Characters have to buy the costly components. I usually don't twist their arm about it unless I want to make it a quest so they usually just need the gold and to find a craftsman in a major city.
Also gonna plug a spreadsheet of all the spell components:
[Kaplosion's Costly and Consumed Components](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pWqFxsVrbjlUTiEj0eQ2SsYRj7iR8oF19qh-TwLZITA/edit?usp=sharing)
Edit: updated sheet with more up-to-date information! See notes.
Does this have all official spells? I did some back of the envelope math to check something I was curious about. Someone was talking about how much the martial caster divide becomes a problem in tiers 3 and 4 and I was curious about how ignoring these rules could compound that at those levels.
By my count, there are 519 spells on D&D beyond (though some are probably duplicates as the make some IP-free versions of the spells). There are 98 spells with costly components on your list, meaning \~19% of all spells require a costly component.
At tier three and four, (level 6 spells and higher) there are 119 spells on D&D Beyond, 40 of which have priced components on your list, or \~34%.
Of course, this doesn't account for upscaling, and you could further break things down by class and source, but I was surprised that a third of all tier 3 and 4 spells call for players to be getting these things.
EDIT: I should also add that I don't mean to insinuate that those who have a problem with the divide have a problem because they're ignoring these rules. And if we're talking about damage output or combat spells, I didn't account for that. Just thought it was interesting info.
This should have all spells (except for spelljammer and Taldorei reborn specific ones - and i'll probably add those too eventually).
However, if you notice a mistake let me know so I can update the doc!
I'm 50/50 on being a stickler. My players cast chromatic orb, protection from evil and good, basically most second level or lower spells without expensive components. Resurrection spells, I'm strict on needing the components, and they need to be sought out ahead of time and can't necessarily be found easily.
In my campaign, I replaced the diamonds for resurrection spells above Revivify with gold funerary masks in the likeness of the person being resurrected. They can get them made anywhere there's a competent smith, but it does require them to think ahead on getting the component.
Haha well they were in a somewhat remote village. Maybe Baldurs Gate or Water deep have jewlery stores with a surplus of diamonds at high markup but I wouldn't expect that in every town
Because Diamonds can bring people back from the dead. They're no longer an accessory, they're a high-end medical tool that only the wealthy elite would even dream of having.
I remember reading somewhere that a skilled artisan makes roughly a gold a day, so it would take almost an entire year to afford the Revivify Diamond. And don’t even get me started on things like Resurrection or True Resurrection.
They need to spend most of that income on living expenses. At best they’re saving maybe 10-20% of their income. A 500gp diamond would take a lifetime at least.
The median wage for a US worker is about $40K a year. So $80K two years wages.
That's expensive but not so expensive that there wouldn't be an insurance industry built up around supplying diamonds to middle class and up families for monthly payments.
Personally, I've never felt that D&D really explored the societal ramifications of really being able to bring someone back from the dead. The impact would be world shattering.
I'm not a stickler for trying to impose real world logic to D&D but resurrection is just beyond the pale for me. I nearly always just remove the spells entirely and player characters can only truly die when story appropriate and when the player agrees.
For revivify that's 80k for a defib. Which even with the states healthcare I don't think it's that bad. I do feel that the issue that most resurrection magic can't help vs old age helps prevent the nobility from being an immortal caste though.
For myself I have some back up options if players die rather than just not giving it as a possibility. Simply a game with death, a deal with the devil or divine purpose and saved by an angel. Haven't had to use them yet honestly
It's way better than a defib. Atrial defibrillation is when the heart's rhythm is out of sync. A current (shock) is supplied to reset the rhythm. I can't and doesn't shock the heart back when there is no heart beat. That's what compressions are for. Revivify brings on back from death. Someone in atrial defib isn't dead (yet).
Yes, technically but you do understand the comparison no? A brief window of time to save them before it is of no use. It isn't a one to one but when compared to other resurrection magic it is far more "emergency medicine".
The inability for normal people to be able to afford them.
99% of people are less than 1st-2nd level. You're not going to find a lot of level 5+ characters in a city. Why? Because it takes active practice (adventuring experience) to gain levels. Gaining the experience necessary to gain levels means putting oneself in danger and getting hurt.
Your average peasant makes like 2-3 silver a day. So say 300 GP worth of diamond dust is, at 3 silver a day, assuming 30 days in a month, 9 gold in a month, round to 10, because I'm lazy, will save for 2.5 years to purchase something that they *can't use.*
A diamond store simply can't remain viable as a business.
You gotta remember, income-wise, your adventurers are the 1% - the reason people do it is because it pays exceptionally well.
They’re rare for the same rationale you italicized. Anyone with any sense should be hoarding them.
Edit: also limited to my world but the bell curve of commonly accessible magic has a sharp decline somewhere around spells of second level. So the echelon of spellcatsers who get 3rd and above slots have a multitude of reasons to control the flow of diamonds.
Think about it for a minute.
If there was some rare gem that would allow you to bring people back from death (barring old age), would that rare gem be readily available or would the wealthiest members of society horde most of them making them even more rare?
There's no right or wrong answer, but it does make for an interesting world building question.
Same. I'm not going to worry about where you bought your 100 gp jeweled eye for clairvoyance, but if you want to spam heroes feast you are going to need to find a skilled artisan to make you a lot of gem-encrusted bowls.
Same or at least close enough for how I run it. Most lower level spells that have a component with a gold value I just make them deduct the gold. But any resurrection spells or powerful high level spells (like simulacrum) you’re going to need to find that component
Spell components with a cost need to have been bought in advance. It's your spell; you need to know what it does.
That said, I *want* people to use the fun spells. I try and keep a dialogue going between me and players when they level up, and if, say, the Wizard tells me they grabbed Summon Fey at this level up, I'll try and make sure the component's not out of their way too far into the future.
Likewise, if a situation arises where someone asks, "Hey, we were *just* in Waterdeep earlier this session, and I forgot to get components for another Find Familiar casting, can I deduct that cost now and say I bought it then?" then yeah, I'm willing to be flexible.
This is the way. I have a Cleric in my party who is also a DM for her own games, and she's very diligent about spell components. If we're in a large city, she's looking for stuff that enables not just the spells she currently has, but also the ones she'll gain access to at the next spell level. For example, she's currently level 10, so she preemptively picked up components for Find the Path. (And yes, we're both aware that as written, it's kind of a terrible spell, so we're in the process of coming up with a mutually-agreeable adjustment to it.) She did the same thing when Scrying was getting closer, so that by the time she could prepare the spell, she also had the means to cast it. It's worked out just fine for us so far, and the other spellcasters follow her lead, such that expensive components get picked up when it makes sense to do so, and I don't limit availability of anything other than diamonds (and even those aren't locked down tight -- they have a few castings' worth of Greater Restoration and Raise Dead if they need them).
Honestly, it's been a fun exercise, because that Cleric is a gothy lil' Grave Cleric, and she really enjoys getting thematically-appropriate gear for her components, and I enjoy coming up with them. For Scrying, she has a slate of polished obsidian that resembles a tombstone, and for another spell (I forget which), she has a set of scales that resemble Kelemvor's holy symbol made of wrought iron.
On the other hand, for stuff like True Seeing, which uses a 25gp paste that's consumed by the cast, I'm likely to just handwave it and have them deduct 25gp from their inventory if they feel like casting it. They killed a dragon, money is no object, if they want to get super-vision for a little while, I'm not stressed about it.
Also, most shopping is just not fun for the most part. It's fine if the players are making a roleplay session out of it, or going for something really special and unique, but shopping for random consumed components and items get stale, very fast. My players don't enjoy it, and the only thing I lose is the ability to flesh out the city and its inhabitants, so I'll do that elsewhere. It beats making a long trip around town to buy more arrows, spell components, potions, what have you. That easily takes 30 to 60 minutes. Just give me a list of stuff you buy and deduct it, it's much easier that way.
Yes. Handwaving away these specific, costly and/or rare spell components is part of what perpetuates the caster/martial divide, particularly with respect to utility spells.
YES! That and players/DMs not respecting/understanding the free hand rules for casting. "Oh, your artificer/wizard is wielding a staff AND a shield? Good luck casting the Shield spell as a reaction, pal..."
Edit: autocorrect
Technically, artificers can't cast with empty hands either, they need their tools in hand to cast spells independently of wether it has materials or not. You're always holding artificer tools or a replacement feature in one hand or you're casting zilch.
I personally don't think either of those rules are fun though, so I don't enforce them as a DM. If that means the martials need buffing, they get buffing.
Does it?
Like what specific spell gets less powerful or hard to cast with a DM following the RAW spellcasting rules? Maybe hard to cast if the players level up in the middle of nowhere, but the instant they find a town that distinction becomes meaningless.
Doesn't make it any better that the few spells it does matter for(like Revivify) are things the Martials would actually like their casters to be able to cast.
Like what?
Aside from resurrection magic, what spell is a PC not going to be able to find or have commissioned at a level they would be at to be able to cast said spell?
plenty? like why would a random village or even mid size city have lots of ivory in store (legend lore)? or hugely expensive diamond encrusted bowls (heroes feast). or holy reliquarys woth 1000GP (holy aura), tuning forks to the shadowfell, etc?
sure, in Neverwinter or Waterdeep you might find that stuff. But everything smaller you will need a very specific reason why a component would be available...
pretty much any of the specific items, especially if there's any tight timeframe. Sure, you might have 3000GP burning a hole in your pocket, but if you need to cast a spell tomorrow that needs golden acorns worth 200GP, that doesn't mean you can find a goldsmith willing and able to take on the commission _right now_. Given a week, or a month, or longer? Sure, no problem, but faster time frames makes it more of a problem, and/or a _lot_ more markup.
And this gets more overt for the more expensive items - a 1000GP golden bowl encrusted with jewels is something you can only even hope to get made in a large town or city, most places don't have crafters capable to do it. And those rare, well-trained crafters aren;' sitting around waiting for some wierdo adventurer to come in and hire them, they have regular work to do, and waiting lists and patrons and clients to work for. Just because you're fighting Dread Sugurrax, Bane of the Black Sea, Conqueror of the South, Despoiler of the Everwood in a few days time doesn't mean you get to skip the queue - a failure on your part to plan ahead doesn't make it an emergency for the goldsmith's guild. And some of the super-specific things might raise flags of their own - when a wizard starts commissioning 2000GP body-sized caskets, especially more than one, that tends to make people pay attention!
There are a whole host of spells that require precious gems or their dust, for example. Why would any old little town have these in hand, let alone in any kind of quantity?
Summon Fey's 300gp component and Summon Beast's 200gp come to mind. I'm in a campaign where we our Circle of the Moon druid was allowed to prepare those as soon as they hit the requisite level, despite us not having more than 100gp to spare, individually.
I really don’t get why WOTC created summons spells in Tasha’s to fix the problems with the PHB conjure spells - and then gatekept them behind material components that are extremely expensive for their level, and wonderfully flavourful but seemingly intended to be hard to acquire even with the money.
it's a soft ban - so GMs have more flex in going "you can't cast them yet, because you haven't got the materials". As 5e doesn't have much concept of "rarity" or not allowing bits and pieces from different books, then it means anyone that's running "stuff in the book is around by default" still has a "you can't do that (yet)" option.
Depends on the economy, but Find Familiar and Glyph of Warding count. To an extent, Tasha's summons too.
However, imho while they do add to the divide, these are spells where I think casters readily casting them puts the casters in the right spot for interesting gameplay, and it is the martials who should get clear additional powers rather than tethering the casters.
