats? (And won't it be fun when our experimental creatures escape - or if someone starts farming them). What if we have the sulfur from the elemental plane blessed by a priest of a fire god? Location-derived components work better, since there are fewer combinations of locations to worry about - most can be assumed to be magically average at best - but also tend to lead to the party picking up a couple of extra bags of holding and trying to sell the landscape from wherever they go. Still, if you feel up for it, it does add a lot of flavor. The simplest way is probably to require a feat, a dramatic statement about what exotic component is being used and where it was obtained, a spellcraft skill check, and (possibly) a very modest cost of some type to keep it from being overused. The better the check, the bigger the casting level bonus. That way you can skip the bookkeeping entirely. Call it "Spiritual Alchemy" or something.</blockquote>

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