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Originally Posted by Zahur
Let's think about this issue in bigger picture. Since we can long rest after each encounter we are actually missing any resource management system. We are only managing limited resources during encounters, not in between them. And I believe this is an issue to be solved somehow. Healing spells outside of combat are useless, Warlock short rest spell slots are useless, etc. The proposal for having a component pouch which will cost some money to recharge is at least some way how to introduce resource managment system between encounters. Not an ideal one but it scratch the same itch.


I'm having this debate in another thread, but how many difficulties are there, and what are their confirmed rules. We are essentially playing the game on what counts as Normal. Even with that, I'm managing to have to have to manage my resources. How? I'm not exploiting LR, for starters. It's amazing to me how, with 100% control of whether it's an issue or not, people are still complaining about something that's optional for them to use.

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From game designer perspective you need to decide first wheter you want to implement any limited resources at all and if yes, it's important to keep it simple. Remember that resources are an abstraction. For example HP and Mana bars are one of the best inventions of game design we have. It's robust and simple. Any more different bars (food, water, fatique, vitamins, oxygen, separate bars for separate body parts, ...) will probably not make your game any better unless it's your very core design decision.

DnD have limited resources in form of HP and slots for spell and abilities (just a different representation of Mana), plus optional lifestyle expenses in gold which can abstractly covers all material requirements (food, repairs, mundate ammunition, components, ..). It's also very simple and very robust. You need rest to replenish your HP and slots and you need to go to adventure to have money for lifestyle expenses. But the longer I play BG3 (over 100h now) the more I feel Larian does use DnD only as a flavour, not an actual mechanic which drives the game. The game is driven by story and visuals (edit: with no intention to have any resource management.)


Unless I'm playing CoD MP, a game is supposed to be driven by story. The story is the point behind every DnD module ever released, not resource management. I don't recall any modules called "How to rob all your players of resources, and make them like it" or some such, but there are tons of modules with different stories to tell. Note: I'm not just talking about cRPGs here. Every TT module is driven by a story. So I guess that that's the point? For every post like this one, there's another complaining about DnD mechanics, like die rolls. Some I agree with, others leave me going "but, I thought they wanted this to be 5e DnD??"...

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Personally I would say no. It would either mean micro-managing each casters inventory or you would buy them in bulk which would make the idea pointless.

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Originally Posted by robertthebard
I'm not exploiting LR, for starters. It's amazing to me how, with 100% control of whether it's an issue or not, people are still complaining about something that's optional for them to use.

The argument "it's optional, just don't do it" is weird, isn't it? Let's say we have also unlimited attacks per turn and unlimited movement. Or unlimited gold. Or we can click on button to get a level. Will you still advocate those features and recommend to others to not used them or exploit them? Of course it is possible to not use them but then I endup playing the game against myself. People generally want to play against the game (speaking about PvE).

Originally Posted by robertthebard
Unless I'm playing CoD MP, a game is supposed to be driven by story. The story is the point behind every DnD module ever released, not resource management. I don't recall any modules called "How to rob all your players of resources, and make them like it" or some such, but there are tons of modules with different stories to tell. Note: I'm not just talking about cRPGs here. Every TT module is driven by a story. So I guess that that's the point? For every post like this one, there's another complaining about DnD mechanics, like die rolls. Some I agree with, others leave me going "but, I thought they wanted this to be 5e DnD??"...

Personally I think the whole historical success of DnD is thanks to the fact that it is very good system for both storytelling and resource managing. The DnD simply have something for all of us. If I want a mere resource managing I rather play random board game or turn-based strategy. On the other hand if I want only story telling, then there is no need for any rules at all. It's better to create just an interactive movie or book.

I believe most people want actually both story telling and resource management. It is possible to have both. And the AAA DnD game should have both.

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While I adhere to it in pnp people are already glad the arrow quivers are gone and find counting arrows to much book keeping as well.

For a QoL improvement its fine I feel, even if material components are meant to be balancing act. You gain powerfull spells but have to pay their material costs...