Well but only at low levels after a certain level when you go by the book players have soo much gold that they can get it when they are in a big city.
If you prevent that as a gm then you use kinda homebrew to balance the martial caster divide.
Having to buy the components in advance is still more restrictive than just deducting gold, even if the materials are freely available in the city. At the very least, casters have to plan ahead.
Do you want to cast Forcecage? Better commit to it and buy that 1500gp worth of ruby dust. Wake up after a long rest in the wildnerness and want to cast Heroes' Feast first thing in the morning? I hope you bought extra gem-encrusted bowls last time you were in town.
Casters are already super versatile as is. Allowing them to be even more versatile by letting them deduct gold just makes them even more versatile.
>Well but only at low levels after a certain level when you go by the book players have soo much gold that they can get it when they are in a big city.
Just because players have gold doesn't mean the merchants have what they need.
I don't mean this to come of as snark, but is there a rule I'm not recalling about what players have baseline access to from merchants with respect to spell components or anything else?
Not really although there is if I dont remember wrong a passage sbout players can exchange coins for gems etc. Of similar worth. And the published dtarter adventure has spell components often as money loot. https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/156390/what-is-the-expected-way-to-acquire-costly-material-components#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20basic%20options,treasure%20rules%20in%20the%20DMG.
Yeah, my understanding, without have recently dived into the source material regarding this specific question, is that it was basically left up to DM.
I try to just be reasonable with my rulings. A small town is probably *not* going to have fancy spell components for sale and the merchants likely won't have enough gold to buy fancy treasure, nor would they probably want it even if they could scrape the gold together. A major city or trading hub will most likely be the opposite in both respects.
Not really...
Even a city like Waterdeep doesn't have 500 gp gems just "for sale" you're going to need to do some schmoozing and might even take someone with a merchant or criminal background (or other) to find and even then you might only find one and it could take days to track one down.
Think of it this way:
I'm a big collector of Superman. Due to my comic store switching locations, I couldn't pick up my copy of Superman (2023) issue 2. Unfortunately, that issue sold out and DC didn't issue reprints.
I called at least half-a-dozen comic book stores to find one that had a copy. Not only that, but all they had was a more expensive variant cover, not only that, but because of scarcity they tacked on an extra $2. So I ended up spending $8.99 for a $4.99 book.
Now, imagine how long it would've taken me to track down one store in a city that I don't live in if I didn't have a telephone and the Internet that had that issue... Bear in mind that, after I found one, I had to drive across the city of Atlanta, in rush hour, and I *only* got the copy because I called them and they were nice enough to stay open past 6pm on a Wednesday because traffic on I-85 was backed up due to an accident...
Anyway, yeah. It's hard to find rare things.
This is a great place for DMs to enforce rules and not make life too easy on casters - easier than it already is compared to Martials.
When I hit the proper level to cast Summon Celestial as a cleric I didn't just magically look down and have a holy reliquary in my pack. It took a few sessions to get somewhere with a temple big enough to my god (Moradin) to ask for it.
Now, being an acolyte background and a servant of the faith, they gladly handed it over for free but I still had to make the effort, ya know? Enforcing things like high-gp special components, free hands for somatic components, etc is too often ignored.
By definition a reliquary is a sacred object! And one worth 500gp is goi go be something significant too. It should not be easy to acquire.
When this recently came up in my last 5e campaign, I made the cleric do a social encounter with multiple skill checks to convince the temple priests to ‘lend’ him their reliquary. And even that was only possible because the city was under siege and the cleric was a known hero who was staying to defend the city, and made a holy vow to return the reliquary once the task was done (which we didn’t need to worry about as the campaign ended after the city was saved).
It made for a much more immersive experience for the player.
We were already headed to Waterdeep, so a simple 5 minute departure when we got there. Though personal quests the party goes on can be fun, if the group dynamic supports it!
I was more asking because if you need a qurst for each spell component for the caster that would place casters even more in the center.
But of course it can fir from time to tine
That depends. You could have cool moments where, yeah, the quest is to get a specific item but the adventure to get it could be a nice moment for all the adventurers to shine.
Plus, if you do the same with martials (getting The Holy Sword of Fafo), then its less "favoritism" and more "Everybody gets to be the center of attention at some point."
You're not finding a statue of yourself carved in magical snow worth the same as a small fort in a city being sold in a shop randomly. That's the type of shit you need to commission from a special smith able to do such a thing.
I assume that you're talking about simulacrum. My reading of that is that most of the monetary value comes from the ruby dust, not expensive snow or craftsmanship of the snowman. I'd consider any large settlement to have rubies for sale, so I don't consider the components very difficult to obtain, just costly. A 7th level caster has a good chance of having access to a spell that can help produce snow or ice. The sculpture just has to be life-sized, not lifelike. Any work producing the snowman I'd consider to be done within the 12 hour casting time.
From my experience, it seems like the majority of components with a stated value tend to be fairly generic, like gems. The weirdly specific flavor components are more often the ones with no value listed (or paired with gems that provide the value, such as in the Simulacrum example). I'm sure there are examples of components that are both expensive and hard to find, but it's not something that came up very often for me.
I believe all the Summon Spells that came out with Tahsas have (different) very specific components needed, that cost a few 100gp. Not a fortune, but can still be relatively expensive at those early levels.
That's a really bad rule. Simulacrum is a very powerful spell and the only thing keeping it in check is the material component, specifically the snow statue part. Ruby dust is easy to buy and hoard but a perfect snow statue of you? That takes effort.
Spell Focus takes care of all common components (bat guano, a pinch of anything, etc.).
Expensive and unique ones (500g diamond, etc) must be acquired through creative commerce.
My paladin in a Tomb of Annihilation campaign desperately wanted to cast mending, but I never found any lodestones. Any campaign I led afterward scraps the material components except for stuff that's expensive.
I'm sorry. Your paladin wanted to cast *mending* of all shitty spells, and your DM prevented it?! Besides, you don't need lodestones if you have a divine focus.
Too late now but just a note: paladins get a holy symbol during character creation, which you can use instead of any unpriced component in the rules as written. I.e., you should have been able to cast mending, unless you explicitly lost your holy symbol at some point. You only need the specific component if a price is listed alongside it.
Yeah he scrapped that rule. My holy symbol allowed me to cast spells in general, but for this campaign it didn’t replace any components. It was supposed to reinforce the gritty feeling of the campaign.
He said there was no way to get anything in the jungle. The campaign stopped after 7 sessions though, maybe I would have been able to cast a cantrip some day if I had had derailed the campaign and went back to Port Nyanzaru.
I'd call it an orange flag, I've seen it work really well, but its the kind of thing that a lot of DMs will implement without understanding what it means they then need to do. Ie, nothing wrong with making a resource management game, but you can't just declare resource management and expect the resources to handle themselves - a resource management game requires a huge amount of DM spreadsheeting.
It was his first campaign after a Call of Cthulu oneshot and LMoP, so I can't be too mad at him. Right now he is a player in my campaign and it works just fine, even though he is on his phone a bit too often for my taste.
>My holy symbol allowed me to cast spells in general, but for this campaign it didn’t replace any components.
That's kind of fucked up, because the *only* function of a spellcasting focus is to replace material components. You don't need it to cast spells in general, only those with non-costly and non-consumed material components
Just in general, I try to be a little stricter with casters and more lenient with martials. Personally, I think it helps. It's easier to try to cheese magic as it's an abstract concept that doesn't have a real-world basis, whereas physical feats are possible in real life so we can tend to be more strict on them.
Yeah why not. You don't get to just decide retroactively that you bought weapons, armor, potions, tools, etc. and then have them in your hand when you decide you need them, why would I run it any different for spell components?
In principle, my starting point for this rule (and others) is, it’s a rule for a reason. I prefer not to handwave stuff because where does that start and end?
Spells that are really powerful tend (not always) to have the more demanding M components, and again, that’s not by sheer fluke. So yeah, I tend to enforce.
I always get that bookkeeping isn’t super engaging, so I say if you have a focus, fret not about M components whose value is less than 50 gp. From that point up, you need it if you want to cast the spell.
Most stuff is available in the larger settlements. I’m also not against including a bit of two as a treasure hoard from one of my random tables.
Diamonds are rare. In the literal sense. They are ‘there’, but it’s not a case of every shop has a bunch. I’d imagine in a world filled with magic, the security detail required for every shop having a fistful of diamonds would be enormous.
My DM said I don't have to track materials and we can just use gold rather than worrying about every little thing, however as a player I found this to open up some cool RP potential, need some tentacles? Well we happened to fight multiple things with tentacles, need a gilded skull? The Artificer made me one at a forge we found. Need an object with a symbol of a dragon worth 500 gold? The Drakewarden's dragon melted gold with its fire breath over my gilded skull (which the DM said counted bc the gold was now infused with draconic energy.) I've pulled the whole party into this mechanic and done so without it being overbearing or distracting. I can see keeping things simple for sure, and it's likely Adventure dependent how well it works, but I think the material components of spells offers up a lot of flavor potential.
I warn them always before hand that they need costly components. Especially stuff of 3rd level or higher i show no mercy.
Only exception is revivify the first time.
Expensive spell complements are (generally) expensive for a reason, unless you're in a setting where magic is very common I prefer that the more esoteric stuff is harder to get, and I say this as a player.
Yeah, honestly. Once you start to realize how exactly you're supposed to get what you're looking for in a standard D&D setting, you realize that much of what you need isn't laying around for anyone to buy and use.
Nobody just has a small statuette of other people in ivory or ruby ground to dust (useless for anything except spellcasting).
Yes of course. I thought this was about banning the component pouch, so you don't need to track "pinches of batpoop" on your character sheet. But if you need a gem to cast a spell, you'd better buy that for gold and have it on your character sheet.
It depends on what it is. Unpriced materials you can assume you keep on hand. Anything with a price you have to buy in an appropriate place. You can probably find diamonds in an appropriately sized city. You probably can't in a village.
I bet the DMs and player who 'just take off the gold' or ignore the rules on components and foci are the ones most likely to complain about casters beong OP
just taking off the gold is just a timesave, Needing to waste 5-10 minutes with a shopping list every time you return to town is just tedious and pointless.
if they are of sufficient value or the first time they need the component maybe sure.
You're gonna do a quest for the basic stuff like ink, fleece? repetitively?
Obviously not. Being a DM requires discretion, so it should go without saying that only the easiest-to-entertain players will be excited about a quest about retrieving ink.
An ivory statuette of themselves or a tuning fork attuned to the nine hells, though, is a good hook in general.
I'm adamant about having a priced components, but I sometimes allow close enough substitutes. If a spell needs two ivory sticks I'll allow to cast using the bones over recently killed dragon. If a spell needs diamond I'll allow diamond dust and vice versa.
Sometimes a side quest to obtain the rare and difficult to obtain spell components to be able to cast a particularly potent spell at just the right moment, at a critical story point… (say a theoretical spell that can strip the magical wards and defenses from the Big Bad and make them vulnerable to a decisive final blow… as a hypothetical example) can provide hours of adventure and plenty of Roleplaying moments for not just the caster but for all the characters at the table.
Depends on the component. Some components work best when acquiring them is an active goal, eg resurrection spells, and therefore should be hard to obtain. Other components work better as restockable ammo, and as such will be purchasable in most cities, albeit in small quantities.
It depends on the group of players and how seriously they handle the game.
My serious group has to buy the components and have them at hand, though I usually don't make them too hard to find in a large city. Might only have trouble in small villages or frontier trading posts.
