D&D 5E Material components of spells

[maritimo80]

Some spells require material components, such as invisibility that requires an eyelash encased in gum arabic.


With this I have some questions:


1- What would be the cost of this component for each spell used?
2- The material component is consumed or not to use magic?
3- Is there a simple rule for component cost of spells?


In v i s i b i l i t y
2nd-level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (an eyelash encased
in gum arabic)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell
ends. Anything the target is w earing or carrying is
invisible as long as it is on the target’s person. The spell
ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using
a spell slot o f 3rd level or higher, you can target one
additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Some spells require material components, such as invisibility that requires an eyelash encased in gum arabic.


With this I have some questions:


1- What would be the cost of this component for each spell used?
2- The material component is consumed or not to use magic?
3- Is there a simple rule for component cost of spells?

The material components for this Invisibility spell have no cost, and are not consumed when you cast the spell, as it would state right after the component itself (in this case an eyelash encased in gum arabic) that there *was* a cost or that it was consumed.

The simple rule is that a spell's material component line will always state outright whether there is a cost for the component (Chromatic Orb requires a 50 GP gem for example) and/or is consumed by the spell's casting (Stoneskin's component is consumed upon the casting as an example.)

If there is no cost associated with the material components, it is assumed by the game that you've acquired these rather cheap and abundant materials over the course of studying and learning how to do magic and now have as much of these components as you need, regardless of how often you cast these spells.

 

[Tormyr]

To build on [MENTION=7006]DEFCON 1[/MENTION]'s answer, You cover the cost for all of the spell components that don't have a listed cost by having a component pouch or magical focus from the equipment table. You generally get one or the other when you start out with a character. If you are separated from it however, you no longer have the ability to cast anything with a Material component. A few weeks ago, the party in my game was arrested on overblown charges, stripped naked, given a prison uniform, and transferred to another location (not an official prison) while unconscious. The wizard was scrounging through is dank cell looking for iron filings, cobwebs, a copper piece, etc.

 

[guachi]

I encourage you to develop your own Verbal, Somatic, and Material components for spells. It makes the game fun!

Detect Thoughts (aka ESP), appropriately, already uses a copper piece (aka, a penny) for its material component. The Somatic portion which I'm making up is flipping the penny in the air and catching it. The Verbal portion is, of course, saying "Penny for your thoughts" while flipping the coin. Now, you don't have to say "I cast Detect Thoughts" at the table. Just pull a penny out of your pocket and flip it.

My 2e Bard never once said, "I cast X" in the 3 years I played him. I worked all the V,S,M components out with the DM, who was my roommate, ahead of time. It was a low magic campaign so the other characters weren't expecting me to cast a spell and not once did they ever realize it. Most of my spells were the kinds of Illusions and Alterations (Transmutations in 5e) that weren't obviously spells.

 

[machineelf]

If you have a magical focus, you don't need the components unless there is a price listed next to the component. The magical focus takes care of what you need for casting the spell. But, as someone said above, if the spell specifically calls for a component and has a price listed next to it (like a pearl worth 100gp), then you actually need that item in your possession for the spell. The spell description will also tell you if the component is used up when you cast the spell or not.

Now let's say that you are imprisoned and your magical focus is taken away from you. You can then only cast a spell if you have the components on hand, since you lack the magical focus.

EDIT: I just realized that I repeated what Tormyr already said.

 

[MarkB]

A few weeks ago, the party in my game was arrested on overblown charges, stripped naked, given a prison uniform, and transferred to another location (not an official prison) while unconscious.

I know what you meant, but my brain is now stuck on the image of a typical adventuring party arguing over how to share one prison uniform between them.