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<blockquote data-quote="Shade" data-source="post: 3020712" data-attributes="member: 287">For me, I loathe 'em for several reasons:1.)&nbsp; They don't fit my view of magic.&nbsp; I can see them with primitive spellcasters, but not with the true practitioners of the art.&nbsp; They just bug me thematically.2.)&nbsp; They require too many what-ifs.&nbsp;&nbsp; What if the component pouch gets wet?&nbsp; What if it gets hot...does the butter melt?&nbsp;&nbsp; Does the rancid grease attract animals?&nbsp;&nbsp; Don't they get stuck together?&nbsp;&nbsp; How exactly do you retrieve a pixie's eyelash from a leather pouch in less than 6 seconds?&nbsp;&nbsp; Sure, you can hand-wave it all, but why bother in the first place?3.)&nbsp; The non-pricy components seem to be arbitrarily assigned, rather than for game-balance reasons.&nbsp;&nbsp; Rather, it seems to put the casters at a disadvantage when grappled, for example.I can see the reason for expensive material components as balancing factors (although I'd rather they use foci instead), but I don't think I can be sold on the pinch of guano, stick of butter, etc.That's why if I ever play a &quot;caster&quot;, I'm playing a psion.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shade, post: 3020712, member: 287"] For me, I loathe 'em for several reasons: 1.) They don't fit my view of magic. I can see them with primitive spellcasters, but not with the true practitioners of the art. They just bug me thematically. 2.) They require too many what-ifs. What if the component pouch gets wet? What if it gets hot...does the butter melt? Does the rancid grease attract animals? Don't they get stuck together? How exactly do you retrieve a pixie's eyelash from a leather pouch in less than 6 seconds? Sure, you can hand-wave it all, but why bother in the first place? 3.) The non-pricy components seem to be arbitrarily assigned, rather than for game-balance reasons. Rather, it seems to put the casters at a disadvantage when grappled, for example. I can see the reason for expensive material components as balancing factors (although I'd rather they use foci instead), but I don't think I can be sold on the pinch of guano, stick of butter, etc. That's why if I ever play a "caster", I'm playing a psion. ;) [/QUOTE]

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