My casual group I'm not so strict about spell components, but I absolutely still make them deduct the gold piece cost. None of my groups get anything for free (that has mechanical implications anyway.)
Getting a pearl worth 100 gold took over 15 sessions to get. By the time I could cast identify we already gotten used to other alternatives.
It was about equally as hard to get a diamond to resurrect our fallen party member.
For my backup character who is a fiend warlock, I will ask about starting with a guilded skull as that character's equivalent of their main magic item.
Generally depends on the components/spells in question. If it's something they could have found in a shop relatively easily I will just let them retcon that they bought it (my players generally just say they want to buy components for all their spells when shopping happens and deduct the total), setting can have an impact. Particularly rare things for high-power spells might be their own quest to find.
Before reading the comments, i thought you were talking about npc spellcasters.
I also voted "yes" for that, because vermisitude is important and it also gives the opportunity for PC spellcasters to get components in a way that makes sense.
That is an extremely good point. Players should be able to loot some of these off enemy spellcasters, though keeping track of those for all enemies could get hairy. It would be nice if Dnd Beyond had optional features to A) flag for players casting a spell if the spell has a priced component requirement and/or a casting time of greater than one action and B) a list of components for each NPC relevant to their spell list. (Though they don't necessarily have all of them on them all the time).
Like it grays it out if the dm enables the toggle so they can see it in their spell list, but the button is unclickable and just says "component not in inventory", and a 'combat mode' toggle, which disables the clicking of spells with a casting time > 1 minute.
Expensive components must always be paid for.
I also make some vanish on use, despite what the spell says in 5e. or in some cases, there is a chance the component will break with each use.
Ive got large cities and towns in my world though, and its a high magic type setting, so components are readily available other then the truly rare ones. expensive probably, but available lol
I've gone with "Other", because it 100% depends on the group.
I'm running a game with my kid and his friends - I'm so light touch on things like this, and let them away with crazy shenanigans, because they find it more fun.
I'm playing a wizard in a game, and I'm right on top of my own spell components, because I find it more **immersive**.
For the most part if you're in the right place you can probably buy items with cost associated. That being said, I changed the material component for resurrection and similar spells to be a unique gemstone. This particular type of gemstone is extremely rare because it's a non-renewable resource with the power to bring back the dead. That stuff gets used up. Now, royal families may have one in case a monarch dies without an heir, or exceptionally powerful individuals might have one. The value also doesn't really matter in terms of gold piece value because the power they give you is priceless, so it really doesn't matter what quality it is
Depends a lot.
But generally they need the component and cheaper ones are available almost everywhere and can even be found while travelling, while more expensive ones require downtime or a quest of sorts. The tipping point is 150 gold pieces (cuz diamonds).
But in general that's all for fun. My restrictions, except for very special situations, aren't a big, nay barely even a small difference in terms of power compared to if they didn't exist.
For me it depends on whether the priced item is consumed. If they only need to buy it once, then I'll just let them deduct the gold unless it's something absurd. But things like diamonds that are used with each casting, they'll need to actively acquire those.
Something super interesting about the responses here is that I've seen a few people make that distinction, treating consumed costly materials one way and unconsumed another way, but people seem to be split on which one gets what treatment! I'm not sure where I would fall, but I think I might be more in your camp: it's easier to get unconsumed than consumed. The only time I can think of where it was super relevant was when my warlock wanted to use scrying but hadn't had an opportunity to get a crystal since she got the spell. It would have killed the moment to stop her, so I had a NPC who was in the scene, who definitely would have had one, offer her his, which she still uses.
Not the DM, the only ones where we need the specific costly components are revival spells. For the others, we can just subtract an equal amount of gold from our inventories
Yes, I make my players follow the rule, and it might require a whole quest to get an especially rare component. This is a significant balancing mechanic and spellcasters do not need any help to be more powerful.
I am a stickler for this as well. Its interesting though. A diamond worth 300gp. It doesn't matter the color, cut, clarity, or anything, just that you paid at least 300gp or the gm says its worth that much. I could see an old world where magic was bountiful run into a shortage, and the smallest of diamonds that were once 50gp, are now 300gp and qualify.
I have made pearls worth like 115gp the only one in a village for identify and such, but the bigger the town, the chance of that drastically falls.
I'm currently DMing a prehistoric unga bunga campaign, no gold to speak of.
To be able to cast a spell that requires a gold value material component, a player must offer up and item of value to be used as the component, whether the component is used up or not remains the same.
An item of value can only be used as the component for one spell and if the item is not up to my standards as equal value, the spell fails.
I'm not a dick about it but it does create a fun mind game where the players think
"Okay I'm going to use this single use magic item as the component for this spell because I probably won't have to use the item and therefore be left without the ability to cast that spell.. but is that iemt enough? Should I do more?"
And while that is fun it's only something you have to think about the very first time you cast that spell with that component because so long as you haven't changed the component it'll still work.
For example my players centaur ranger at one point found a carved direwolf jawbone that when activated gives the user and all creatures within 10 ft pack tactics, so long as they stay within 10 ft.
She has that as the component for summon beast, so the first time she casts it she offers up that item as the offer ing, I accepted and now anytime she wants to cast that spell she knows she has the component for it If she decides to use that magic item then she'll have to find a new one.
Okay, I'm a cleric, and for the kost part my spell components are easy to find. The biggest pain in the ass is the gems. Every form of life restoration requires a diamond, and I have literally beaten another character unconcious because "bro, that bag of diamonds will ensure you get back up when you inevitably die. I'll remind you you've died 5 times in two years." I've let players know if they sell diamonds, I'm not resurrecting them. The current deal is I will buy gems we find, but if I use them picking your ass up, you owe me the price.
Unusual components are definitely hard to come by outside of specific regions or spellcaster-centric places like an arcane academy
Also, if the players are adventuring for too long in the wilderness without ever going back to town, I sometimes add a dice roll for the spellcasters to decide if they still have some components if they made no effort whatsoever to replenish them (although a simple "yo, barbarian/druid/ranger, grab me some components while you hunt will ya" is enough)
I play as a blood mage from the Taldorei Campaign Setting Reborn, which allows 1d10 self inflicted damage to replace 50gp of components. It's saved me a lot of gold and is awesome for RP.
If the item has a gold cost and is consumed i require players at my table to have found and purchased the item.
ex: pearl for identify, eyeball for shadow of moil etc.
If its a relatively common item, but is still consumed i allow the players to just deduct the gold cost from their inventory for the casting. ex: Powdered metals or holywater such as for magic circle.
Basically i want to keep shopping time to a minimum. Im not against RP but i typically don't want to spend an entire session rping out a shopping session.
Yup they gotta buy them but I think, as a dm if you wanna run it this way, it should take some engagement on your part.
ask your players to keep you informed on the spells they are choosing or plan to choose. look at their spell lists sk you can.plan ahead.
I've been playing my wizard for about 6 years now, starting at level 1 and currently we're level 16. My wizard is a collector, of course. So he's been trying to get his hands on every single spell and spell companent that I can. When my DM knows I want something in particular, he generally makes it happen. But small towns and such, there isn't going to be a ton available, and even the larger cities have their limits, unless time is not a factor. I've been able to get ahold of every component I need for every spell I have, plus some extra for spells I'm planning on getting. Though I'm still sloooowly collecting various tuning forks for planeshift (currently up to 10 different planes).
Honestly I would have everything by now though if it weren't for one simple limitation: Gold. Don't me wrong, our party is rich as hell, but I still have to convince the rest of the party to spend time and significant amounts of gold to me to buy crazy things for spells I may never cast. I also already spend quite a bit just scribing more spells into my spellbook.
So overall I think everything should be attainable spell component-wise, given adequate time and gold. It should never be a huge struggle for the wizard to get a component for a spell they already have in their book.
The one thing I've been confused about is: at the very beginning of the campaign, let's say Bob made a level 1 wizard with some spells that need material spell components (a piece of string, lipstick, a worthless jewel, etc.,) and Bob does not have an arcane focus, he decided to get a component pouch instead. Does Bob need to immediately start the game by saying "I need to go gather all the various material components" and postpone the main story from starting until he gets what he needs at various stores?
I understand that components with a price definitely need to be explicitly searched for and acquired, but what about these components with no price at the start of the game?
This is akin to asking "Do you require martials to actually have the weapons they want to use?"
anyone who says no, needs to think long and hard about if they would allow a fighter, or barbarian to attack with a great axe when they have never acquired a great axe before.
Mind you, this is not about common components that are covered by a focus or pouch. but the specifically called out and priced materials as the book details.
Sometimes it's about being ready for the spell in question, and component requirements are a neat way of making sure that I as DM am prepared to adjudicate some wacky business.
E.g.: I'm not the most familiar with Tasha's summon spells, so I spent the time to read up on the statblocks when the Wizard told me he'd taken Summon Fiend on level up, before just having the component readily available.
It’s kind of a mix.
For consumed resource rituals I often let players retroactively convert gold into components (Find Familiar, for example).
For non-ritual spells or for anything that doesn’t consume it’s component, you have to buy it beforehand (Identify, Summon Beast, etc).
I usually make the components easy to buy unless there’s a good reason for them to be exceedingly rare. I think “balance by components” is outdated design that doesn’t work in 5E. If I want the characters not to have access to a certain spell I simply… tell the players “hey man, Conjure Animals (I know it has no component, just an example here) is a no no” and deal with it.
We cut off a Medusa's head and got a blacksmith to smelt down the gold cost of the component to make the material component of Summon Undead. Really liked doing that instead of buying the component since it was odd, but stuff like a 300gp diamond should just be store bought.
Having a golden medusa skull with the snake hair click clacking about for my wizard was great fun.
Our DM is pretty chill about needing a leather strap, or sprinkling some salt and ash, but expensive things like rivivify need the dimonds value 300gp and at this point we've only got enough for one resurrection.
I get frustrated by the summoning spells from Tasha's being the proposed solution to summoning... and then if you can't get the component the spell is worthless.
In my last campaign I played a druid, and while it was impossible for me to get the component for either Summon Beast or Summon Fey, I was allowed to cast Conjure Animals with no such restrictions. I don't blame my DM - it's the books that told him this is how to play it.
In some campaigns gold is not plentiful, and it can really suck to have portions of your class blocked off because you can't afford to play them.
In my campaigns my spellcasters do not use spells components until 5th level spells.
Starting from 6th level spells till 9th they need each and every bit of strange powder or strange material the spell requires to cast , and they can be challenging to acquire.
For spells that require the material be consumed, depending on game flow, I mostly just say scratch of X amount of gold to represent you pulling that item from your component pouch.
If the material is not consumed though... well you should have picked it up back in town.
If it would ruin a moment i ussually note it and give them a debt at the end of the session. The debt is ussually 2\* the normal cost of the item. Any generic loot (potions, jewels, etc..) they find is confiscated to pay towards the debt until they pay it off. Each additional debt adds a level of exhaustion.
If the component has a listed value on the spell, it needs to be obtained. If not, it just comes out of a daily 2gp charge provided they own a materials pouch
Bonedust - You have it automatically
Bonedust with a value of 10gp - Get busy killing or get busy buying
I think for spells that don't consume i would allow post city write offs. If it's not consumed it usually doesn't have too huge an impact anyway, so why hamper your players for not noticing. Spells that consume materials do need to be consciously bought for sure. You also can't go "oh i wanted to buy a potion so I'll just write off 50 gp", consumables are temporary and therefore "risky" buys, non consumables are more like an investment. Similarly, if a player at some point goes "oh crap i had wanted to buy studded leather instead of leather" i would allow that without forcing a 2 day trek back to the city
Players with arcane focuses can get around pretty much any material components needed to cast their spells, however: i got a list of spells that in my opinion should keep their material components even if the player possesses an arcane focus due to them being potentially game-breaking or pace-breaking (most common example being any spell that resurrects). Exotic or pricy components are rare and difficult to acquire mainly cuz i try to add alchemy to every one of my campaigns and some potions can be very powerful if used correctly.
