Acquiring Spell Components

The materials used to power spells range from the mundane to the bizarre and the exotic. Dozens of spells require things like pebbles, stones, dirt, twigs, or leaves that can be found literally anywhere—including the middle of a battle, if a spellcaster is desperate. A number of spells require nothing more than a little bit of foresight and access to a simple trading post or small market. Likewise, a few spells require painstaking and expensive preparations that may be impossible to repeat in the field.

Scavenging: The cheapest method of acquiring spell components is a field search. Many plant and animal specimens can be harvested with nothing more than time and a little luck, and a wizard who knows what he’s looking for can find a fair number of minerals as well. The wizard has to find an appropriate location, such as a nearby forest or field for animal and plant specimens. Materials that can be collected with a field search are rated as common, uncommon, or rare; depending on the amount of time the wizard takes, the suitability of his search, and the item’s scarcity, he may or may not be successful. See Table 14 : Field Searches.

Item scarcity is taken from Table 16 : Spell Components. The DM may modify the category depending on where the wizard is searching; finding sand on a beach is pretty easy, for example.

Base search time is the amount of time required to search for the item in question. A character can search for only one component at a time.

Base success is the likelihood that the character will find the material in the base search time.

Time bonus increases the success chance for each additional turn the caster spends searching for the item. If he fails to find the material in the base search time, he can continue to look, adding this percentage to his success chance as shown on the table .

A field search for common materials doesn’t take much time, so a traveling wizard could pause for brief searches during the march or while his companions are setting up or breaking camp. Depending on what it is the wizard is looking for, he can find anywhere from 1 to 20 or more doses or samples of the material. For example, if the wizard was searching a damp forest for foxfire, he might find enough to be used in anywhere from 1 to 20 spells. Of course, storing and preserving multiple uses of a component may be harder than finding it to begin with.

Purchasing: If the wizard doesn’t have time to search for materials himself, or can’t find a certain component, he can always purchase what he needs. Again, the item scarcity reflects the likelihood that someone in the vicinity happens to have the material or compound the wizard requires. If the wizard is out to purchase materials, the most important consideration is the number of vendors or the size and completeness of the market he will be searching. This is generally a function of the community size, but the DM can modify item scarcity to reflect the character of the town. For example, many uncommon or rare chemicals may be common in a city that supports an Alchemist Guild.

Shopping for items in a town takes some amount of time, as well. A character may have to examine half a dozen smithies to find soot or charcoal of the exact color, weight, and composition he needs. Generally, common items can be located in a few minutes, while rare items may take several hours of the wizard’s time. Anywhere from 1 to 20 or more usages can be found.

Wizards with Laboratories: One nice benefit about an up-to-date, well-stocked laboratory is that it includes a number of interesting compounds, minerals, and specimens that may be useful as spell components. If a wizard owns a laboratory, there is a 50% chance that 1 to 20 usages of any given spell component from the mineral, animal specimen, and plant specimen list may be on hand, and a 25% chance that a spell component from the finished item list may be present. The laboratory’s normal upkeep and maintenance expenses cover the cost of replacing these items once per month.

Rule of Common Sense: The rules presented here for acquiring spell components are intended to be guidelines for the DM. If a player is particularly resourceful or intelligent in looking for components, ignore the dice and let his character find whatever it is that he’s looking for. Clever play should always be rewarded. On the other hand, sometimes items just aren’t available in a given area, no matter how hard someone looks. Finding iron filings in a village of Stone Age technology is going to be extremely difficult, to say the least. Flowers, plants, and herbs common in one part of the world may not exist elsewhere—no amount of money could create a pineapple in medieval Iceland, for example.

Table of Contents