In D&D, there are three major components to spellcasting: verbal, somatic, and material. Most spells require at least one, limiting a spellcaster’s options when they’re bound or silenced or understocked. Mages cast their spells with the help of an arcane focus or component pouch. As long as a spellcaster has one of these two things, they can assume that they have the material component requirement of any spell covered, so long as that material component doesn’t have a monetary value assigned to it. Because of that, it’s easy for material components to be relegated to flavor and then…forgotten.
Describing the flavor of casting a spell is fun and enriching in its own right. I love when my players describe which materials they use, or what words they speak, or how they move their body when casting a spell.
But there are some cool and interesting ways for DMs and Players both to take this flavor a step further and incorporate material components into their actual decision-making and encounter design.
The Components of a Magical Investigation
Spells like detect magic and identify are really good for determining if magic is currently in play, but what about when you want your players to learn about spells that have already been cast? Or spells that have yet to be cast?
Take, for example, a party investigating the mass disappearance of people from their homes. There seems to be no sign of struggle, though. What could be causing this?
A character who succeeds on an Investigation check might find pools of sand or a pile of rose petals in the locations where the disappeared were last seen. What do sand and rose petals have in common? They’re both a material component for the sleep spell! So the kidnapper may have been putting their victims to sleep before taking them!
These clues add more flavor to your investigation. And they can feel rewarding for players who study their spellbooks and are familiar with the spells they cast. But it’s probably not a good idea to lock game-advancing information behind a riddle like this. Try to make sure that a character can understand what the sand or rose petals mean with the help of an Arcana or Insight check. Maybe provide a helpful NPC who can explain the hint if necessary. Nobody wants to memorize all of the material components for spells, and flipping through your spellbook to find the answer takes time away from the game.
You can also use this trick to warn characters of spells an enemy is capable of casting. Imagine characters sneaking through a villain’s lair and finding the powdered iron he uses to cast antimagic field. They have the option to swipe it or destroy it before he gets the chance!
An Unarmed Spellcaster is Still Dangerous
It’s a classic scenario: the characters are stripped of their weapons, or they must give them up in order to proceed. They could be at a fancy party or trapped inside an enemy jail cell. The person doing the confiscating is wise— they took the spellcaster’s arcane focus, too!
While there are plenty of spells you can cast without a material component, consider for a moment that a lot of non-cost material components are household items or found on clothing. Wall of water requires… a drop of water. Major image requires a bit of fleece, which one might be wearing. Ice storm requires a pinch of dust and a few drops of water. Provided the druid had ice storm prepared, and she was being given water in her dusty jail cell, she could cast the spell whenever she needed.
As a player, make sure you have a spell or two prepared that you could find the materials for in a pinch! Or, if you find yourself without your focus or component pouch, steer the situation so that you can find the components you need.
As a DM, give your players something to work with during “no weapons” scenes. Perhaps at a party, fancy glasses that break easily (cloud of daggers – a sliver of glass). Maybe a lovely floral arrangement (flame blade – a leaf of sumac). The more I think about it, this could be a component to a really cool escape room-style encounter.
The Bottom Line
The specifics of material components is one more thing you have to remember. And if you’re not into that kind of information overload, that’s okay! But I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of incorporating material components into my D&D storytelling, bit by bit.
You might have noticed this in my adventure in Issue 1 of MCDM’s ARCADIA. In it, a character mixes up the spells sending and mending and ends up producing the material components required for the former (a thin copper wire) instead of the latter (two lodestones).
Just as the Monster Manual gives DMs a lot of great flavor to spark their next encounter, so too can spells cast from seemingly mundane material components. Consider:
- A cleric without her holy symbol, grasping at the imagery of a rival god in order to defend herself (spirit guardians – a holy symbol, not necessarily your own)
- A food fight gone horribly wrong (slow – a drop of molasses and grease – a bit of pork rind or butter)
- A wizard challenging the party to a duel in a grove on a hot summer night (fire shield – a bit of phosphorus or fireflies)
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