LogFAQs > #886390244

Oh, and here's something else I've been considering:

Material Components - does anyone actually like/use them as a mechanic?

I know they've been a thing since pretty much forever, but I've always loathed them as a concept (even in other systems, like Warhammer), and I've noticed that almost none of the more casual D&D games I watch use them at all (except to occasionally mention someone spreading flower petals or whatever as flavor-fluff that is never brought up again, and no one ever has to buy or harvest components as they travel).

So I was wondering if people here are more inclined to actually use them as presented, forcing players to constantly restock supplies or be unable to cast spells, or if pretty much everyone other than the hardest of hardcore grognards brush off the mechanic entirely and straight up ignore it.

And on a more or less related note:

Spellcasting Focus - 5e rules allow a spellcaster to substitute a "Spellcasting Focus" instead of using material components in a spell, which is sort of like how a clerical holy symbol works mechanically, except for arcane casters instead. They list stuff like crystal balls, orbs, rods, staves, etc. as recommended focuses (foci), with Druids having their own separate list (of stuff like mistletoe, sickles, etc). It's seemingly presented as being entirely optional, though, and it seems like it would be completely unnecessary in a game where a DM didn't require material components. Indeed, in much the same way none of the spellcasters in the various podcast games I watch ever use material components, none of them seem to use foci either.

I do remember this specifically being more of a required thing in 4e (at least, I remember giving my Sorcerer runic daggers and my Warlock had a staff because of it, and I don't remember it being optional), but in the same vein, I don't remember Perkins ever really requiring it in the 4e Acq Inc games (though Jim's obsession with wands more or less fills that niche anyway - and ironically, his tendency to treat them like holstered guns actually echoes one of the earliest D&D characters in Gygax's home campaign, who was more or less a Wild West gunslinger-type mage).

So, does anyone here use/require foci in games? Or is that something else that most groups simply ignore as being too cumbersome/restrictive?


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"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
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