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Spell components in dnd video games?


Unixon2567

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Why is it that spell components are never included in dnd video games when it is a natural way of restricting spellcasters, especially when the video game does not use the vatican spell system?

 

They're more work than they are worth, easier just to balance around the fact that magic is now more easily available.

 

Btw, it's "vancian" spellcasting :) 

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Why is it that spell components are never included in dnd video games when it is a natural way of restricting spellcasters, especially when the video game does not use the vatican spell system?

 

They're more work than they are worth, easier just to balance around the fact that magic is now more easily available.

 

Btw, it's "vancian" spellcasting :)

 

 

Yeah, Vatican spell casting is for the clerics ;)

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It would be nice for the game to just tick off a few coins for the materials each time u cast a spell. Or they could at least just say u have the eschew materials feat

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't Temple of Elemental Evil do just this. Also you might wish to investigate the Ultima series, their use of reagents was quite well implemented, though a lot of work.

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It would be nice for the game to just tick off a few coins for the materials each time u cast a spell. Or they could at least just say u have the eschew materials feat

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't Temple of Elemental Evil do just this. Also you might wish to investigate the Ultima series, their use of reagents was quite well implemented, though a lot of work.

 

 

Yup. ToEE does it for certain spells with a cost component, and item creation costs experience and gold as well.

 

It works well too.

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There's a lot of details that party-based CRPGs often leave out: food, water, guard schedules for camp, bed rolls, travel supplies, shaving kits, &c. Some things are just better off being abstracted for game purposes. If you want to simulate material components, then only allow spells to be cast off scrolls and make it easy to make more... at a spell component shop.

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If you insist on having components, then just admin it yourself.

 

*mutter mutter*

 

Bloody CRPG lazy bastards. In my day...

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

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It would be nice for the game to just tick off a few coins for the materials each time u cast a spell. Or they could at least just say u have the eschew materials feat

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't Temple of Elemental Evil do just this. 

 

 

Yeah, it was pretty horrible. No point in memorizing Identify, ever, if you lose the same amount of coin you'd pay for an NPC to do it for you.

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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  • 3 months later...

Yes, but memorizing it is quicker than paying someone.

Also, components don't add to the game. Expensive components do, but most components are .1cp bat dung or whatever, and no-one wants to keep track of all that rubbish.

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I think DDO does the spell component thing. Seems like it would be more a of hassle than an entertaining resource management system

It's not so bad, but it's still pointless. Basically what happens is whenever you gain a new spell level, you go buy an absurdly large amount of whatever components are needed for spells of that level. Components are 1cp each, so it's not that much of an obstacle.

I hear that the more expensive spells require diamonds and things in addition to the ordinary components, but I'm not at that level yet, so I'm not sure how that works out.

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Well, making components for some spells rare (like, say you need a Dragon's egg to cast Resurrection) could be a way of limiting the use of very powerful spells. At the same time you could making a meaningful quest out of getting that Dragon's egg to revive this or that lord or your fallen comrade. IIRC True Seeing required you to smear a smelly mushroom paste on your eyes, costing 500 gp a pop. Do you really want think you'll get away with smearing nasty paste on your eyes at the Duke's party, trying to spot the guest hiding behind an illusion?

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Do you really want think you'll get away with smearing nasty paste on your eyes at the Duke's party, trying to spot the guest hiding behind an illusion?

 

You and I obviously know different dukes.

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

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tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.

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Spell components would be an awesome addition to RPG/DnD video games. But, game developers are cowards. This idea that the 'masses' would hate it and not buy your game is silly talk. Just use common sense. Many of the M&M series had the use of gems and that worked fine. TOEE did it fine.  The above examples  are ways to entwine material components into the story, quests, gameplay, and FUN of the game. Very few people truly want you to be forced to have '10 uses of dung' to cast a DnD version of fireball. People aren't even that anal in pnp for components. L0L

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It would be nice for the game to just tick off a few coins for the materials each time u cast a spell. Or they could at least just say u have the eschew materials feat

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't Temple of Elemental Evil do just this. Also you might wish to investigate the Ultima series, their use of reagents was quite well implemented, though a lot of work.

 

 

Yup. ToEE does it for certain spells with a cost component, and item creation costs experience and gold as well.

 

It works well too.

 

it worked poorly in toee. item creation cost is hardly unique to toee, as that is actual kinda the norm in crpgs, but in toee, the spell casting cost were implemented in an extreme limited and irrational manner. some spells had d&d rule book costs, others did not have any costs and sometimes it were perplexing to try and figure they why behind the distinction.

 

example: from a practical perspective, identify spell became useless as the 100 gold component cost to cast were the same cost for vendors to identify. no alchemy skill, so potions needed be identity by the silly spell or vendor. craft magic wands ability most lucrative use became crafting wands of identify 'cause identify were borked. and hey, if you really wanted to know that scather were scather, you could save, cast and reload. 

 

toee did d&d combat well, but we sure wouldn't use spell component costs as one of its strong points.

 

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