Still Not Done With PF1: Revised Material Components (Patreon)

It's time for the weekly Pathfinder 1e content available to all members! This time it's a look at a revised list spell material components and focuses. Not a whole new system, just a more uniform set of options.

Why is that a thing I think is useful? Well, it began with my friend of 40 years Carl, who noted "Pathfinder components are so ugh."

What do you mean, I asked? And, I note, all of his examples are from official spells from the publisher of Pathfinder. If we started looking for weird cases in third-party products, we'd be here all day.

So, Carl explained.

("What's in your spell component pouch?" "Well let's see, animal parts (bits of glass, blood, eyelash, fat, fur, hoof, stomach), bat guano, tiny bells, candles, charcoal, cloth, coins, dirt, dust, eggs, feathers, gum arabic, herbs, honey, incense, ink, iron filings, octopus AND squid tentacles, paper, powdered peas, rhubard leaf, seeds, sugar, salt, sulfur, water, wax... and several quarterstaffs that have been carved and polished for 28 days." Or, as Carl noted, "It's like the kitchen junk drawer in there! Art by Lara_Coolart.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"If I have 'powdered skymetal' for memory of function, and 'special inks' for tattoo potion, do I have the needed 'powdered metal and rare inks' for create treasure map?," he asked.

("Um..." I profoundly said.)"And are those 'special inks' at all compatible with the 'lead-based inks' needed for the illusory script spell?"

(I mean... I'd allow...)"Are any number of 'dust,' 'powdered,' and 'crushed' items count as the same? Are 'rare herbs' included with 'herbs and oils?' Is 'special dust' included in 'jade dust?' What about 'gold dust,' 'ruby dust,' or 'diamond dust' considered special? What about Ungol dust?"

(Yeah... I see your point...)

"Are 'magical reagents' for masterwork transformation at all compatible with 'special reagents for skin tag?

"And lastly, we are told 'A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses needed for spellcasting, except for those components that have a specific cost, divine focuses, and focuses that wouldn’t fit in a pouch." Plane shift requires 'a forked metal rod attuned to the plane of travel,' but there is no gp cost listed. So, can I have all the forked metal rods I want attuned to every plane?"

(Okay Carl... good point.)

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As I looked into these oddities, I found some I considered even worse. If you have 'powdered diamond and opal' for symbol of death, or the symbols of dispelling, distraction, healing, insanity, laughter, mirroring, pain, persuasion, revelation, sealing, scrying, sleep, slowing, storms, strife, stunning, vulnerability, or symbol of weakness are they also 'powdered gemstones' for rune trace? And can you use the mixed powdered diamond and opal most of those spells need for symbol of death, which wants 5,000 gp each of diamond and opal? Or do the diamond and opal have to be separate for death?

And do we really gain anything that there are just three symbols -- debauchery, exsanguination, and striking, that DON'T use mercury, phosphorus, opal, and diamond? Also, since symbol of debauchery needs 'a set of bull genitals and powdered ruby worth 5,000 gp ' with no comma between the genitals and the ruby -- unlike the presentation of symbol of fear which says 'mercury and phosphorus, plus powdered diamond and opal worth a total of 1,000 gp' -- does that mean for debauchery we need a set of ruby-encrusted bull balls to cast the spell? Or are the genitals mundane and kept in my spell component pouch, with only the powdered ruby having value?

And if you do keep my powdered diamond and opal separate, can I use the powdered diamond as 'diamond dust' for permanency? Or are dust and powder different? Can you use powdered opals for the 'opals worth 500 gp per HD' for binding? Or do those have to NOT be powdered to bind? Since sympathy calls for 'crushed pearls worth 1,500 gp' and circle of death needs 'a crushed black pearl worth 500 gp,' that means the black pearl is one pearl that was worth 500 gp before it was crushed. But since it IS crushed pearl, even if black, what is its post-crushing value toward that 1,500 total?

Also, is crushing pearls something you do with a Craft skill? If so, can I buy 500 gp worth of pearls as the material cost of trying to craft 1,500 gp of the item "crushed pearls?" And along the lines of the rods for plane shift, take a look at the material components for the horror spell plundered power. "Crushed rubies worth 2,500 gp and a major organ from the sacrificed target, see text." And the text opens with "You must sacrifice a creature just as you finish casting this spell." But since the "major organ from the sacrificed target" has no listed gp cost, Rules-As-Written I have one in my material component pouch. So, it that sentence actually a rule element telling me I need to find someone to sacrifice, or is it just flavor text like alchemists gather reagents as they travel?

Yeah, this could use an alternative.

Material Components General Rules

You can Craft material components and foci using Craft checks for appropriate skills, but doing so requires materials with a GP cost equal to the full value of crafted component. This is primarily only useful when you need a component you don't have (such as a specific holy symbol of a given value). Selling material components taken from foes generally brings their full value.

SIMPLIFIED MATERIAL COMPONENTS AND FOCI

The following alternate material components and foci options are broken down by magic type (arcane, divine, or psychic), and then sub-categories as appropriate. You can generally just have a GP value worth of a given component, and spend the amount of the component equal to the cost of whatever components a spell originally required.

