Spell costs

[czak808]

After the "Rich 9th Level Wizards" thread...

I wonder what amount of games actually abide by the material component requirements for spells; or does the DM just.."I don't wanna deal with the book keeping headaches, just cast your spells..."

Specifically because some spells have exceedingly high cost material components; Symbol of XXX, Stone skin, Raise Dead.

Some of these are 5% of the "Wealth by Level" chart, and some even more; True Rez (~8%).

And then there's the cost of scribing new spells in your book....

Fools are made to suffer, Not to be suffered

 

[SelcSilverhand]

My DM went with the ""I don't wanna deal with the book keeping headaches, just cast your spells..."" route. He house ruled that everybody gets Eschew Materials for free. We joked that we didn't want our wizard shouting at his bat familiar to bend a fresh biscuit on the battlefield when he needed to get off one last fireball. The only thing we are strict on are the expensive components or focus objects (like a crystal ball or mirror for scrying). Even then, we usually rule that gold = component. So if a player has 25,000 gold pieces on his person, he can cast true rezz.

 

[lottrbacchus]

We do "anything with a listed cost for the component (such as holy water)".

 

[JiffyPopTart]

We usually play with the "just mark the gold off the party gold bottom line when you cast" method.

DS

 

[Jhaelen]

I use all of those rules - which may or may not have caused all players interested in playing casters to choose psionic classes instead.

 

[czak808]

Oh crap, I've never really liked the psionic aspect of the game. Never thought it was a fantasy concept...
Are there comparable costs for psionic effects like there are for arcane/ divine? If not, psionics just went to the head of my most hated aspect of d20.

Fools are made to suffer, not to be suffered

 

[Destil]

Oh crap, I've never really liked the psionic aspect of the game. Never thought it was a fantasy concept...
Are there comparable costs for psionic effects like there are for arcane/ divine? If not, psionics just went to the head of my most hated aspect of d20.

XP costs most typically, but they're not as common. Mind switch, for example: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindSwitch.htm

 

[Cbas_10]

After the "Rich 9th Level Wizards" thread...

I wonder what amount of games actually abide by the material component requirements for spells; or does the DM just.."I don't wanna deal with the book keeping headaches, just cast your spells..."

Specifically because some spells have exceedingly high cost material components; Symbol of XXX, Stone skin, Raise Dead.

Some of these are 5% of the "Wealth by Level" chart, and some even more; True Rez (~8%).

And then there's the cost of scribing new spells in your book....

Because adding new spells to an arcane caster's repertoire is not a daily event, and because expensive components are not the majority, the level of detail seems appropriate to the amount of power and versatility wizards gain as they get higher in level.

Here are the ways I handle various spells:

• For spells that have components that are negligible in cost, I just follow common sense. Every so often, a wizard is off somewhere gathering components, sorting them, etc. The only time I really pay attention to it is if there is an event that might alter their components (such as needing fine sand....but the wizard is waterlogged because of jumping off of the deck of a boat).

• For components that actually cost gold, i allow the players to keep a separate "section" of their personal money set aside as GP value of Components. For example, when the wizard casts Stoneskin, he simply subtracts 250gp from his side-fund of spell components.

• For spellbooks, I do charge for the scribing aspect of adding spells. That, and I have players keep track of spellbooks, how many they need to carry for all of their spells, and all that. It is a bit of detail, but all they have to do is capture an adversary's spellbook and have a huge, sudden boost to the list of castable spells (assuming daily spellcraft checks, of course).

• Finally, there is one other thing to occasionally keep track of: power components. Because I have taken all XP costs from spellcasting and Item Creation (in favor of making the optional Power Component rule a standard), players sometimes have spells or future plans to make items that need special or rare substances.