Eye of Nougat, Toe Tag of Frog, and Wing of Dingbat

A Fist Full of Magic: Spell Components

One of the old bugbears of the Standard D&D Magic systems is whether to require physical materials for spells. It takes a certain kind of player and a special kind of GM to pull it off and make it work. One of the biggest issues I have always had with spell components is the ad-hoc manner in which it was applied to spells. There seems to be little rhyme or reason as to how it was applied to a spell if it was applied at all.

What is the point behind them anyway? Add Flavor? Way to suck money off mages? Assign a cost to a spell?

Reaching into the dusty cupboard of my brain, I remember in the RPG Shadowrun, they had a magic system that used material components in a novel way. They had expandable and permanent fetishes that aided in spell casting. They were not required, but if used they could really aid a caster.

Another idea comes from Advanced Hero Quest, a very cool board game/RPG. Spells are grouped into similar themed groups. All of the spells in a particular group required a select group of items and/or materials to cast. There were not many to track and there were prices from all of the items. They could be found as treasure also.

In my previous post I described an alternative spell casting system called A Fist Full of Magic (FFM). In the section about casting I made an optional rule if a spell component was used, the casting number was reduced by 1.  This is completely option; players and GM don’t have to use it. It is there to aid players who want need to the best chance they can to get that spell off.  It can also be another way for players to spend their hard earned loot or make some money if they harvest components while adventuring

But what is the required spell component? Good Question. 

Spell Components

This section is about the optional rule for using spell components. When sued they can help reduce the Target Number of a Spell making it easier to cast.

Spell level	Requirement	Reduce Target # by Up To
1-3	1 Spell Component	1
4-6	2 Spell Components	1 to 3
7-9	3 Spell Components	2 to 5

FFM SPELL COMPONENTS

A spell component is going to be composed of materials classified as Animal, Mineral, Vegetable or a Mixture. Roll 1d4 for Each Component:

1.      Animal

2.      Plant

3.      Mineral

4.      Concoction (Roll 2 More times, ignore result of 4)

D6	Animal	Plant	Mineral
1	Horn of ****	Seed of ****	Dust of  ****
2	Hoof of ****	Sap of ****	Crushed ****
3	Fur/Feather of ****	Leaf  of ****	Piece of ****
4	Claw/Talon of ****	Fruit of ****	Liquid of ****
5	Fat/Slime of ****	Root of ****	Forged ****
6	Blood of ****	Bark of ****	**** Item

Each material will have a rarity of Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare or Unique. Roll 1d4 for each component to determine Rarity (Cost)

·         -1 to roll of Spells Level 1-3

·         +1 to Roll of Level 7-9

Roll	Rarity	Cost	Modifier
1	Common	(1d6 x5 GP)	.5
2	Uncommon	(1d6 x 10 GP)	1
3	Rare	(1d6 x 100 GP)	1.5
4	Very Rare	(1d6 x 1,000 GP)	2
5	Unique	(Quest Only)	3

After determining the rarity of each component add up the modifiers, this is the total deduction from the Target Number of the Spell making it easier to cast.

 

Animal Component Example 1

Common	Uncommon	Rare	Very Rare
Horn of Elk	Horn of Gargoyle	Horn of Wyvern	Horn of Unicorn
Hoof of Stag	Hoof of Hippogriff	Hoof of Nightmare	Hoof of Ki-Rin
Fur of Bear	Feather of Harpy	Fur of Hell Hound	Feather of Phoenix
Claw of Weasel	Fang of Giant Snake	Talon of Roc	Claw of Sphinx
Shell of Tortoise	Slime of Carrion Crawler	Fat of Devilswine	Piece of Gelatinous Cube
Blood of Dove	Blood of Lion	Blood of Basilisk	Blood of a Dragon

Plant Component Example 1

Common	Uncommon	Rare	Very Rare
Oak Acorn	Pomegranate Seeds	Yellow Mold Spores	Seed of Shimmerweed
Pine Sap	Honeysuckle Honey	Sap of Assassin Vine	Kingsfoil
Basil Leaf	Lotus Petal	Blood Orchid Petals	Black Lotus Petals
Mulberries	Saffron	Heart of Shambling Mound	Fruit of Death’s Head Tree
Arrow Root	Root of Birch	Root of Moly	Simbelmynë
Sycamore Bark	Cinnamon	Bark of Hangman Tree	Bark of Mallorn

Mineral Component Examples 1

Common	Uncommon	Rare	Very Rare
Iron Filings	Garnet Dust	Diamond Dust	Mithril Shavings
Crushed	Crushed Pearl	Crushed Sapphires	Powdered Stygium
Glass Marble	Carved Jade	Piece of Meteor	Calcified Gorgon
Coal Oil	Quicksilver	Muride (Bromine)	Hot Magma
Glass Len	Copper Bowl	Platinum Wire	Iron Golem Head
Brass Bell	Silver Tuning Fork	Gold Astrolabe	Orichalcum Censer