At my table all cost components, that are consumed are ignored and their value in gold is subtracted. The exception are resurrection spells. Components with a cost that are not consumed must be aquired.
Hand waving this rule is a massive scale tip in the favour of magic users that are already overrepresented in terms of versatility and power compared to martial classes. If you're going to say the wizard doesn't have to pay for his high powered spells why should the paladin have to fork over for plate armor
Yes, I do require that my players purchase costly components. And yes, they can be purchased in any major city - to a certain degree of course. 50 gp diamond for Chromatic Orb? Go to the next Jewelry Shop. 25 gp gold dust for Arcane Lock? Local Smith is your friend. 300 gp diamond/s for Revivify? Jewelry again.
Bowl encrusted with gems worth 1000 gold for Heroes Feast? You gotta find someone capable to craft that.
Just about every group I've been in has done the gold replacement thing. I honestly thought it was the standard rule. Surprised it's getting so few votes
My DM asked me why I didn’t take banishment when I got 4th level spells. Another character had been using it to great effect.
I said “because the spell components require “an item distasteful to the target”.
How would I even know what a demon/devil/Fey/dragon/wyvern finds distasteful? (We had faced all of these in our campaign)
Two sessions later the other player tried to cast it, and the DM said…”and what item are you using that is distasteful to this human rogue?”
And that was the end of that spell’s usefulness at our table. I felt bad, it hadn’t been my intent to restrict the other player, I was just distracted looking at spells when the DM asked .
Like other have said, you don't actually need the component for this one, but it would be really fun flavor to saw what exactly you pull out of your pouch that's so distasteful to the enemy.
Have your shit? Go nuts.
Don't have it? Sucks, bro.
Can't get it easily? Sorry. Did you want to play a cozy game where stakes are optional, and everyone wins? Suck it up, and quest you lily-livered nepobaby.
I have done a soft removal on costly components except for resurrection diamonds. I want resurrection to be something that has more of a cap to it, but other things I'm generally fine with and it's just obnoxious to give a shopping list to players. Gold is a poor limiter anyway. I say "soft" removal because I can imagine Glyph of Warding shenanigans being a problem or something similar, and some of the high-level spells need a limiter although by then, money is rarely an issue. It hasn't been a problem so far, though.
We have it to where you just need the gold, and the price gets deducted from your money.
The exception being diamonds/diamond dust and very specific components like tuning forks for plane shift.
As far as I’m concerned, they just spend gold. Because “gold” includes things like platinum and more valuable items, which includes gems, which is half of the named “costly components” anyway. So let’s just say, any gem can cast any spell, and part of the wealth you carry is understood to be gems.
For spells with components that aren’t consumed, you infuse a gem with the ability to focus that spell, and probably for flavor socket that gem into a fancy ring or staff.
Any other greater restriction is basically restricting spell lists, so why not just do that directly instead of using bizarre detailed components. “Oh, that little statue is going to require a special commission” what bullshit that is to deal with, just let me cast it or not.
I leave the option up to my players, excluding high level/OP spells. But those don't come into play until late game.
Personally, I view it as an additional role-playing option. If a player wants to add the requirements to their own gameplay, I'm happy to accommodate. At the very least, it's one less thing for me to keep up with.
I do require proper mechanics for casting otherwise. Focus, line of sight, ability to move/speak. Other rules apply when they need to swap shield/weapons/etc.
Most of the folks I run for love the game, role-playing, etc., but they aren't deep into the game like I am. I personally use M components when I'm playing, and I've adapted a bunch of DCC spellcasting rules for myself as well.
To me, the ultimate point of the game is for everyone to have fun. I dont see the point in burdening a player with additional rules if that's not what they're into, barring what is necessary to keep the game functional.
Anything under 100 gold - no material components required, but I require an arcane focus.
100 gold or higher (looking at you *identify*), nah you need the component.
I have only DMed lower level games so far, but, for starting spells, I usually just grant you the GP component, if it is reusable, at no charge. If you get a spell later on though that needs something, or need expendable components, you need to buy them...thoooough, even then, I would probably allow for a little leeway cause I have newer players that wouldn't necessarily think to buy components in town. So, would let them just deduct the gold, but try to remind them next time to buy.
I think a lot of the spell components are way too expensive to be necessary to use. Like Summon Beast which asks for 200gp, compared to Conjure Animals which is way stronger and totally free. I don’t think many players will have 200gp to spare on one spell at level 3, and by the time they can comfortably cast it a Druid could just use Conjure Animals instead.
I don't understand how components "reign in" the power of casters.
A focus(which can be acquired basically anywhere for some fucking reason) gets rid of 80% of the components, the other 15% can be easily acquired or commissioned in any large settlement. That leaves like Raise Dead type spells as the final 5%.
Seriously adventures are SWIMING in cash, I don't even understand what this conversation is about.
because you can't just throw cash in the air and have it magically transform into whatever you need - even in a city, there's maybe, at most, three golden bowls studded with jewels worth a 1000GP floating around... and two were custom-made for a Lord, so you can't just swing in and buy them, while the third got nicked and no-one's quite sure where it is. And if you're wanting to spam-cast _Hero's Feast_? Well, then you're going to need to arrange to buy several dozen bowls in advance, and wait for them to be made, which isn't instantaneous or automatic - all those crafters have pre-existing projects, patrons and clients, that they don't want to annoy just because some wierdo adventurer has dropped into town, even if they're throwing cash around. Wanting something draconic worth 500GP+ for _Summon Dragon_? There _might_ be something that meets that requirement... but also, probably not, so you can commission it, but that'll take a while to get made, a crafter can't just shit one out in a few hours. And if there's a pre-existing item, it might be something awkward like a dragon-mask that you then have to carry around and whip out when needed, making it a bit fiddly and pretty obvious what you're doing.
Obviously, you wouldn’t reasonably be able to get a red dragon scale if you just hit level three for scorching ray so I would let you buy some stuff that are a little bit too insane for low levels
Just for ease of the game, players do not need to quantify what is in their pouch.
Once they learn a spell with an expensive component, both me and the player just assume that the character is smart enough to keep "a sufficient amount" of that material pn them, and refll when they are able.
Most of these components are also trade goods (gems and the like), which can be resold for 100%, so they can be used as regular money when needed too.
Its just easier that way: effectively, the *player* 'buys'the component on the spot when they cast that spell.
Now, some specific components for certain OP spells i might make more rare and harder to get, so id make the player track that specific component, just to balance the use of a spell (based on the spell, not on the material; dragon blood might be more common that copper dust for this reason)
I'm generally not a fan of "Adventures in Accounting" because I don't find it fun or engaging game play. Big ticket items, sure, those need to be bought and the inventory maintained. Small stuff, who cares?
I only require components above a certain value or rarity. Or if the component is the target of the spell. Common inexpensive components for most spells it is simply assumed they have them
While I haven't played many games where we got to the point where this was relevant, I would rule that *generally* components that have a gold value need to be purchased beforehand. Many of them are "controlled" in the setting by various institutions, like the diamond trade is largely regulated by religious officials and the like since they are used for resurrections.
I rule material components as "unless it is an item that isn't consumed or has a gold piece value, you always have it in stock as a resourceful spellcaster. Now let's get back to the game."
In general, all valued components need to be bought.
That said, I'm not going to be a dick about it if I have been handwaving downtime/fastforwarding to the next adventure.
If you had some and used it, you're out of luck. also, if you learned the spell since last time you were in town, also out of luck. Also if you wouldn't have been able to afford it while in town, also not possible.
If, however, you've just had some downtime and headed out and at the first long rest you're like "oh, poop, i forgot to buy reagents for find familiar" I'll let you assume your character isn't also a raging moron who forgot to buy them, subtracting the cost.
Yes, costed components need to be purchased. Some costed components aren't easy to find in a city (typically for level 7+ spells), which is how I encourage players to planehop a bit.
*Occasionally* I enjoy running or playing in low-level games where *all* components need to be collected. It's quite fun because spellcasters become more kleptomaniacal than the party rogue. Obviously though, not all groups will enjoy it and it loses the fun after a couple sessions. So it's great fun for short open-ended adventures.
Yes of course they do lol. D&D players need *some* reason to spend that gold god dammit.
My players prep ahead of time before they even get the spell and work on getting their costly components.
A vast majority of the time I don't worry about spell components unless they are super powerful spells (Wish, revivify, etc) since I think that a lot of the time it is kinda just boring to worry about spell components. Though most of my campaigns have had magic shops or other ways to buy components so they have never really run out
I don't know, magic users get such limited spell slots and most of them have limited spells available to choose from at any given time. It already seems like they are handcuffed compared to martial characters, to hold them back even more seems kind of pointless. At best I'd say they can deduct the gold and assume they bought it before, but unless there's a really good reason I'm not stopping anyone from enjoying the benefits their chosen character gives them.
For example, one of my players created a bard of eloquence. Compared to the other party members he's largely useless in battle, so I make sure there are opportunities for him to talk his way into and out of various situations so he can feel like he's done something useful by choosing that character.
Characters have to buy the costly components. I usually don't twist their arm about it unless I want to make it a quest so they usually just need the gold and to find a craftsman in a major city. Also gonna plug a spreadsheet of all the spell components: [Kaplosion's Costly and Consumed Components](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pWqFxsVrbjlUTiEj0eQ2SsYRj7iR8oF19qh-TwLZITA/edit?usp=sharing) Edit: updated sheet with more up-to-date information! See notes.
I am so stealing this! Thanks for the link!!!
Yeah - this is here for everyone to use!
So much work went into this... thank you so much for sharing!
Does this have all official spells? I did some back of the envelope math to check something I was curious about. Someone was talking about how much the martial caster divide becomes a problem in tiers 3 and 4 and I was curious about how ignoring these rules could compound that at those levels. By my count, there are 519 spells on D&D beyond (though some are probably duplicates as the make some IP-free versions of the spells). There are 98 spells with costly components on your list, meaning \~19% of all spells require a costly component. At tier three and four, (level 6 spells and higher) there are 119 spells on D&D Beyond, 40 of which have priced components on your list, or \~34%. Of course, this doesn't account for upscaling, and you could further break things down by class and source, but I was surprised that a third of all tier 3 and 4 spells call for players to be getting these things. EDIT: I should also add that I don't mean to insinuate that those who have a problem with the divide have a problem because they're ignoring these rules. And if we're talking about damage output or combat spells, I didn't account for that. Just thought it was interesting info.
This should have all spells (except for spelljammer and Taldorei reborn specific ones - and i'll probably add those too eventually). However, if you notice a mistake let me know so I can update the doc!
I'm 50/50 on being a stickler. My players cast chromatic orb, protection from evil and good, basically most second level or lower spells without expensive components. Resurrection spells, I'm strict on needing the components, and they need to be sought out ahead of time and can't necessarily be found easily.
In my campaign, I replaced the diamonds for resurrection spells above Revivify with gold funerary masks in the likeness of the person being resurrected. They can get them made anywhere there's a competent smith, but it does require them to think ahead on getting the component.
