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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert


Actually, a fire every now and again is good for a forest. It clears out all the underbrush and everything, and gives a chance for new plants and trees to grow.

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Originally posted by Farrel

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert


Actually, a fire every now and again is good for a forest. It clears out all the underbrush and everything, and gives a chance for new plants and trees to grow.

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I can recall that certain plants actually need a fire to sweep through an area before they either germinate or cast their seeds... not sure what plants though (damn my rotten memory!), i'm pretty sure some of the vegetation in Western Australia require this.

Good old David Attenborough, seems like I might've learned something after all

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Originally posted by Yoss

All I know is that I want no part of casting a spell that requires me to use some sort of blood and urine paste as a component.

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Originally posted by Ayrik

Necromantic spell, item, and potion components do tend to be the most foul and disgusting. But then again, even the first level spider climb spell requires the caster swallows a live spider, not an experience most people would find tasty. This basically tells me that Gygax was trying to gross out is kids while playing. It also makes me wonder why there aren't more medieval witch-burning sorts of wizard lynchings.

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Originally posted by Ayrik


Yet, if anyone actually bothers to really examine the ingredients in typical bottles of soda, chocolate bars, and hot dog weiners they will probably never want to go near such disgusting processed chemical garbage again. A potion of undead control doesn't look half as bad when compared against what goes into so-called chicken nuggets.

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Originally posted by Ayrik


As far as the oddball components in identify ... I'd always thought the pearl and feather were ground into powder and mixed into the wine, a little of which was dabbed onto the item to be examined whilst the rest was steadily consumed by the wizard over the course of the hour. The resulting penalty to CON is basically a combination of indigestion and hangover, wizards really can't hold their drink.

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Originally posted by Dennis


Whoever conjured Xingax, he/she must have eaten some nasty spell components.

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Originally posted by Yoss

Don't park services do burns in order to help the natural ecology, and cut down on crazy amounts of brush that make it more difficult to fight a forest fire when they occur non-man-made? Sounds vaguely like something I don't remember from a fire science class I dropped out of 5 or 6 years ago.

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Originally posted by Yoss

All I know is that I want no part of casting a spell that requires me to use some sort of blood and urine paste as a component.

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Originally posted by Markustay

I could swear I recall reading somewhere that Halflings can actually O.D. on cheese - if they eat too much they get an intoxication effect.

Ed would know... he literally wrote the book on Halflings.
Maybe it was a specific type of cheese... can't remember the details.

I have no Realms-specific examples, but Scify.Fantasy is rife with the stuff. You have the psi-enhancing 'Spice' from Dune, the 'Sponge' from the Wellworld series (had an effect similar to Voodoo zombies - the addiction was so bad you could turn people to near-mindless slaves), and there was also one in the Earthsea novels - something that they ate and turned their teeth black, IIRC.

And then there were the Lotus-Eaters of Greek Mythology fame. I don't recall if that had an beneficial effects, so maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it. If we wanted 'plain old drugs', I'd have to include Krrf (sp?) from the Thieve's World anthologies.

There was also a drug derived from a strange creature (Alzabo) in the Book of the New Sun series, which allowed the imbiber to partake of someones memories, after eating some off that person (similar to what some ghouls can do). The ability was part of the creatures own repertoire - it ate someone and then mimic'ed that person's voice (and memories) from afar to lure their friends and family to their deaths.

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Originally posted by Markustay

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Originally posted by Dennis


Whoever conjured Xingax, he/she must have eaten some nasty spell components.

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Now I have to wonder if the Imaskari who summoned the Krakentua had to eat Sushi.

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

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Originally posted by Yoss

All I know is that I want no part of casting a spell that requires me to use some sort of blood and urine paste as a component.

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Honestly, I wouldn't regard spell components as a source of power. I see spell components -- whether verbal, somantic, or material -- as a way of shaping the magic you've tapped into. It's like an extension cord -- it doesn't generate electricity, it just allows you to control it and put it where you want it.

As I'm reading it, the original post is more about things like Popeye and his can of spinach.

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Originally posted by Therise

The spider is probably consumed anyway by the activation of the magic, as most material components are.

I doubt that it actually makes its way down to the stomach for digestion.

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Originally posted by Ayrik

Likewise with magical item design. If your research suggests you need "nine drops of smoldering hatred distilled from a god's soul" and the beating hearts of a dozen ancient dragons and the ears of a thousand shades, then you just might want to try new research in the hopes of designing the item in a way which requires fewer impossible components.

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

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Originally posted by Ayrik

Hierophant druids of sufficiently epic level are able to stroll through Elemental Fire with ease. Although I suppose druids would tend to focus on mastering all the other basic elements before fire, since fire is natural but not particularly conducive to natural weather and ecologies.

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Actually, a fire every now and again is good for a forest. It clears out all the underbrush and everything, and gives a chance for new plants and trees to grow.

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

Honestly, I wouldn't regard spell components as a source of power.

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Originally posted by The Sage

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

Honestly, I wouldn't regard spell components as a source of power.

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I kind of like the idea, actually.

Though, I'd make them specifically conditional sources of power only. For example, highly specialised and intricately crafted spells that aren't readily accessibly and which require extraordinarily unique components that provide significant arcane impetus during the casting.

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

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Originally posted by The Sage

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

Honestly, I wouldn't regard spell components as a source of power.

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I kind of like the idea, actually.

Though, I'd make them specifically conditional sources of power only. For example, highly specialised and intricately crafted spells that aren't readily accessibly and which require extraordinarily unique components that provide significant arcane impetus during the casting.

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Why not simply say that the specialized crafting allows for better focus of the magic, which results in greater power/accuracy/whatever for the spell?

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Originally posted by Markustay

I could swear I recall reading somewhere that Halflings can actually O.D. on cheese - if they eat too much they get an intoxication effect.

Ed would know... he literally wrote the book on Halflings.
Maybe it was a specific type of cheese... can't remember the details.

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Originally posted by Dennis

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Originally posted by Ayrik

Likewise with magical item design. If your research suggests you need "nine drops of smoldering hatred distilled from a god's soul" and the beating hearts of a dozen ancient dragons and the ears of a thousand shades, then you just might want to try new research in the hopes of designing the item in a way which requires fewer impossible components.

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Archmages are ambitious and unrelenting. Impossible is not in their vocabulary. If they have a cut a god's tongue and use it as spell component, then they would do.

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Originally posted by Seethyr

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Originally posted by Markustay

I could swear I recall reading somewhere that Halflings can actually O.D. on cheese - if they eat too much they get an intoxication effect.

Ed would know... he literally wrote the book on Halflings.
Maybe it was a specific type of cheese... can't remember the details.

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I'm pretty sure this cheese was initially mentioned in the FR comics. One of the halfling main characters was terribly addicted.

I haven't read them in a while so this could be 100% nonsense, but I vaguely remember cheese being formed from catoblepas milk called death cheese as well.

Whether these two are one and the same I honestly can't remember.

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Originally posted by Marc

There's a spell in Ultimate Magic, you drink a pint of dead wizard's blood and learn one spell he knew

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Originally posted by entreri3478

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Originally posted by Marc

There's a spell in Ultimate Magic, you drink a pint of dead wizard's blood and learn one spell he knew

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random spell?

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Originally posted by Marc

I've seen a spell somewhere that turns potions solid

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Originally posted by entreri3478

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Originally posted by Marc

There's a spell in Ultimate Magic, you drink a pint of dead wizard's blood and learn one spell he knew

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random spell?

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you can pick

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/blood-transcription

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