You can make these optional substitutions (so an arcane spellcaster could use the components listed with a spell, or those listed for that school below, for example) or just change all spellcasters to these component lists (to dodge the questions about which components work with what listing as Carl noted).

Arcane Components

Arcane spellcasters can replace any material components with a GP cost with the following components, based on the school of the spell being cast.

Abjuration

Abnegation Dust (a mix of powered cold iron and powdered silver).

Conjuration

Idalir (a salve made by dissolving diamonds in alchemically enhanced acid, which goes loses its acidity as if forms idalir).)

Divination

Powdered sapphire.

Enchantment

Chalcophur (purified sulphur mixes with powdered opals and pearls).

Evocation

Nephthine (naphtha mixed with rosin to form a block very difficult to light but long-burning).

Illusion

Jade dust.

Necromancy

Thanantonyx (a mixture of black onyx, bitumen, cedar oil, and salt which forms a very thick tarlike material that can also be used in mummification).

Transmutation

Magnesium. (This is the same alchemical reagent that can increase the caster level of a transmutation spell by +1 for purposes of duration by using 2 gp of this as a material component for the spell -- see alchemical reagents. When a spell requires ).

Universal

Powdered diamond.

Arcane Foci

All

Reinforced rod, staff, or wand. This can be a mundane, nonmagical rod, staff, or wand or reinforcing elements added to a magical one. However much you spend on the reinforcing elements, that's the value of foci it can serve as for arcane spells.

Divine Components

Divine components are not broken down by school, but by casting time of the spell used for. The components are always of a type and quality that they can be used for religious rites. Different churches and sects have different preferences of the exact makeup of the material components used, but all formulations work for any divine spell.

Anointing oil. Used for any spell with a casting time of less than 1 minute.

Incense. Used for any spell with a casting time of 1 minute or longer.

Divine Foci

Divine foci are symbols. If the divine caster worships a god, it must be that god's holy symbol. If not, it must be a symbol that represents or reflects the belief system, ethos, philosophy, or other concept that empowers the caster. However much you spend on the symbol, that's the value of foci it can serve as for arcane spells.

Psychic Components

Occult Adventures notes "When a spell calls for an expensive material component, a psychic spellcaster can instead use any item with both significant meaning and a value greater than or equal to the spell’s component cost. For example, if a spiritualist wanted to cast raise dead to bring her dead husband back from the grave, she could use her 5,000 gp wedding ring as the spell’s material component."

That's a BG advantage of the GM is generous with what qualifies as "both significant meaning and a value." By the same token, it's a big drawback if the GM is difficult about it.

It's much easier if each psychic caster uses a specific kind of occult components. These might be candles, crystals, or materials inscribed with koans, mantras, mediative phrases, scripture, or similar mentally-focusing words or patterns (which might be on coins, pamphlets, ribbons, or scrolls made of appropriately expensive materials).

Psychic Foci

As with psychic components, but each psychic gets one focus they spend money on and increase the value of over time. This might be a desk of fortune-telling cards, jewelry, journal, specially cared for potted plant, a talisman, or any object of importance to them which can be carved with symbols, decorated, and otherwise embellished. If that focus is destroyed, the psychic spellcaster can create another by spending the required money the next time they prepare spells, but they may never have more than one at a time.

Thematic Components

The GM may decide specific kinds of spells need their own form of standardized components. All magic glyphs, symbols, runes, and tattooes can require special inks made with powered onyx and silver, for example. It's recommended the GM keep this list of thematic options short, to avoid going back to needing hundreds of material components.

New Component: Ritual

Sometimes a GM wants a spell to exist, but the number of times or ways a PC can cast it to be limited without it costing a great deal of money (or without large amounts of money to allow you to do so more often than the GM wants to see). One way to to this is by a new component: ritual.

A ritual component is a specific circumstance that must be met in order for the spell to be cast, which cannot be bypassed just with money. For example, plunder power can have a ritual component - sacrifice a creature with spell-like abilities just as you finish casting this spell. This is not a free component or focus, but it's also not something you can buy at a typical adventuring store. And even if you are someplace you CAN just buy such a creature to sacrifice, you still have to sacrifice that creature just as you finish casting the spell.

This can also be used to prevent simplified components from making spells easier to cast while at the same cost. If using simplified components for fabricate, the need for appropriate materials with a cost equal to 1/3 the finished product becomes a ritual and the spell has no material component anymore. Plane shift adds the ritual of using a tuning rod created while on the plane the spell is to take you to. Such things are not normally bought with coin, but without them you;re not shifting anywhere.

A GM may choose to add new ritual components to slow use of storyline-altering spells. Raise dead might add a ritual of a written prayer completed by the caster and using their full focus exactly at the first light of dawn after the previous full moon. That doesn't make the spell any more expensive for PCs, but it does mean no cleric can cast it more than once per month, no matter how much diamond (or anointing oil or incense if using simplified material components) the cleric can get their hands on.

Creatures that have spells as spell-like abilities normally do not need to fulfill any ritual components, unless the GM specifies otherwise.