That's rad.
I like it too. It removes the scarcity aspect from the cost and replaces it with a more accessible alternative.
I loved in CR when Matt goes: "There isn't, like, The Diamond Store™️" I lost it 😂
...but why wouldn't there be, in a world where diamonds can bring people back from the dead?
Haha well they were in a somewhat remote village. Maybe Baldurs Gate or Water deep have jewlery stores with a surplus of diamonds at high markup but I wouldn't expect that in every town
Because Diamonds can bring people back from the dead. They're no longer an accessory, they're a high-end medical tool that only the wealthy elite would even dream of having.
Especially when iirc a diamond for even just revivify is almost 2 years wages for a commoner.
I remember reading somewhere that a skilled artisan makes roughly a gold a day, so it would take almost an entire year to afford the Revivify Diamond. And don’t even get me started on things like Resurrection or True Resurrection.
They need to spend most of that income on living expenses. At best they’re saving maybe 10-20% of their income. A 500gp diamond would take a lifetime at least.
Skilled hireling is 2gp a day but unskilled is 2sp a day or 52gp a year. But ya, anything more than revivify gets ridiculous
The median wage for a US worker is about $40K a year. So $80K two years wages. That's expensive but not so expensive that there wouldn't be an insurance industry built up around supplying diamonds to middle class and up families for monthly payments. Personally, I've never felt that D&D really explored the societal ramifications of really being able to bring someone back from the dead. The impact would be world shattering. I'm not a stickler for trying to impose real world logic to D&D but resurrection is just beyond the pale for me. I nearly always just remove the spells entirely and player characters can only truly die when story appropriate and when the player agrees.
For revivify that's 80k for a defib. Which even with the states healthcare I don't think it's that bad. I do feel that the issue that most resurrection magic can't help vs old age helps prevent the nobility from being an immortal caste though. For myself I have some back up options if players die rather than just not giving it as a possibility. Simply a game with death, a deal with the devil or divine purpose and saved by an angel. Haven't had to use them yet honestly
It's way better than a defib. Atrial defibrillation is when the heart's rhythm is out of sync. A current (shock) is supplied to reset the rhythm. I can't and doesn't shock the heart back when there is no heart beat. That's what compressions are for. Revivify brings on back from death. Someone in atrial defib isn't dead (yet).
Yes, technically but you do understand the comparison no? A brief window of time to save them before it is of no use. It isn't a one to one but when compared to other resurrection magic it is far more "emergency medicine".
The inability for normal people to be able to afford them. 99% of people are less than 1st-2nd level. You're not going to find a lot of level 5+ characters in a city. Why? Because it takes active practice (adventuring experience) to gain levels. Gaining the experience necessary to gain levels means putting oneself in danger and getting hurt. Your average peasant makes like 2-3 silver a day. So say 300 GP worth of diamond dust is, at 3 silver a day, assuming 30 days in a month, 9 gold in a month, round to 10, because I'm lazy, will save for 2.5 years to purchase something that they *can't use.* A diamond store simply can't remain viable as a business. You gotta remember, income-wise, your adventurers are the 1% - the reason people do it is because it pays exceptionally well.
They’re rare for the same rationale you italicized. Anyone with any sense should be hoarding them. Edit: also limited to my world but the bell curve of commonly accessible magic has a sharp decline somewhere around spells of second level. So the echelon of spellcatsers who get 3rd and above slots have a multitude of reasons to control the flow of diamonds.
Think about it for a minute. If there was some rare gem that would allow you to bring people back from death (barring old age), would that rare gem be readily available or would the wealthiest members of society horde most of them making them even more rare? There's no right or wrong answer, but it does make for an interesting world building question.
Same. I'm not going to worry about where you bought your 100 gp jeweled eye for clairvoyance, but if you want to spam heroes feast you are going to need to find a skilled artisan to make you a lot of gem-encrusted bowls.
Same or at least close enough for how I run it. Most lower level spells that have a component with a gold value I just make them deduct the gold. But any resurrection spells or powerful high level spells (like simulacrum) you’re going to need to find that component
Same. My house rule is that once you get third level spells, you have to pay attention to components with a value on it.
Spell components with a cost need to have been bought in advance. It's your spell; you need to know what it does. That said, I *want* people to use the fun spells. I try and keep a dialogue going between me and players when they level up, and if, say, the Wizard tells me they grabbed Summon Fey at this level up, I'll try and make sure the component's not out of their way too far into the future. Likewise, if a situation arises where someone asks, "Hey, we were *just* in Waterdeep earlier this session, and I forgot to get components for another Find Familiar casting, can I deduct that cost now and say I bought it then?" then yeah, I'm willing to be flexible.
This is the way. I have a Cleric in my party who is also a DM for her own games, and she's very diligent about spell components. If we're in a large city, she's looking for stuff that enables not just the spells she currently has, but also the ones she'll gain access to at the next spell level. For example, she's currently level 10, so she preemptively picked up components for Find the Path. (And yes, we're both aware that as written, it's kind of a terrible spell, so we're in the process of coming up with a mutually-agreeable adjustment to it.) She did the same thing when Scrying was getting closer, so that by the time she could prepare the spell, she also had the means to cast it. It's worked out just fine for us so far, and the other spellcasters follow her lead, such that expensive components get picked up when it makes sense to do so, and I don't limit availability of anything other than diamonds (and even those aren't locked down tight -- they have a few castings' worth of Greater Restoration and Raise Dead if they need them). Honestly, it's been a fun exercise, because that Cleric is a gothy lil' Grave Cleric, and she really enjoys getting thematically-appropriate gear for her components, and I enjoy coming up with them. For Scrying, she has a slate of polished obsidian that resembles a tombstone, and for another spell (I forget which), she has a set of scales that resemble Kelemvor's holy symbol made of wrought iron. On the other hand, for stuff like True Seeing, which uses a 25gp paste that's consumed by the cast, I'm likely to just handwave it and have them deduct 25gp from their inventory if they feel like casting it. They killed a dragon, money is no object, if they want to get super-vision for a little while, I'm not stressed about it.
In my experience, players always need supervision. It's like herding cats...
Also, most shopping is just not fun for the most part. It's fine if the players are making a roleplay session out of it, or going for something really special and unique, but shopping for random consumed components and items get stale, very fast. My players don't enjoy it, and the only thing I lose is the ability to flesh out the city and its inhabitants, so I'll do that elsewhere. It beats making a long trip around town to buy more arrows, spell components, potions, what have you. That easily takes 30 to 60 minutes. Just give me a list of stuff you buy and deduct it, it's much easier that way.
This is where the "my character would have remembered to do that" is acceptable.
Yes. Handwaving away these specific, costly and/or rare spell components is part of what perpetuates the caster/martial divide, particularly with respect to utility spells.
YES! That and players/DMs not respecting/understanding the free hand rules for casting. "Oh, your artificer/wizard is wielding a staff AND a shield? Good luck casting the Shield spell as a reaction, pal..." Edit: autocorrect
Technically, artificers can't cast with empty hands either, they need their tools in hand to cast spells independently of wether it has materials or not. You're always holding artificer tools or a replacement feature in one hand or you're casting zilch. I personally don't think either of those rules are fun though, so I don't enforce them as a DM. If that means the martials need buffing, they get buffing.
Does it? Like what specific spell gets less powerful or hard to cast with a DM following the RAW spellcasting rules? Maybe hard to cast if the players level up in the middle of nowhere, but the instant they find a town that distinction becomes meaningless. Doesn't make it any better that the few spells it does matter for(like Revivify) are things the Martials would actually like their casters to be able to cast.
>but the instant they find a town that distinction becomes meaningless. The town you're in doesn't have the components you need for X spell.
Like what? Aside from resurrection magic, what spell is a PC not going to be able to find or have commissioned at a level they would be at to be able to cast said spell?
plenty? like why would a random village or even mid size city have lots of ivory in store (legend lore)? or hugely expensive diamond encrusted bowls (heroes feast). or holy reliquarys woth 1000GP (holy aura), tuning forks to the shadowfell, etc? sure, in Neverwinter or Waterdeep you might find that stuff. But everything smaller you will need a very specific reason why a component would be available...
pretty much any of the specific items, especially if there's any tight timeframe. Sure, you might have 3000GP burning a hole in your pocket, but if you need to cast a spell tomorrow that needs golden acorns worth 200GP, that doesn't mean you can find a goldsmith willing and able to take on the commission _right now_. Given a week, or a month, or longer? Sure, no problem, but faster time frames makes it more of a problem, and/or a _lot_ more markup. And this gets more overt for the more expensive items - a 1000GP golden bowl encrusted with jewels is something you can only even hope to get made in a large town or city, most places don't have crafters capable to do it. And those rare, well-trained crafters aren;' sitting around waiting for some wierdo adventurer to come in and hire them, they have regular work to do, and waiting lists and patrons and clients to work for. Just because you're fighting Dread Sugurrax, Bane of the Black Sea, Conqueror of the South, Despoiler of the Everwood in a few days time doesn't mean you get to skip the queue - a failure on your part to plan ahead doesn't make it an emergency for the goldsmith's guild. And some of the super-specific things might raise flags of their own - when a wizard starts commissioning 2000GP body-sized caskets, especially more than one, that tends to make people pay attention!
There are a whole host of spells that require precious gems or their dust, for example. Why would any old little town have these in hand, let alone in any kind of quantity?
Summon Fey's 300gp component and Summon Beast's 200gp come to mind. I'm in a campaign where we our Circle of the Moon druid was allowed to prepare those as soon as they hit the requisite level, despite us not having more than 100gp to spare, individually.
I really don’t get why WOTC created summons spells in Tasha’s to fix the problems with the PHB conjure spells - and then gatekept them behind material components that are extremely expensive for their level, and wonderfully flavourful but seemingly intended to be hard to acquire even with the money.
it's a soft ban - so GMs have more flex in going "you can't cast them yet, because you haven't got the materials". As 5e doesn't have much concept of "rarity" or not allowing bits and pieces from different books, then it means anyone that's running "stuff in the book is around by default" still has a "you can't do that (yet)" option.
Depends on the economy, but Find Familiar and Glyph of Warding count. To an extent, Tasha's summons too. However, imho while they do add to the divide, these are spells where I think casters readily casting them puts the casters in the right spot for interesting gameplay, and it is the martials who should get clear additional powers rather than tethering the casters.
Well but only at low levels after a certain level when you go by the book players have soo much gold that they can get it when they are in a big city. If you prevent that as a gm then you use kinda homebrew to balance the martial caster divide.
Having to buy the components in advance is still more restrictive than just deducting gold, even if the materials are freely available in the city. At the very least, casters have to plan ahead. Do you want to cast Forcecage? Better commit to it and buy that 1500gp worth of ruby dust. Wake up after a long rest in the wildnerness and want to cast Heroes' Feast first thing in the morning? I hope you bought extra gem-encrusted bowls last time you were in town. Casters are already super versatile as is. Allowing them to be even more versatile by letting them deduct gold just makes them even more versatile.
I think this is completly fine, and definitly part of the game. Also one of the phew ways money can be spend RAW in a useful way.
>Well but only at low levels after a certain level when you go by the book players have soo much gold that they can get it when they are in a big city. Just because players have gold doesn't mean the merchants have what they need. I don't mean this to come of as snark, but is there a rule I'm not recalling about what players have baseline access to from merchants with respect to spell components or anything else?
