Tue Oct 18, 2011 4:48 pm
Very punny
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One of the endearing habits of the late Mr Gygax was his wordplay. In his materials, you could always find some fun little plays on words, puns, and little jokes. One aspect I found was to look at the materail components of spells for such puns.
Now most material components were somehow logically associated or symbolic of the effects of the spells (i.e. bat guano as fuel for a fireball, or a cricket leg for a jump spell). Some were just made to make the spell in question expensive in order to make the casting of it costly for game balance (like Leomund's chest). And some were just extensions of the function of the spell (bit of butter for a grease spell).
But some seem to be outright based on whimsy. Here is a partial list that I found. See if you can find more:
the phantasmal force/illusion spells - bit of fleece - "pull the wool over one's eyes"
sleep - sand - "Mr Sandman"
various fog spells - split dried peas - for fog "as thick as pea soup"?
ESP - copper piece - "a penny for your thoughts"?
Slow - drop of molasses - molasses gathered in January should be doubly effective?
Confusion - three nut shells - which one is the little ball under?
Fear - white feather - "chicken"!
Passwall - pinch of seeds - "Open Sesame"
Heh heh
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