Okay, so, I think spell components are cool. I love the little bit of flavor text of saying what motions and materials you go through when casting a spell. But here's the thing, I also really like the idea that all a bard needs is a wink and a word to cast a spell. So what's the vibe, do bards need some honeycomb and a snakes tongue to cast Suggestion, or do they just need to strum their lute and call it good?

Quote from liamcoche >>

Okay, so, I think spell components are cool. I love the little bit of flavor text of saying what motions and materials you go through when casting a spell. But here's the thing, I also really like the idea that all a bard needs is a wink and a word to cast a spell. So what's the vibe, do bards need some honeycomb and a snakes tongue to cast Suggestion, or do they just need to strum their lute and call it good?

Well you can use a lute instead of any components that aren't consumed or have a gold cost, so in your example the bard can do either the mystic reagent or use a musical instrument. A wink and a word would only work for a Somatic Verbal spell. Are you asking what the rules are or how we'd prefer they work?

god I'm an idiot, I thought I was onto some lost bit of flair about bards using an instrument as an arcane focus, but it's right there in RAW and I'm just a bad reader

Quote from liamcoche >>

 god I'm an idiot, I thought I was onto some lost bit of flair about bards using an instrument as an arcane focus, but it's right there in RAW and I'm just a bad reader

Hey, don't sweat it! There's lots of rules, no one blames you for not knowing every single one of them. Even people with years of experience mess up.

That said you should also buy a component pouch so you can cast spells without having to strike up a tune, just in case you're in a situation where making a lot of noise would be ill advised.

Technically you don't have to play the instrument to use it as a spell focus, but I know a lot of people play it that way.