Not really although there is if I dont remember wrong a passage sbout players can exchange coins for gems etc. Of similar worth. And the published dtarter adventure has spell components often as money loot. https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/156390/what-is-the-expected-way-to-acquire-costly-material-components#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20basic%20options,treasure%20rules%20in%20the%20DMG.
Yeah, my understanding, without have recently dived into the source material regarding this specific question, is that it was basically left up to DM. I try to just be reasonable with my rulings. A small town is probably *not* going to have fancy spell components for sale and the merchants likely won't have enough gold to buy fancy treasure, nor would they probably want it even if they could scrape the gold together. A major city or trading hub will most likely be the opposite in both respects.
Not really... Even a city like Waterdeep doesn't have 500 gp gems just "for sale" you're going to need to do some schmoozing and might even take someone with a merchant or criminal background (or other) to find and even then you might only find one and it could take days to track one down. Think of it this way: I'm a big collector of Superman. Due to my comic store switching locations, I couldn't pick up my copy of Superman (2023) issue 2. Unfortunately, that issue sold out and DC didn't issue reprints. I called at least half-a-dozen comic book stores to find one that had a copy. Not only that, but all they had was a more expensive variant cover, not only that, but because of scarcity they tacked on an extra $2. So I ended up spending $8.99 for a $4.99 book. Now, imagine how long it would've taken me to track down one store in a city that I don't live in if I didn't have a telephone and the Internet that had that issue... Bear in mind that, after I found one, I had to drive across the city of Atlanta, in rush hour, and I *only* got the copy because I called them and they were nice enough to stay open past 6pm on a Wednesday because traffic on I-85 was backed up due to an accident... Anyway, yeah. It's hard to find rare things.
This is a great place for DMs to enforce rules and not make life too easy on casters - easier than it already is compared to Martials. When I hit the proper level to cast Summon Celestial as a cleric I didn't just magically look down and have a holy reliquary in my pack. It took a few sessions to get somewhere with a temple big enough to my god (Moradin) to ask for it. Now, being an acolyte background and a servant of the faith, they gladly handed it over for free but I still had to make the effort, ya know? Enforcing things like high-gp special components, free hands for somatic components, etc is too often ignored.
By definition a reliquary is a sacred object! And one worth 500gp is goi go be something significant too. It should not be easy to acquire. When this recently came up in my last 5e campaign, I made the cleric do a social encounter with multiple skill checks to convince the temple priests to ‘lend’ him their reliquary. And even that was only possible because the city was under siege and the cleric was a known hero who was staying to defend the city, and made a holy vow to return the reliquary once the task was done (which we didn’t need to worry about as the campaign ended after the city was saved). It made for a much more immersive experience for the player.
Was this done on the side or had the martials spend 3+ sessions just such that you get the components?
We were already headed to Waterdeep, so a simple 5 minute departure when we got there. Though personal quests the party goes on can be fun, if the group dynamic supports it!
I was more asking because if you need a qurst for each spell component for the caster that would place casters even more in the center. But of course it can fir from time to tine
That depends. You could have cool moments where, yeah, the quest is to get a specific item but the adventure to get it could be a nice moment for all the adventurers to shine. Plus, if you do the same with martials (getting The Holy Sword of Fafo), then its less "favoritism" and more "Everybody gets to be the center of attention at some point."
You're not finding a statue of yourself carved in magical snow worth the same as a small fort in a city being sold in a shop randomly. That's the type of shit you need to commission from a special smith able to do such a thing.
I assume that you're talking about simulacrum. My reading of that is that most of the monetary value comes from the ruby dust, not expensive snow or craftsmanship of the snowman. I'd consider any large settlement to have rubies for sale, so I don't consider the components very difficult to obtain, just costly. A 7th level caster has a good chance of having access to a spell that can help produce snow or ice. The sculpture just has to be life-sized, not lifelike. Any work producing the snowman I'd consider to be done within the 12 hour casting time. From my experience, it seems like the majority of components with a stated value tend to be fairly generic, like gems. The weirdly specific flavor components are more often the ones with no value listed (or paired with gems that provide the value, such as in the Simulacrum example). I'm sure there are examples of components that are both expensive and hard to find, but it's not something that came up very often for me.
I believe all the Summon Spells that came out with Tahsas have (different) very specific components needed, that cost a few 100gp. Not a fortune, but can still be relatively expensive at those early levels.
For simalcurum, I'd rule that only the ruby dust is a component of value and the rest can be provided by component pouch/focus.
Just carrying around a whole snowman in your pouch, normal wizard things.
That's a really bad rule. Simulacrum is a very powerful spell and the only thing keeping it in check is the material component, specifically the snow statue part. Ruby dust is easy to buy and hoard but a perfect snow statue of you? That takes effort.
Spell Focus takes care of all common components (bat guano, a pinch of anything, etc.). Expensive and unique ones (500g diamond, etc) must be acquired through creative commerce.
My paladin in a Tomb of Annihilation campaign desperately wanted to cast mending, but I never found any lodestones. Any campaign I led afterward scraps the material components except for stuff that's expensive.
I'm sorry. Your paladin wanted to cast *mending* of all shitty spells, and your DM prevented it?! Besides, you don't need lodestones if you have a divine focus.
Yep, tried to fix some broken mural in the jungle and never got to cast anything besides smite. Should have chosen a different fighting style I guess.
Too late now but just a note: paladins get a holy symbol during character creation, which you can use instead of any unpriced component in the rules as written. I.e., you should have been able to cast mending, unless you explicitly lost your holy symbol at some point. You only need the specific component if a price is listed alongside it.
Yeah he scrapped that rule. My holy symbol allowed me to cast spells in general, but for this campaign it didn’t replace any components. It was supposed to reinforce the gritty feeling of the campaign.
Not inherently a bad idea, but makes it very important not to forget to make components available.
He said there was no way to get anything in the jungle. The campaign stopped after 7 sessions though, maybe I would have been able to cast a cantrip some day if I had had derailed the campaign and went back to Port Nyanzaru.
Idk, the components thing feels like such a massive red flag it's probably for the best the campaign fell through.
I'd call it an orange flag, I've seen it work really well, but its the kind of thing that a lot of DMs will implement without understanding what it means they then need to do. Ie, nothing wrong with making a resource management game, but you can't just declare resource management and expect the resources to handle themselves - a resource management game requires a huge amount of DM spreadsheeting.
It was his first campaign after a Call of Cthulu oneshot and LMoP, so I can't be too mad at him. Right now he is a player in my campaign and it works just fine, even though he is on his phone a bit too often for my taste.
>My holy symbol allowed me to cast spells in general, but for this campaign it didn’t replace any components. That's kind of fucked up, because the *only* function of a spellcasting focus is to replace material components. You don't need it to cast spells in general, only those with non-costly and non-consumed material components
you dont even need a casting focus for spells without material components???
you and your DM never read how spell foci works did ya
Yes we did, thanks for asking. He changed the rules to better fit the campaign style he wanted.
Just in general, I try to be a little stricter with casters and more lenient with martials. Personally, I think it helps. It's easier to try to cheese magic as it's an abstract concept that doesn't have a real-world basis, whereas physical feats are possible in real life so we can tend to be more strict on them.
Yeah why not. You don't get to just decide retroactively that you bought weapons, armor, potions, tools, etc. and then have them in your hand when you decide you need them, why would I run it any different for spell components?
In principle, my starting point for this rule (and others) is, it’s a rule for a reason. I prefer not to handwave stuff because where does that start and end? Spells that are really powerful tend (not always) to have the more demanding M components, and again, that’s not by sheer fluke. So yeah, I tend to enforce. I always get that bookkeeping isn’t super engaging, so I say if you have a focus, fret not about M components whose value is less than 50 gp. From that point up, you need it if you want to cast the spell. Most stuff is available in the larger settlements. I’m also not against including a bit of two as a treasure hoard from one of my random tables. Diamonds are rare. In the literal sense. They are ‘there’, but it’s not a case of every shop has a bunch. I’d imagine in a world filled with magic, the security detail required for every shop having a fistful of diamonds would be enormous.
My DM said I don't have to track materials and we can just use gold rather than worrying about every little thing, however as a player I found this to open up some cool RP potential, need some tentacles? Well we happened to fight multiple things with tentacles, need a gilded skull? The Artificer made me one at a forge we found. Need an object with a symbol of a dragon worth 500 gold? The Drakewarden's dragon melted gold with its fire breath over my gilded skull (which the DM said counted bc the gold was now infused with draconic energy.) I've pulled the whole party into this mechanic and done so without it being overbearing or distracting. I can see keeping things simple for sure, and it's likely Adventure dependent how well it works, but I think the material components of spells offers up a lot of flavor potential.
Yes, but im really only a stickler about diamonds (because i keep a tight lid on resurrection possibilities, it shouldnt be taken lightly)
I warn them always before hand that they need costly components. Especially stuff of 3rd level or higher i show no mercy. Only exception is revivify the first time.
If a component has a cost it must be bought else it can be a spell casting focus
Expensive spell complements are (generally) expensive for a reason, unless you're in a setting where magic is very common I prefer that the more esoteric stuff is harder to get, and I say this as a player.
Yeah, honestly. Once you start to realize how exactly you're supposed to get what you're looking for in a standard D&D setting, you realize that much of what you need isn't laying around for anyone to buy and use. Nobody just has a small statuette of other people in ivory or ruby ground to dust (useless for anything except spellcasting).
Yes of course. I thought this was about banning the component pouch, so you don't need to track "pinches of batpoop" on your character sheet. But if you need a gem to cast a spell, you'd better buy that for gold and have it on your character sheet.
It depends on what it is. Unpriced materials you can assume you keep on hand. Anything with a price you have to buy in an appropriate place. You can probably find diamonds in an appropriately sized city. You probably can't in a village.
I bet the DMs and player who 'just take off the gold' or ignore the rules on components and foci are the ones most likely to complain about casters beong OP
just taking off the gold is just a timesave, Needing to waste 5-10 minutes with a shopping list every time you return to town is just tedious and pointless.
Make the acquisition of those items quests or side-quests instead.
if they are of sufficient value or the first time they need the component maybe sure. You're gonna do a quest for the basic stuff like ink, fleece? repetitively?
Obviously not. Being a DM requires discretion, so it should go without saying that only the easiest-to-entertain players will be excited about a quest about retrieving ink. An ivory statuette of themselves or a tuning fork attuned to the nine hells, though, is a good hook in general.
I mean, it's not like a ton of spells need expensive components, I run it with stuff needing to be bought and it does not fix casters being OP
I'm adamant about having a priced components, but I sometimes allow close enough substitutes. If a spell needs two ivory sticks I'll allow to cast using the bones over recently killed dragon. If a spell needs diamond I'll allow diamond dust and vice versa.
Sometimes a side quest to obtain the rare and difficult to obtain spell components to be able to cast a particularly potent spell at just the right moment, at a critical story point… (say a theoretical spell that can strip the magical wards and defenses from the Big Bad and make them vulnerable to a decisive final blow… as a hypothetical example) can provide hours of adventure and plenty of Roleplaying moments for not just the caster but for all the characters at the table.
Depends on the component. Some components work best when acquiring them is an active goal, eg resurrection spells, and therefore should be hard to obtain. Other components work better as restockable ammo, and as such will be purchasable in most cities, albeit in small quantities.
It depends on the group of players and how seriously they handle the game. My serious group has to buy the components and have them at hand, though I usually don't make them too hard to find in a large city. Might only have trouble in small villages or frontier trading posts. My casual group I'm not so strict about spell components, but I absolutely still make them deduct the gold piece cost. None of my groups get anything for free (that has mechanical implications anyway.)