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Originally Posted by Demoulius
While I adhere to it in pnp people are already glad the arrow quivers are gone and find counting arrows to much book keeping as well.

For a QoL improvement its fine I feel, even if material components are meant to be balancing act. You gain powerfull spells but have to pay their material costs...


Or find a very specific focus

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Originally Posted by Lumign
Would be fair only if...

Archers need to manage their arrows/quivers

Swords can get rusty and need sharpening after some chopping, etc.

Also add obligation to eat and drink for characters...

I don't know... I think it is both interesting but not gamer friendly...

Make it an option for hardcore maybe?


Yes, it would make a great optional mode for those of us who find resource management and survival fun and immersive. Separate from the combat and/or permadeath difficulty slider, though, as each of these options caters to a different subset of players.

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Originally Posted by Ben Thunder
Please don't. I was always thankful that my DM never had us do anything of that, and I can hardly express to you how grating and dissatisfying it would be to micromanage and create components for each spell that I might or might not use, it would well and truly drive me nuts.



This. I hate spell components.

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I like the way Rick makes fun of a lot of D&D rules in the Rick & Morty module including spell components. "No one is keeping track of pinches of dust and clumps of moss. Don't be that guy, Morty. The Dungeon Master will tell you when a spell's got ingredients worth shelling out for. The rest is just doing cool hand symbols and saying BLADOWIE!"

Myself, I have a hard time imagining how spell components would work in the reality of the game. Like people just throwing money into the air and that somehow becoming a spell. IMO, that's alchemy, not magic. Components also make no sense for a Sorcerer since they are supposed to be inherently magical. IMO, powerful spells should already be balanced because of limited spell slots – there's no such thing as an infinite use of these powerful spells.

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Again, for the majority of spells that do not consume spell components, a "Component Pouch" is sufficient. For spells like Resurrection, or any spell that actually consumes its components, sure, since these spells tend to be very powerful and the caster will feel the cost of casting it and not cast it willy nilly.

The one thing that kinda irks me is the wizards ability to learn ANY spell in the game. This has been stated previously and I hope Larian is working on that. Also, to learn spells from scrolls, the right clicking and just paying the cost to learn the spell, is interesting, but I think you should have to actually purchase the components to learn the spell, (different costs by level), then they can only be learned at camp, due to the length of time it takes to copy the spell and learn it. Just my suggestions though.

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Originally Posted by Vortex138
Again, for the majority of spells that do not consume spell components, a "Component Pouch" is sufficient. For spells like Resurrection, or any spell that actually consumes its components, sure, since these spells tend to be very powerful and the caster will feel the cost of casting it and not cast it willy nilly.

The one thing that kinda irks me is the wizards ability to learn ANY spell in the game. This has been stated previously and I hope Larian is working on that. Also, to learn spells from scrolls, the right clicking and just paying the cost to learn the spell, is interesting, but I think you should have to actually purchase the components to learn the spell, (different costs by level), then they can only be learned at camp, due to the length of time it takes to copy the spell and learn it. Just my suggestions though.



That is a bug, sadly haha. I agree that a component pouch is more than enough

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I don't think this is a good idea.

BG3 already ignores somatic components, why would it not ignore material ones then.

Somatic and material components work in a PnP because you describe what you do loosely. A video game can never make a equipment/inventory system work as seamless as it does in a PnP. Especially not with the basic inventory system we have now.

So why even try.

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Originally Posted by Eugerome
I don't think this is a good idea.

BG3 already ignores somatic components, why would it not ignore material ones then.

Somatic and material components work in a PnP because you describe what you do loosely. A video game can never make a equipment/inventory system work as seamless as it does in a PnP. Especially not with the basic inventory system we have now.

So why even try.


Another one who never plays D&D eh? normal components belong in the pouch, while extravagant ones can fit in the existing inventory system all right.

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Originally Posted by Zahur
Originally Posted by robertthebard
I'm not exploiting LR, for starters. It's amazing to me how, with 100% control of whether it's an issue or not, people are still complaining about something that's optional for them to use.

