... But which one ?

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Hello,

I'd like to have a more detailed description clarifying the point of :

"This spell has one or more sub-spells that require material components."

Example : Summon Monster I.

Okay, it (the description) currently tells me, that there is material needed.

... But which one ?

To me, as someone who doesn't have the (A)D&D rules at hand, this is still a riddle - even after all these years. And still, every now and then, I fall into this trap. The trap of not knowing which material components I need. No description says that.

Like the infamous "spell inscription material lottery", this is is clearly a case of "curse of knowledge" - see the Wikipedia article about that.

Long-time players, players with enough rules knowledge, and especially developers, do know what kinds of material components are needed there. They all know it, because they play the game too long. That means that they simply cannot imagine that there might be obstacles in knowledge for "lesser informed parties" (quoted from Wikipedia).

And because of that, you will surely tell me that I'm a) either a troll, because "everybody knows that", or a provocateur, because of the same reason.
Nobody will believe me that i have a real problem with that.

To me, it is still there that the spell description of "summon monster I" is too vague, and not clear enough.

I even have wizard level 1 & 2 spell component material. But still, the description says : "one or more sub-spells that require ..."

... But which ones ?

Which are exactly these sub-spells ? That's another riddle here I encounter. I don't have a rules book here. The currently official , downloadable basic rules don't have this spell.

And, by the way, besides stating that
"This spell has one or more sub-spells that require material components."
the spell's description also says : "Components : Somatic, verbal".
Just to add to the confusion.

Therefore, I'd like to have a bit more Newbie-friendly spell descriptions, spell descriptions which make it easier to understand for those who don't have rules books at hand.

Alrik

[Faltout]

"somatic, verbal" components don't have any meaning in DDO given that the players cannot be silenced (thus interrupting the verbal part) and when held/paralyzed you can't cast "any" spells even if they only require verbal components. Thus, I will acknowledge this mess and move on.

If you prepare the spell, drag it to a shortcut bar (as with all spells) and try to cast it, a pop-up list with the sub-spells will appear. For summon monster I, that's a summon spider, rat, dog. If you mouse over each sub-spell, it will tell you what components it requires. Of course, it will come as no surprise that the components are "Level 1 spell components" of the class that you are playing. Only 7 spells require special components and usually those components mention the spell in their description.

As a new player, you would initially be confused by that description and leave the spell alone (as you would do with many aspects of DDO that aren't taught). Then you would come across a spell reagent vendor and realize that spell components are categorized by spell level and class and you would grab 1000 of each level that you know. Then at some point you would decide to try to use the spell to see how it works and notice how the sub-spell pop-up appears. From that point on, you would have no further issues. One thing you would not notice, is that you can drag and drop the sub-spells to your shortcut bar (like you can with resist energy, fire shield, teleport) so you can immediately use the sub-spell you want without going through the list.