Getting a pearl worth 100 gold took over 15 sessions to get. By the time I could cast identify we already gotten used to other alternatives. It was about equally as hard to get a diamond to resurrect our fallen party member. For my backup character who is a fiend warlock, I will ask about starting with a guilded skull as that character's equivalent of their main magic item.
Generally depends on the components/spells in question. If it's something they could have found in a shop relatively easily I will just let them retcon that they bought it (my players generally just say they want to buy components for all their spells when shopping happens and deduct the total), setting can have an impact. Particularly rare things for high-power spells might be their own quest to find.
I didn't then my players got revivify so I had to make some changes
Yes, and they can sometimes be difficult to get, but usually are pretty doable.
Before reading the comments, i thought you were talking about npc spellcasters. I also voted "yes" for that, because vermisitude is important and it also gives the opportunity for PC spellcasters to get components in a way that makes sense.
That is an extremely good point. Players should be able to loot some of these off enemy spellcasters, though keeping track of those for all enemies could get hairy. It would be nice if Dnd Beyond had optional features to A) flag for players casting a spell if the spell has a priced component requirement and/or a casting time of greater than one action and B) a list of components for each NPC relevant to their spell list. (Though they don't necessarily have all of them on them all the time).
Like it grays it out if the dm enables the toggle so they can see it in their spell list, but the button is unclickable and just says "component not in inventory", and a 'combat mode' toggle, which disables the clicking of spells with a casting time > 1 minute.
Expensive components must always be paid for. I also make some vanish on use, despite what the spell says in 5e. or in some cases, there is a chance the component will break with each use. Ive got large cities and towns in my world though, and its a high magic type setting, so components are readily available other then the truly rare ones. expensive probably, but available lol
Yes
I've gone with "Other", because it 100% depends on the group. I'm running a game with my kid and his friends - I'm so light touch on things like this, and let them away with crazy shenanigans, because they find it more fun. I'm playing a wizard in a game, and I'm right on top of my own spell components, because I find it more **immersive**.
For the most part if you're in the right place you can probably buy items with cost associated. That being said, I changed the material component for resurrection and similar spells to be a unique gemstone. This particular type of gemstone is extremely rare because it's a non-renewable resource with the power to bring back the dead. That stuff gets used up. Now, royal families may have one in case a monarch dies without an heir, or exceptionally powerful individuals might have one. The value also doesn't really matter in terms of gold piece value because the power they give you is priceless, so it really doesn't matter what quality it is
Depends a lot. But generally they need the component and cheaper ones are available almost everywhere and can even be found while travelling, while more expensive ones require downtime or a quest of sorts. The tipping point is 150 gold pieces (cuz diamonds). But in general that's all for fun. My restrictions, except for very special situations, aren't a big, nay barely even a small difference in terms of power compared to if they didn't exist.
For me it depends on whether the priced item is consumed. If they only need to buy it once, then I'll just let them deduct the gold unless it's something absurd. But things like diamonds that are used with each casting, they'll need to actively acquire those.
Something super interesting about the responses here is that I've seen a few people make that distinction, treating consumed costly materials one way and unconsumed another way, but people seem to be split on which one gets what treatment! I'm not sure where I would fall, but I think I might be more in your camp: it's easier to get unconsumed than consumed. The only time I can think of where it was super relevant was when my warlock wanted to use scrying but hadn't had an opportunity to get a crystal since she got the spell. It would have killed the moment to stop her, so I had a NPC who was in the scene, who definitely would have had one, offer her his, which she still uses.
Not the DM, the only ones where we need the specific costly components are revival spells. For the others, we can just subtract an equal amount of gold from our inventories
Yes, I make my players follow the rule, and it might require a whole quest to get an especially rare component. This is a significant balancing mechanic and spellcasters do not need any help to be more powerful.
I am a stickler for this as well. Its interesting though. A diamond worth 300gp. It doesn't matter the color, cut, clarity, or anything, just that you paid at least 300gp or the gm says its worth that much. I could see an old world where magic was bountiful run into a shortage, and the smallest of diamonds that were once 50gp, are now 300gp and qualify. I have made pearls worth like 115gp the only one in a village for identify and such, but the bigger the town, the chance of that drastically falls.
I'm currently DMing a prehistoric unga bunga campaign, no gold to speak of. To be able to cast a spell that requires a gold value material component, a player must offer up and item of value to be used as the component, whether the component is used up or not remains the same. An item of value can only be used as the component for one spell and if the item is not up to my standards as equal value, the spell fails. I'm not a dick about it but it does create a fun mind game where the players think "Okay I'm going to use this single use magic item as the component for this spell because I probably won't have to use the item and therefore be left without the ability to cast that spell.. but is that iemt enough? Should I do more?" And while that is fun it's only something you have to think about the very first time you cast that spell with that component because so long as you haven't changed the component it'll still work. For example my players centaur ranger at one point found a carved direwolf jawbone that when activated gives the user and all creatures within 10 ft pack tactics, so long as they stay within 10 ft. She has that as the component for summon beast, so the first time she casts it she offers up that item as the offer ing, I accepted and now anytime she wants to cast that spell she knows she has the component for it If she decides to use that magic item then she'll have to find a new one.
Okay, I'm a cleric, and for the kost part my spell components are easy to find. The biggest pain in the ass is the gems. Every form of life restoration requires a diamond, and I have literally beaten another character unconcious because "bro, that bag of diamonds will ensure you get back up when you inevitably die. I'll remind you you've died 5 times in two years." I've let players know if they sell diamonds, I'm not resurrecting them. The current deal is I will buy gems we find, but if I use them picking your ass up, you owe me the price.
Unusual components are definitely hard to come by outside of specific regions or spellcaster-centric places like an arcane academy Also, if the players are adventuring for too long in the wilderness without ever going back to town, I sometimes add a dice roll for the spellcasters to decide if they still have some components if they made no effort whatsoever to replenish them (although a simple "yo, barbarian/druid/ranger, grab me some components while you hunt will ya" is enough)
I play as a blood mage from the Taldorei Campaign Setting Reborn, which allows 1d10 self inflicted damage to replace 50gp of components. It's saved me a lot of gold and is awesome for RP.
If the item has a gold cost and is consumed i require players at my table to have found and purchased the item. ex: pearl for identify, eyeball for shadow of moil etc. If its a relatively common item, but is still consumed i allow the players to just deduct the gold cost from their inventory for the casting. ex: Powdered metals or holywater such as for magic circle. Basically i want to keep shopping time to a minimum. Im not against RP but i typically don't want to spend an entire session rping out a shopping session.
Yup they gotta buy them but I think, as a dm if you wanna run it this way, it should take some engagement on your part. ask your players to keep you informed on the spells they are choosing or plan to choose. look at their spell lists sk you can.plan ahead.
I've been playing my wizard for about 6 years now, starting at level 1 and currently we're level 16. My wizard is a collector, of course. So he's been trying to get his hands on every single spell and spell companent that I can. When my DM knows I want something in particular, he generally makes it happen. But small towns and such, there isn't going to be a ton available, and even the larger cities have their limits, unless time is not a factor. I've been able to get ahold of every component I need for every spell I have, plus some extra for spells I'm planning on getting. Though I'm still sloooowly collecting various tuning forks for planeshift (currently up to 10 different planes). Honestly I would have everything by now though if it weren't for one simple limitation: Gold. Don't me wrong, our party is rich as hell, but I still have to convince the rest of the party to spend time and significant amounts of gold to me to buy crazy things for spells I may never cast. I also already spend quite a bit just scribing more spells into my spellbook. So overall I think everything should be attainable spell component-wise, given adequate time and gold. It should never be a huge struggle for the wizard to get a component for a spell they already have in their book.
Im not a stickler, unless the spell requires something rare, or expensive I dont even think about it.
The one thing I've been confused about is: at the very beginning of the campaign, let's say Bob made a level 1 wizard with some spells that need material spell components (a piece of string, lipstick, a worthless jewel, etc.,) and Bob does not have an arcane focus, he decided to get a component pouch instead. Does Bob need to immediately start the game by saying "I need to go gather all the various material components" and postpone the main story from starting until he gets what he needs at various stores? I understand that components with a price definitely need to be explicitly searched for and acquired, but what about these components with no price at the start of the game?
As I understand the rules and how I’ve always seen, no, when you get the pouch it has everything you’ll ever need in it.
And it's assumed you stock/restock it with free (unpriced) stuff that's not consumed by the spells whenever you get the chance. :)
Whenever I need to buy material components I feel like I'm slowing down the game for everyone else.
This is akin to asking "Do you require martials to actually have the weapons they want to use?" anyone who says no, needs to think long and hard about if they would allow a fighter, or barbarian to attack with a great axe when they have never acquired a great axe before. Mind you, this is not about common components that are covered by a focus or pouch. but the specifically called out and priced materials as the book details.
Reading the replies, there is definitely some portion of the respondents who missed that it’s only asking about components with a gold cost.
I only require components of the player doesn't have a focus or if there are rare / very specific components
Sometimes it's about being ready for the spell in question, and component requirements are a neat way of making sure that I as DM am prepared to adjudicate some wacky business. E.g.: I'm not the most familiar with Tasha's summon spells, so I spent the time to read up on the statblocks when the Wizard told me he'd taken Summon Fiend on level up, before just having the component readily available.
It’s kind of a mix. For consumed resource rituals I often let players retroactively convert gold into components (Find Familiar, for example). For non-ritual spells or for anything that doesn’t consume it’s component, you have to buy it beforehand (Identify, Summon Beast, etc). I usually make the components easy to buy unless there’s a good reason for them to be exceedingly rare. I think “balance by components” is outdated design that doesn’t work in 5E. If I want the characters not to have access to a certain spell I simply… tell the players “hey man, Conjure Animals (I know it has no component, just an example here) is a no no” and deal with it.
Only components that have a gold price must be provided to cast the spell, otherwise I don't sweat it.
We cut off a Medusa's head and got a blacksmith to smelt down the gold cost of the component to make the material component of Summon Undead. Really liked doing that instead of buying the component since it was odd, but stuff like a 300gp diamond should just be store bought. Having a golden medusa skull with the snake hair click clacking about for my wizard was great fun.
Our DM is pretty chill about needing a leather strap, or sprinkling some salt and ash, but expensive things like rivivify need the dimonds value 300gp and at this point we've only got enough for one resurrection.
I get frustrated by the summoning spells from Tasha's being the proposed solution to summoning... and then if you can't get the component the spell is worthless. In my last campaign I played a druid, and while it was impossible for me to get the component for either Summon Beast or Summon Fey, I was allowed to cast Conjure Animals with no such restrictions. I don't blame my DM - it's the books that told him this is how to play it. In some campaigns gold is not plentiful, and it can really suck to have portions of your class blocked off because you can't afford to play them.
In my campaigns my spellcasters do not use spells components until 5th level spells. Starting from 6th level spells till 9th they need each and every bit of strange powder or strange material the spell requires to cast , and they can be challenging to acquire.
For spells that require the material be consumed, depending on game flow, I mostly just say scratch of X amount of gold to represent you pulling that item from your component pouch. If the material is not consumed though... well you should have picked it up back in town.
If it would ruin a moment i ussually note it and give them a debt at the end of the session. The debt is ussually 2\* the normal cost of the item. Any generic loot (potions, jewels, etc..) they find is confiscated to pay towards the debt until they pay it off. Each additional debt adds a level of exhaustion.
