Material Components

Material Components provide an interesting opportunity to enhance both the feel of the fantasy world and depth of role playing options. The question becomes whether the time invested in stratifying the various effects of material components is worthwhile. Magic systems based on generic magical fuel, such as mana, invest little in world development. Granted, it would take much, much less time to develope a system this way.

For my part, I'm committed to making this world, this gaming experience, as real as possible. To this end, I propose that magical energy (both static and active) is found in largely fixed quantum states. That is to say, magic is easy to change from state to state if it is being influenced to do so, but when not being influence, it comes to a restive state. This restive state of material components can be defined in terms of energy by a number of d6 that it provides to a skilled caster. These quantum states for magical energy (both restive and active) follow a progression of prime numbers (1,2,3,5,7,11, etc). This is a naturally occuring pattern, that will make an interesting mechanic further in.

For brewing potions and casting elemental spells, these material components power the outcome, so their starting levels of energy are important to understand. Spiritual magic is powered by the caster's connection to the spirit world, but elemental casters must use materials they can find. Fire mages, for instance, can use any combustable fuel to aid their spells, but the quality and quantity of those fuels can range widely. Common natural ingredients(carbohydrates) wood, cloth, food would be energy level 1, but how much mass would be needed?

Energy level 1(wood or other carbohydrates):
oven dried or completely dehydrated fuels (such as from an ancient desert tomb) 10 lbs
charcoal 7lbs
air dried wood 14 lbs
green or living tree 28 lbs
water-soaked wood 90 lbs
rain-soaked living tree 120lbs
lamp-oil soaked wood 3lbs
greek fire coated stick 4 ounces
alcohol beverages with 50-80% alcohol 1 liter


Energy level 2 (flamable oils):
lamp oil-crude 4 standard flasks (soaks 12 lbs wood)
lamp oil refined 1 standard flask (soaks 12 lbs wood)
grain alcohol 90-100% 1 liter

Energy level 3 (Highly flammable compounds):
greek fire - 1/12 standard flask (standard flask can coat 40 sticks)

Energy level 5 (Explosives)
There might be some limited explosives discovered on our alternate earth, but none at this time.

Fire or heat could give a bonus to fire magic casting, just as rain or cold might hinder it. Strong sources of fire or heat can be used by a fire mage to transfer the effect into a spell. Molten lava could fuel a spell. A burning house could. Note how much fuel the mage can gather in one 5ft hex of infuence to determine how much fuel they can gather in one round at their skill level. More on this later.
Magical wood or other items that contain magical fire energy could be much stronger than these mundane examples, but not at all common.

Of course, the above quantities only represent 1d6 of energy each, so we may have to adjust them once a few spells are playtested.