The argument "it's optional, just don't do it" is weird, isn't it? Let's say we have also unlimited attacks per turn and unlimited movement. Or unlimited gold. Or we can click on button to get a level. Will you still advocate those features and recommend to others to not used them or exploit them? Of course it is possible to not use them but then I endup playing the game against myself. People generally want to play against the game (speaking about PvE).

Originally Posted by robertthebard
Unless I'm playing CoD MP, a game is supposed to be driven by story. The story is the point behind every DnD module ever released, not resource management. I don't recall any modules called "How to rob all your players of resources, and make them like it" or some such, but there are tons of modules with different stories to tell. Note: I'm not just talking about cRPGs here. Every TT module is driven by a story. So I guess that that's the point? For every post like this one, there's another complaining about DnD mechanics, like die rolls. Some I agree with, others leave me going "but, I thought they wanted this to be 5e DnD??"...

Personally I think the whole historical success of DnD is thanks to the fact that it is very good system for both storytelling and resource managing. The DnD simply have something for all of us. If I want a mere resource managing I rather play random board game or turn-based strategy. On the other hand if I want only story telling, then there is no need for any rules at all. It's better to create just an interactive movie or book.

I believe most people want actually both story telling and resource management. It is possible to have both. And the AAA DnD game should have both.

Why take it to something that we don't have, and won't, until some modder comes along and tries to add it? That doesn't even come close to swaying me from my position of "the simplest solution is to not do it", it just shows me that there's no real argument against that position.

Based on this threads age, and the actual number of pages, I tend to disagree. If "most people" truly wanted it, this thread would be wildly popular. It's not.

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Why bother with components? Vast majority of arcane spells are cast with a component pouch, and that's in any caster's starting kit. It's been obviated as a real need since at least DnD 3.0. Resurrection-style/power arcane spells may fall outside the usual (lack of) component management, but that's already handled by limiting the number of resurrection scrolls available.

A lot of the gameplay feedback on this board is in the category that the rules are hazy/silly/hard-to-understand for non-DnD veterans; don't actively try to make that divide worse and exclude game enthusiasts because they don't have core sourcebooks at home.

Last edited by Maxxrox; 05/11/20 03:02 PM.
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This is what a hardcore mode would be great for. Need rations per long rest (or per day, if they implement that), arcane or druidic focus / holy symbol, need components that have a gold cost, a component pouch for components with a gold cost, specific components are consumed.

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Originally Posted by Dark_Ansem
Originally Posted by Eugerome
I don't think this is a good idea.

BG3 already ignores somatic components, why would it not ignore material ones then.

Somatic and material components work in a PnP because you describe what you do loosely. A video game can never make a equipment/inventory system work as seamless as it does in a PnP. Especially not with the basic inventory system we have now.

So why even try.


Another one who never plays D&D eh? normal components belong in the pouch, while extravagant ones can fit in the existing inventory system all right.


Not sure why you would assume that, considering material components can be used individually, especially when you play 1/2 or 1/3 casters who typically don't have a lot of spells.

Anyway, just to re-iterate my point: I think if a player had to unequip/sheathe a weapon (in a sword & board/two weapon case) each time they wanted to cast a spell then that would slow down combat. So if we don't care about the somatic component, what is the point of enforcing material components, if all you do is have it in your inventory.

Theoretically, we could make a component pouch/focus an item you need to equip in a weapon slot and swap those out. But then some classes like cleric/paladin can have a holy symbol on their shield/as an amulet. Martial classes like Arcane Trickster are 1/3 casters and then would need to have access to a ranged weapon, dual finesse weapons, and a focus? But this is getting way more complicated than it needs to be just to give somebody a reagent pouch.

Plus, how many times do you actually describe using a focus/component in a game. In my experience players gloss over the fact they are tracing signs and holding a focus and just say what they are casting. Sure the first time your sorcerer casts Fireball they describe it, but do they do that the 20th time they do?

So why enforce animations and/or equipped item management systems for something that typically get's glossed over in 5e.

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There wouldn't be animations. Assume they grab the component during the spell preparation animation.

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