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So why is the Spell Component pouch a flavor win? Well, analogy: The Spell component Pouch is the vanilla extract you use to make whipped cream and chocolate chips tasty...versus a dried vanilla bean. (thread)
Verbal, Somatic, Material: if you cast Vancian Spells (an apology for the Vancian Magic system this isn't, wait for that another time)...if you're the surprisingly-less-common-than-you'd think kind of player that has actually read a spell description, you know VSM well.
V, S: pure high fantasy, a vast leap: magic words & secret gestures unlock Pan-Geometry, or (if you hold close to Vance) unlock thought-bombs Mise en Place in the caster's head. it's...literally Handwavium. That's fine: but we also tend to like some grounding to our D&D.
In the roots of Fantasy there's a lot of double-bubble-toil. From the dawn of history and our fascination with fermentation & the founding of the alchemist and apothecary's professions, the zeitgeist of culture teaches us that there's magic in 'the secret ingredients.'
magic in material components can come from the psychohistory of the component: like Voodoo dolls and blood contracts. From the Rosetta Stone to the Magna Carta to Papal Inuldgences for sale on the eve of the Reformation...to paper Money, attaching IDEAS to objects is power.
Or sometimes it's simply a matter of a material being...literally radioactive. biohazardous...you get the idea. So the case is strong that material components are FLAVORFUL. but the FLAVOR WIN here Lies with the Material Compnent Pouch....(continued)
Unless yr hiding under a rock yr probably familiar with the repetitive dialogues "do you track material components in your game?" which almost always are responded with a chorus of "F*k no what a PITA, GMs that make you do that are toxic lol YOLO follow me on TikTok" (/s)
The second layer of this discussion spins off into folks pointing out some Material Components cost money, and the spells that do are balanced around this...(which comes as news to some folks, and bounces directly off the "my convenience is paramount" armor of others)
The amazing thing is that *the debate on Component Tracking was solved 20 YEARS ago*. The Material Component Pouch solved it with its mechanics: "If you have your pouch, you've every spell component that doesn't have a listed GP value...[It replenishes automatically off-camera]"
The ideas in this are deceptively HUGE: assumed competence: as a wizard/cleric/druid, by earning XP and levels in your class, your character os competent at sourcing materials. it's not on you, the player. 2nd, each material component becomes abstracted in 'pouch.'
Finally: this is big: the Material Component Pouch forges new ground in D&D that still hasn't been fully sown, let alone reaped: It acknowedges there's stuff happening off-camera, in 'slowtime/downtime' that nobody has to say words about and use session time at the table for.
