Greetings to all...

Except in the the case of elaborate, ritual-based spells (eg. Spiritwrack, the various summoning & enslavement spells, etc) I have never found much use for spell components in my games.

For one, they are often difficult to obtain and, therefore, prevent someone from casting a spell that they "know" if they don't have the components.

Also, many components are subject to rotting (unless continuously magically preserved - which, in itself, would be a huge pain in the ass) and therefore would have to be replentished regularly - which leads back to the first problem.

I like the idea in concept, but in actual game play I've found it to be impractical.

What about you?

Only certain spells.

Rituals and the like always have to have components, and certain high level spells such as Wish and Comet Storm.

Other than that it's just plain tedious, not to mention it also can rob the player of much of his character's abilities.

D&D is the most fair when everything happens some of the time. Wizards are the best class, and dealing with / keeping track of / occasionally losing their spell books and spell components is a part of the price that makes them fair. I use spell components because wizards don't need any extra help ruling D&D.

Spell components are one reason why i've always disagreed with the whole MUs are overpowered argument in ad&d. They were a check on that power. Early game balancing, if you like.

Then again, it isn't much fun to have these great abilities that you can't use 'cos you've been in the wilderness for a month.

Connundrum, thy name is spell components.

Unless the component is very expensive or magical, generally no. For most games, I like to minimize book keeping and keep focus on the action. For the same reason, I don't usually track mundane ammo and I don't make them pay every day expenses or charge them a monthly amount based on lifestyle.
 
Exceptions are made for unusual circumstances, like a wizard taken prisoner and stripped of all their gear or someone intentially stealing all of their spell components.
 
There are a few spells, like stoneskin, where the cost is a balancing factor.  Aging is as well.

Hah!

One of my most infamous games started with the players losing all their gear, and being taken to the gaol.  This included the magic-user's spellbook.

That's the main component for spells in my game!  The player then resolved to make Trip attacks against every opponent encountered.

Quote from: Blackhand;492574Hah!

One of my most infamous games started with the players losing all their gear, and being taken to the gaol.  This included the magic-user's spellbook.

That's the main component for spells in my game!

That's pretty much how I do it too in D&D.

We had a game where the MU's spellbook was stolen by some random scumbags while they were camped out and forgot to post a look-out. It took them about two days to recover it and punnish the theives. Meanwhile, the MU was screwed.

In my AD&D games, I've long taken the route that 3e did: if the component had a specified GP cost, then it was required for casting.  Otherwise, no, I just figured they were fun color.  I always thought it would be a fun and interesting rule to enforce, but my players always disagreed (of course).

Auroroa's Whole Realms Catalogue for 2e had all the spell components from the PHB (not sure about the later books like Tome of Magic, etc.) priced out.  Hmmm...I'm gearing up for an AD&D game in the next month or so....

Clerics, of course, always need to have their holy symbol.

1e's rules for druidic mistletoe are really cool and flavorful, but I never used them.  That might be handy; druids can get insanely powerful starting at mid-levels.

BTW, here's an example of a really elaborate spell component:

Repulsion - 7th level MU spell (PH pg 86)

"The material component of this spell is a pair of small magnetized iron bars attached to two small canine statuettes, one ivory and one ebony."

Awww, c'mon! Where are you going to get that? :rolleyes:

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492583BTW, here's an example of a really elaborate spell component:

Repulsion - 7th level MU spell (PH pg 86)

"The material component of this spell is a pair of small magnetized iron bars attached to two small canine statuettes, one ivory and one ebony."

Awww, c'mon! Where are you going to get that? :rolleyes:

Like KenHR, I believe this was just fun color.  The Flava.

I just assume that you have it for casting the spell, and if you wanna describe how you use the components that's great.

Since most of the time learning the spell costs money, add a little more in there to represent the cost of these items being made or found during downtime.  

Unless you want to write an adventure about it...which I don't.  Otherwise I'd have to write a new one every time someone wanted ammunition.

I can go either way with spell components. As cranewings pointed out, they are an important balancing point against a wizard's potential power.

Quote from: Blackhand;492590Like KenHR, I believe this was just fun color.  The Flava.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;492594I can go either way with spell components. As cranewings pointed out, they are an important balancing point against a wizard's potential power.

I don't know about the ballancing aspect...  In D&D, a 15th level MU has enormous power, but it takes time to apply. By way of comparison, a 15th level Monk could make short work of said MU in a one-on-one situation.

The D&D spell casters can amazing things including destroying entire cities (eg. the Tsunami Wu-Jen [MU] spell in Oriental Adventures), but if somebody can get to them, they're not too tough unless they have crazy protection spells in place.

Only when it seemed like fun for the campaign. In D&D I've done it both ways and enjoyed both ways. In High Valor it isn't required, but most people want to do SOMETHING to minimize the setback, and special components are apart of advance preparation that works. However, they're never the same thing twice for High Magic. Low magic is more, fixed, but doesn't do as much.

I have always wanted to use them. Whenever I've played a wizard in the past, I tried to keep track of them - because although they're rarely useful for things other than casting spells... you never know when a magnet might come in handly.

Or... I dunno, sometimes it's useful to know that the spellcaster is carrying around live spiders.

I'm thinking that I'll make the casters in my upcoming campaign write down the components in a "component bag" list. Just a list of the components, separated by what spell they're used for. That way, if any really odd situations come up, they'll  at least know what they've got in their component bag. Put a reasonable baseline number next to each component, that's how many he always has when he leaves the house - at least that many, probably more. This number is up to him, but it needs to reasonably fit in whatever conveyance he's got.

Then, if something happens in the game that would create a resource-management situation - the wizard is trapped in a dungeon for more than a few days or on a long overland trek, at the beginning of the situation, he goes down his component list and rolls dice in proportion to his baseline. If he normally carries around 10 balls of bat guano, he'd roll a d10 to see how many extras he happened to have at the moment the resource-strapped situation started.

Kind of simulates the "oh, crap - how many of those do I still have? I don't remember! *rummage, rummage*"

And no bookkeeping except when bookkeeping becomes important.