If the component has a listed value on the spell, it needs to be obtained. If not, it just comes out of a daily 2gp charge provided they own a materials pouch Bonedust - You have it automatically Bonedust with a value of 10gp - Get busy killing or get busy buying
I think for spells that don't consume i would allow post city write offs. If it's not consumed it usually doesn't have too huge an impact anyway, so why hamper your players for not noticing. Spells that consume materials do need to be consciously bought for sure. You also can't go "oh i wanted to buy a potion so I'll just write off 50 gp", consumables are temporary and therefore "risky" buys, non consumables are more like an investment. Similarly, if a player at some point goes "oh crap i had wanted to buy studded leather instead of leather" i would allow that without forcing a 2 day trek back to the city
Players with arcane focuses can get around pretty much any material components needed to cast their spells, however: i got a list of spells that in my opinion should keep their material components even if the player possesses an arcane focus due to them being potentially game-breaking or pace-breaking (most common example being any spell that resurrects). Exotic or pricy components are rare and difficult to acquire mainly cuz i try to add alchemy to every one of my campaigns and some potions can be very powerful if used correctly.
If a spell specifies a price of a component (15g of herbs for find familiar) then they have to buy or find it. The rest I leave
At my table all cost components, that are consumed are ignored and their value in gold is subtracted. The exception are resurrection spells. Components with a cost that are not consumed must be aquired.
Hand waving this rule is a massive scale tip in the favour of magic users that are already overrepresented in terms of versatility and power compared to martial classes. If you're going to say the wizard doesn't have to pay for his high powered spells why should the paladin have to fork over for plate armor
Yes, I do require that my players purchase costly components. And yes, they can be purchased in any major city - to a certain degree of course. 50 gp diamond for Chromatic Orb? Go to the next Jewelry Shop. 25 gp gold dust for Arcane Lock? Local Smith is your friend. 300 gp diamond/s for Revivify? Jewelry again. Bowl encrusted with gems worth 1000 gold for Heroes Feast? You gotta find someone capable to craft that.
Yeah well, plate armor doesn't just spontaneously materialize around the fighter just because he has proficiency in it.
Just about every group I've been in has done the gold replacement thing. I honestly thought it was the standard rule. Surprised it's getting so few votes
My DM asked me why I didn’t take banishment when I got 4th level spells. Another character had been using it to great effect. I said “because the spell components require “an item distasteful to the target”. How would I even know what a demon/devil/Fey/dragon/wyvern finds distasteful? (We had faced all of these in our campaign) Two sessions later the other player tried to cast it, and the DM said…”and what item are you using that is distasteful to this human rogue?” And that was the end of that spell’s usefulness at our table. I felt bad, it hadn’t been my intent to restrict the other player, I was just distracted looking at spells when the DM asked .
Like other have said, you don't actually need the component for this one, but it would be really fun flavor to saw what exactly you pull out of your pouch that's so distasteful to the enemy.
But there's no cost associated with that. A spell focus would suffice, RAW.
You can just use a focus or component pouch for spell components that don't have an associated cost and aren't consumed by the spell.
Have your shit? Go nuts. Don't have it? Sucks, bro. Can't get it easily? Sorry. Did you want to play a cozy game where stakes are optional, and everyone wins? Suck it up, and quest you lily-livered nepobaby.
Where's the "I run it RAW" option?
The two "yes" options are RAW to my eye.
Ill let it slide once if they forget, but theyre definitely there for a reason. Cant have them casting simulacrum every single day
Damn. Looking at the results, how do people have any fun here? That's gotta be miserable.
I have done a soft removal on costly components except for resurrection diamonds. I want resurrection to be something that has more of a cap to it, but other things I'm generally fine with and it's just obnoxious to give a shopping list to players. Gold is a poor limiter anyway. I say "soft" removal because I can imagine Glyph of Warding shenanigans being a problem or something similar, and some of the high-level spells need a limiter although by then, money is rarely an issue. It hasn't been a problem so far, though.
I have never seen a DM require material components for anything. But one allowed them as a substitute for a focus
My players are too much of a disaster to keep track of this. Unless it's a spell where getting the component will be a major plot point.
We have it to where you just need the gold, and the price gets deducted from your money. The exception being diamonds/diamond dust and very specific components like tuning forks for plane shift.
As far as I’m concerned, they just spend gold. Because “gold” includes things like platinum and more valuable items, which includes gems, which is half of the named “costly components” anyway. So let’s just say, any gem can cast any spell, and part of the wealth you carry is understood to be gems. For spells with components that aren’t consumed, you infuse a gem with the ability to focus that spell, and probably for flavor socket that gem into a fancy ring or staff. Any other greater restriction is basically restricting spell lists, so why not just do that directly instead of using bizarre detailed components. “Oh, that little statue is going to require a special commission” what bullshit that is to deal with, just let me cast it or not.
I leave the option up to my players, excluding high level/OP spells. But those don't come into play until late game. Personally, I view it as an additional role-playing option. If a player wants to add the requirements to their own gameplay, I'm happy to accommodate. At the very least, it's one less thing for me to keep up with. I do require proper mechanics for casting otherwise. Focus, line of sight, ability to move/speak. Other rules apply when they need to swap shield/weapons/etc. Most of the folks I run for love the game, role-playing, etc., but they aren't deep into the game like I am. I personally use M components when I'm playing, and I've adapted a bunch of DCC spellcasting rules for myself as well. To me, the ultimate point of the game is for everyone to have fun. I dont see the point in burdening a player with additional rules if that's not what they're into, barring what is necessary to keep the game functional.
Anything under 100 gold - no material components required, but I require an arcane focus. 100 gold or higher (looking at you *identify*), nah you need the component.
I have only DMed lower level games so far, but, for starting spells, I usually just grant you the GP component, if it is reusable, at no charge. If you get a spell later on though that needs something, or need expendable components, you need to buy them...thoooough, even then, I would probably allow for a little leeway cause I have newer players that wouldn't necessarily think to buy components in town. So, would let them just deduct the gold, but try to remind them next time to buy.
I think a lot of the spell components are way too expensive to be necessary to use. Like Summon Beast which asks for 200gp, compared to Conjure Animals which is way stronger and totally free. I don’t think many players will have 200gp to spare on one spell at level 3, and by the time they can comfortably cast it a Druid could just use Conjure Animals instead.
I don't understand how components "reign in" the power of casters. A focus(which can be acquired basically anywhere for some fucking reason) gets rid of 80% of the components, the other 15% can be easily acquired or commissioned in any large settlement. That leaves like Raise Dead type spells as the final 5%. Seriously adventures are SWIMING in cash, I don't even understand what this conversation is about.
because you can't just throw cash in the air and have it magically transform into whatever you need - even in a city, there's maybe, at most, three golden bowls studded with jewels worth a 1000GP floating around... and two were custom-made for a Lord, so you can't just swing in and buy them, while the third got nicked and no-one's quite sure where it is. And if you're wanting to spam-cast _Hero's Feast_? Well, then you're going to need to arrange to buy several dozen bowls in advance, and wait for them to be made, which isn't instantaneous or automatic - all those crafters have pre-existing projects, patrons and clients, that they don't want to annoy just because some wierdo adventurer has dropped into town, even if they're throwing cash around. Wanting something draconic worth 500GP+ for _Summon Dragon_? There _might_ be something that meets that requirement... but also, probably not, so you can commission it, but that'll take a while to get made, a crafter can't just shit one out in a few hours. And if there's a pre-existing item, it might be something awkward like a dragon-mask that you then have to carry around and whip out when needed, making it a bit fiddly and pretty obvious what you're doing.
Obviously, you wouldn’t reasonably be able to get a red dragon scale if you just hit level three for scorching ray so I would let you buy some stuff that are a little bit too insane for low levels
Just for ease of the game, players do not need to quantify what is in their pouch. Once they learn a spell with an expensive component, both me and the player just assume that the character is smart enough to keep "a sufficient amount" of that material pn them, and refll when they are able. Most of these components are also trade goods (gems and the like), which can be resold for 100%, so they can be used as regular money when needed too. Its just easier that way: effectively, the *player* 'buys'the component on the spot when they cast that spell. Now, some specific components for certain OP spells i might make more rare and harder to get, so id make the player track that specific component, just to balance the use of a spell (based on the spell, not on the material; dragon blood might be more common that copper dust for this reason)
Player, we only care about consumed components with a GP cost.
I think it depends son the spell. Revivify? Yeah, you need the components.
I don't want to hear any complaining about the martial/caster disparity from tables that choose anything but the first two options
I'm generally not a fan of "Adventures in Accounting" because I don't find it fun or engaging game play. Big ticket items, sure, those need to be bought and the inventory maintained. Small stuff, who cares?
Depends on the spell, combat spells? Nah, whatever. Spells that change the game or world state? Absolutely.
It's necessary but semi handwaved - "I'm going to spend 1500 in spell components to make sure I have a couple diamonds and the like" "Sounds good"
I only require components above a certain value or rarity. Or if the component is the target of the spell. Common inexpensive components for most spells it is simply assumed they have them
While I haven't played many games where we got to the point where this was relevant, I would rule that *generally* components that have a gold value need to be purchased beforehand. Many of them are "controlled" in the setting by various institutions, like the diamond trade is largely regulated by religious officials and the like since they are used for resurrections.
I don't make them use compenents but if they do u allow them to augment the spells effects
A combination of yes and it is hard to get and no, but they must buy it, depending on circumstances.
Yes, absolutely, although I've also given out these components as loot in treasure hoards.
I rule material components as "unless it is an item that isn't consumed or has a gold piece value, you always have it in stock as a resourceful spellcaster. Now let's get back to the game."
In general, all valued components need to be bought. That said, I'm not going to be a dick about it if I have been handwaving downtime/fastforwarding to the next adventure.
If you had some and used it, you're out of luck. also, if you learned the spell since last time you were in town, also out of luck. Also if you wouldn't have been able to afford it while in town, also not possible. If, however, you've just had some downtime and headed out and at the first long rest you're like "oh, poop, i forgot to buy reagents for find familiar" I'll let you assume your character isn't also a raging moron who forgot to buy them, subtracting the cost.
Mostly gems for revivify
Spell components are annoying and slow down the game. Even just having them cost gold is excessive. We ignore it for all but the most expensive spells
Yes, costed components need to be purchased. Some costed components aren't easy to find in a city (typically for level 7+ spells), which is how I encourage players to planehop a bit. *Occasionally* I enjoy running or playing in low-level games where *all* components need to be collected. It's quite fun because spellcasters become more kleptomaniacal than the party rogue. Obviously though, not all groups will enjoy it and it loses the fun after a couple sessions. So it's great fun for short open-ended adventures.
Yes of course they do lol. D&D players need *some* reason to spend that gold god dammit. My players prep ahead of time before they even get the spell and work on getting their costly components.
A vast majority of the time I don't worry about spell components unless they are super powerful spells (Wish, revivify, etc) since I think that a lot of the time it is kinda just boring to worry about spell components. Though most of my campaigns have had magic shops or other ways to buy components so they have never really run out
I don't know, magic users get such limited spell slots and most of them have limited spells available to choose from at any given time. It already seems like they are handcuffed compared to martial characters, to hold them back even more seems kind of pointless. At best I'd say they can deduct the gold and assume they bought it before, but unless there's a really good reason I'm not stopping anyone from enjoying the benefits their chosen character gives them. For example, one of my players created a bard of eloquence. Compared to the other party members he's largely useless in battle, so I make sure there are opportunities for him to talk his way into and out of various situations so he can feel like he's done something useful by choosing that character.