I have thought about it as a quirk for a wild magic sorcerer that I'm putting together. The idea being, this person came into magic unexpectedly (accident in his owner's lab either granted or triggered the ability), and he learned the spells he started with by observing his master use them on him... repeatedly. Since he wasn't formally trained in the use of magic (despite being a slave owned by someone who was) and becoming a sorcerer, I thought it would be interesting to make it where he can ONLY learn spells by watching (requiring concentration) on someone casting a spell, with a bonus if the spell was being cast on himself at the time. As a side effect, he doesn't need the materials component to cast the spell. Another side effect, outside of the first six spells he learned, there is a chance that he could observe a spell being cast and 1) he randomly learns it and 2) it randomly replaces a spell he already knows without him choosing for it to do so.
5ed already allows casters to not need material components, provided they have their focus with them (staff, rod, wand, dagger etc.) I see the possibility of a caster being separated from their focus, and therefore needing the material components to cast certain spells, but I think that allowing a class to not need them by default would unbalance it when compared to other caster classes. I understand the "innate" nature of the Sorcerer spellcasting, but that doesn't mean they should have less restrictions on the requisites for casting them than other classes just because.
A possible better solution, imho, might be to create a new Metamagic feature that by spending 1 sorcery point would allow a sorcerer to cast a number of spells equal to their CHA modifier and up to one level lower than their max spell level without the need for material components. That would cover the same range of possible situation where such a thing would be needed, but also be integrated into how the class currently works, needing for it to give something up (1 sorcery point) in order to do something other spellcasting classes are not able to do.
Have any of you thought about or implemented dropping these requirements from Sorceror spells?
I have thought about it as a quirk for a wild magic sorcerer that I'm putting together. The idea being, this person came into magic unexpectedly (accident in his owner's lab either granted or triggered the ability), and he learned the spells he started with by observing his master use them on him... repeatedly. Since he wasn't formally trained in the use of magic (despite being a slave owned by someone who was) and becoming a sorcerer, I thought it would be interesting to make it where he can ONLY learn spells by watching (requiring concentration) on someone casting a spell, with a bonus if the spell was being cast on himself at the time. As a side effect, he doesn't need the materials component to cast the spell. Another side effect, outside of the first six spells he learned, there is a chance that he could observe a spell being cast and 1) he randomly learns it and 2) it randomly replaces a spell he already knows without him choosing for it to do so.
5ed already allows casters to not need material components, provided they have their focus with them (staff, rod, wand, dagger etc.)
I see the possibility of a caster being separated from their focus, and therefore needing the material components to cast certain spells, but I think that allowing a class to not need them by default would unbalance it when compared to other caster classes.
I understand the "innate" nature of the Sorcerer spellcasting, but that doesn't mean they should have less restrictions on the requisites for casting them than other classes just because.
A possible better solution, imho, might be to create a new Metamagic feature that by spending 1 sorcery point would allow a sorcerer to cast a number of spells equal to their CHA modifier and up to one level lower than their max spell level without the need for material components.
That would cover the same range of possible situation where such a thing would be needed, but also be integrated into how the class currently works, needing for it to give something up (1 sorcery point) in order to do something other spellcasting classes are not able to do.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games