{"id":5368,"date":"2020-06-02T02:26:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T06:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/?p=5368"},"modified":"2020-05-22T08:21:42","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T12:21:42","slug":"in-this-economy-revised-material-components-p-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/2020\/06\/in-this-economy-revised-material-components-p-z\/","title":{"rendered":"In THIS Economy? Revised Material Components, P-Z"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Part 1, A-F<\/a>) (Part 2, G-N<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Planar Binding<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a jewel worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: a 4-carat diamond, 6-carat emerald, or 15-carat ruby or sapphire, which the spell consumes
\n(Your DM may allow you to use other kinds of gems. I tried to keep it simple.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Plane Shift<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a forked, metal rod worth at least 250 gp, attuned to a particular plane of existence
\nEquivalent: a forked rod, weighing 4 pounds if made of gold, 40 pounds if made of silver, or one ton if made of iron, attuned to a particular plane of existence
\nRevised: a forked iron rod, attuned to a particular plane of existence and inlaid with golden sigils representing that plane, one foot long and one inch in diameter
\n(According to the Trade Goods table, 250gp will buy you 2500 pounds of iron.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Programmed Illusion<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a bit of fleece and jade dust worth at least 25 gp
\nEquivalent: a bit of fleece and 225 carats of jade dust<\/p>\n

Project Image<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a small replica of you made from materials worth at least 5 gp
\nEquivalent: a small silver replica of you, weighing one pound
\n(Defining the material makes components much easier to decouple from the economy.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Raise Dead<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a diamond worth at least 500 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: a 2-carat diamond, which the spell consumes<\/p>\n

Reincarnate<\/strong>
\nOriginal: rare oils and unguents worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: five gallons of rare oils and unguents, which the spell consumes
\n(Another component for which the SRD doesn\u2019t actually provide a price! I will assume that rare oils and unguents – by the way, an unguent is a cream or ointment – have the same price as holy water, which is 25gp per pint.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Resurrection<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a diamond worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: a 4-carat diamond, which the spell consumes
\n(There\u2019s a nice escalation between Revivify, Raise Dead, and Resurrection. I just noticed that.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Revivify<\/strong>
\nOriginal: diamonds worth 300 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: one and a half carats\u2019 worth of diamonds, which the spell consumes<\/p>\n

Scrying<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a focus worth at least 1,000 gp, such as a crystal ball, a silver mirror, or a font filled with holy water
\nRevised: a glass or crystal globe eight inches in diameter and inscribed around its circumference with a magic circle, a silver mirror one foot wide and eight inches across with seeing-eye sigils etched around its rim, or a font filled with five gallons of holy water
\n(I had to do some fudging with the crafting costs. I\u2019m not sure a diviner wants to lug around a 400-pound silver mirror.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Secret Chest<\/strong>
\nOriginal: an exquisite chest, 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet, constructed from rare materials worth at least 5,000 gp, and a Tiny replica made from the same materials worth at least 50 gp
\nEquivalent: an exquisite chest, 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet, constructed from gold, ivory, and emeralds, and a replica made at 1:36 scale from the same materials
\n(These are an incredibly expensive components for a fourth-level spell!)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sequester<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a powder composed of diamond, emerald, ruby, and sapphire dust worth at least 5,000 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: a powder composed of 9 carats each of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, which the spell consumes.
\n(I chose to divide the powder equally between each type of gem. If you\u2019d like, you can make each type\u2019s cost equal instead, which gives 5 carats of diamonds, 8 of emeralds, and 19 each of rubies and sapphires.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Shapechange<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a jade circlet worth at least 1,500 gp, which you must place on your head before you cast the spell
\nEquivalent: a jade circlet weighing six pounds, which you must place on your head before you cast the spell
\nRevised: a jade circlet, carved in the shape of multiple animals chasing each other and weighing at least four pounds, which you must place on your head before you cast the spell
\n(I added some flavor in order to remove some weight. Even a T-rex doesn\u2019t want neck strain.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Simulacrum<\/strong>
\nOriginal: snow or ice in quantities sufficient to made a life-size copy of the duplicated creature; some hair, fingernail clippings, or other piece of that creature\u2019s body placed inside the snow or ice; and powdered ruby worth 1,500 gp, sprinkled over the duplicate and consumed by the spell
\nEquivalent: \u2026and 30 carats of powdered rubies\u2026
\n(An aside: It\u2019s interesting to notice the patterns that emerge in what\u2019s required for spell components. Rubies explicitly show up in the original listings for Continual Flame, Forbiddance, Forcecage, and Sequester – spells that involve flame and force. In this case I think it\u2019s metaphorical: the rubies provide the inner fire of animation and the force of personality.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Stoneskin<\/strong>
\nOriginal: diamond dust worth 100 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: a half-carat of powdered diamond, which the spell consumes<\/p>\n

Symbol<\/strong>
\nOriginal: mercury, phosphorus, and powdered diamond and opal with a total value of at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: 1 ounce of mercury, 1 ounce of phosphorus, 3 carats of powdered diamond, and 3 ounces of powdered opal, which the spell consumes<\/p>\n

Teleportation Circle<\/strong>
\nOriginal: rare chalks and inks infused with precious gems [worth] 50 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: rare chalks and inks infused with 40 carats of powdered sapphire, which the spell consumes
\n(Thank goodness, finally a \u201crare [something]\u201d I don\u2019t have to come up with a price for. I settled on sapphires for this because it\u2019s what Instant Summons uses, so thematically they\u2019re linked to magical movement.)<\/em><\/p>\n

True Resurrection<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a sprinkle of holy water and diamonds worth at least 25,000 gp, which the spell consumes
\nEquivalent: a sprinkle of holy water and 100 carats of diamonds, which the spell consumes<\/p>\n

True Seeing<\/strong>
\nOriginal: an ointment for the eyes that costs 25 gp; is made from mushroom powder, saffron, and fat; and is consumed by the spell
\nRevised: one ounce an ointment made from mushrooms, saffron, and fat, which must be applied to the caster\u2019s eyelids and is consumed by the spell
\n(Saffron is surprisingly expensive. This is roughly equivalent, but I marked it revised because I changed the wording.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Warding Bond<\/strong>
\nOriginal: a pair of platinum rings worth at least 50 gp each, which you and the target must wear for the duration
\nRevised: a pair of platinum rings which fit together when pressed together, weighing 1 ounce each, which you and the target must wear for the duration
\n(As with True Seeing, I changed the wording slightly, so I marked this as Revised rather than Equivalent.)<\/em><\/p>\n

And that’s it! I have learned two things in this journey through de-economizing the D&D material components:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It’s not clear to me that anyone’s actually thought about the costs or consequences of spells’ material components, like, ever. I was going to say “since first edition” but I’m pretty sure Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax just threw some stuff together and called it a day.<\/li>\n
  2. The idea of a “spell components pouch” is laughable in the face of twenty pounds of powdered iron<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Thanks for reading – see you next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    (Part 1, A-F) (Part 2, G-N) Planar Binding Original: a jewel worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes Equivalent: a 4-carat diamond, 6-carat emerald, or 15-carat ruby or sapphire, which the spell consumes (Your DM may allow you to use other kinds of gems. I tried to keep it simple.) Plane Shift Original: … Continue reading “In THIS Economy? Revised Material Components, P-Z”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[318,295],"class_list":["post-5368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ttrpg","tag-dnd","tag-dungeons-and-dragons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5368"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5512,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368\/revisions\/5512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronbsmith.com\/cogwheel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}