How do you handle spell components? I don't do this, but do your characters have to keep the components on them, like in their equipment, and if they don't have the components, they're just unable to cast the spell? Most DMs, from what I've seen, don't do this, but I want to know how you handle them.
The gathering, sorting, and use of spell components is one of those nitty-gritty vestiges of the older versions of D&D. In the recent versions most spellcasters just go out and buy a Spellcasting Focus so they don't need to keep track of every pouch of bat guano, sulfur, mistletoe, shamrock leaves, fine silver wire, diamond dust, bone dust, grasshopper legs, soot, salt, sand, etc. And some spell components can be too problematic to carry around - mercury, a living flea, an adder's stomach, blood, and rotten eggs, for example. And for Shadow of Moil, where would you even find an undead eye encased inside a gemstone? And for Banishment you need something distasteful to the target. How do you know what that is?
It's too much of a logistical nightmare to even bother with. Just get a Spellcasting Focus. I play D&D to have fun, not to practice doing my taxes.
I usually just allow my players to handwave the components and cast the spell so long as it isn't an actually priced component, same as Bazromark. The only other exception is if they've been captured and had everything taken away from them in which case figuring out which spells they can still cast and how is half the puzzle of escaping
We assume a character must have, beside Spellcasting Focus, all the components that consume or cost something stored in a Component Pouch or similar container and must resupply whenever necessary.
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How do you handle spell components? I don't do this, but do your characters have to keep the components on them, like in their equipment, and if they don't have the components, they're just unable to cast the spell? Most DMs, from what I've seen, don't do this, but I want to know how you handle them.
The gathering, sorting, and use of spell components is one of those nitty-gritty vestiges of the older versions of D&D. In the recent versions most spellcasters just go out and buy a Spellcasting Focus so they don't need to keep track of every pouch of bat guano, sulfur, mistletoe, shamrock leaves, fine silver wire, diamond dust, bone dust, grasshopper legs, soot, salt, sand, etc. And some spell components can be too problematic to carry around - mercury, a living flea, an adder's stomach, blood, and rotten eggs, for example. And for Shadow of Moil, where would you even find an undead eye encased inside a gemstone? And for Banishment you need something distasteful to the target. How do you know what that is?
It's too much of a logistical nightmare to even bother with. Just get a Spellcasting Focus. I play D&D to have fun, not to practice doing my taxes.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Tayn of Darkwood. Human Life Cleric. Lvl 10.
Yeah most groups I've played in, we just used either spellcasting focus og buy a component pouch.
Only on spell that had a cost, like 300g worth of diamond dust for revivify, did we need to have the actual components.
It is just too much of a hassle and don't really add anything
I usually just allow my players to handwave the components and cast the spell so long as it isn't an actually priced component, same as Bazromark. The only other exception is if they've been captured and had everything taken away from them in which case figuring out which spells they can still cast and how is half the puzzle of escaping
We assume a character must have, beside Spellcasting Focus, all the components that consume or cost something stored in a Component Pouch or similar container and must resupply whenever necessary.