Why Do Many DMs Overlook This Restriction for Spellcasters?

[Voneth]

"It's too much of a hassle!"

Hmmm, funny enough, material components as well as somatic and verbal are cited as the "big balancing factor" for why psionics have less flexibility in choices.

Funny enough, like most GMs in this thread, I haven't seen anyone who keeps track of this stuff. If anything having a psion in your game forces you to consider making the mage keep track of his stuff and steal his spellbook once in a while so the psion has an "advantage."

My answer? admit that wizard characters, not players automaticly keep track and stock of this stuff and give the psions more powers.

 

[JohnBrown]

Hong "I mean, WHERE exactly does all that bat guano come from?" Ooi

From caves where the bats lives. Sometimes measuring 50’ in depth. Granted in extreme cases like that the ammonia in the air will kill a person without a gas mask….

It would be nearly impossible for a world with a healthy supply of bats to run out of bat guano, regardless of the number of people casting fireballs

 

[hong]

It comes from bat caves.

"Holy skidmarks, Robin. The world's supply of guano is dangerously low! To the bat-latrine!"

 

[7thlvlDM]

If the component costs money, then I just have the player deduct that much money from their gold.

If the component is rare, then I will require they get it. Especially if it gives me an adventures idea.

SD

OMG, I can't even get people in my group to deduct arrows and food from their character sheets, and I badger them constantly! They're SOOO bad.

 

[Fenes 2]

As a DM I am usually just requiring access to a spell component pouch, but I have been known to micromanage the spell component lists for my own spellcasters.
Still, it is a restriction that crops up from time to time, since the PCs in my games tend to get attacked in the bedroom or bath, where they may be parted from their gear, or manage to get into situations where they don't have access to their gear (Like last adventure, when the PCs decided that getting captured by pirates on purpose was the best way to infiltrate a pirate gathering... the sorceress had no access to spell components, which cut the list of spells she could cast way down. The fact that the melee fighters left their magic gear at home balanced it somewhat.)

 

[bloodymage]

It comes from bat caves. Unless you're suggesting that bats need to wipe when they're done.

Only the particularly fastidious ones!

 

[s/LaSH]

I personally don't rule that players in my campaign have to track material components with no listed cost. However, anything that requires a special item requires getting hold of that item. The only spell the mage has researched that requires a special focus is Leomund's Secret Chest, for which she had to get a messenger to travel from Venice to northern Norway to hire dwarven smiths, and she's been waiting for months now. I think that balances it a little too much, but hey - the world's slightly low-magic (being medieval Europe).

Then again, I don't track XP... or even gp, these days. The campaign's focused more on fighting evil, although the social interludes are often amusing too. Bookkeeping is kept to an absolute tiny minimum in this way.

 

[Bagpuss]

I think this kinda cheapens magic A LOT. Wizard pays one time fee of like 15 gp, and has more or less unlimited spellcasting, save those rare spells with costly components? Isn't a wizard's magic kinda like a fighter's sword and armor? Fighters, and other physical combat characters, are spending pantloads of GP on weapons and armor, while a wizard has that pouch he bought back at first level... and that's all, if he doesn't cast these costly-component spells. Doesn't this seem a little... I don't know... unbalanced?

Not to me, a fighter might perhaps make a one off payment for a magic weapon or armour, but in reality he is much more likely to find it during his adventures.

A wizard on the other hand has to spend 250 gp every time he cast Stoneskin. Do you think fighters would be happy if they had to pay 250gp every time they put their armour on?

Plus a fighter can wear his armour all day and swing a sword all day without ever getting tired.

 

[Ravellion]

On the Psion example: What that means is that he can cast while grappled, and that NONE of his spells even have COSTLY components. Take a look at inertial barrier for instance... it's free. And it is exactly as good as stoneskin.

Rav

 

[Voneth]

On the Psion example: What that means is that he can cast while grappled, and that NONE of his spells even have COSTLY components. Take a look at inertial barrier for instance... it's free. And it is exactly as good as stoneskin.

Rav

But as some have pointed out on this thread, most GMs don't bother with even costly componets and I haven't spell casters get grappled much, if at all (I personaly spent 16 levels as Druid and was never grappled once.) This thread proves that in practical terms, this advantage is moot more than 95 percent of the time.

Which means that if you add a psion to the party, the GM has to actualy enforce the componets rule to make it a deciding factor. Sheesh, no wonder no one wants these guys around.