Ideal Magic Component Shop

[Harroghty]

What would it sell? I don't intend to offer things which are typically not sold (e.g. yuan ti eyes), but what should a new shop stock?

[hasryn]

Anything that could be grown other than rare plants etc..

e.g. Rhubarb leaves (which with a mortar and pestle could be powdered)

Sulphur (which is something that would come with mining)

animal fat

sunflower seeds

stuff along these lines!

[Dranso]

My ideal component shop would include:

Perfectly smooth stones
Earthstones
Golden Ankhs
Feathers
Starstones
Moonstones
Sunstones
Black soot
Horse tail hair
Pinch of sulphur
Pinch of phosphorus
Sturdy Iron nails
Lodestones
Adders stomach
Black onyx gems

[Korwin]

It is my opinion that finding components is a lot of the fun of being a spellcaster, and the various substitutes and alternate components.

It would be interesting for even more varieties to be sold perhaps...

*Obsidian or flint arrowheads
*Some wacky and creative new components (depending on the locale an theme of the shop)
*Some dialogue and theories of how and/or why the components work when the PC asks about them.

A limited one per person component, access through a quest or asking about them.
some examples;
Tiny vial of Elemental Water( flask of water component that will not ever be consumed)
A large earthstone decorated with glyphs (non consumable earthstone)
ETC...
Perhaps a choice of one per PC.
Just bouncing some ideas around, not sure what I'd like in a large component shop as far as specific components.

[Rhangalas]

I agree with the previous suggestions. Natural components (plant/animal/mineral) mostly, with a sparser stock of crafted magic or less reputable components - this would be your vials of blood, rare/deadly creature parts, and/or other materials known to be used for "dark" magic. Descriptive components are a bonus, but availability should be the priority.

The best way to go about it would probably be to just grab a list of frequently used spells/items and you would have your bestsellers list. For costly stuff, it would probably be more profitable to aim it at spells used often by high/max level characters.

I think most players just collect the minor components from bandit corpses, but it would be a lot better to just have a shop selling it than to have to go on a mass killing spree to obtain them. The wandering merchants sell a few things, but they are very annoying (and they all look the same)... it would be more convenient if they all had a market that they stopped in or frequented.

A good way to stock the odd component would be to allow PCs to sell them to the shop, so miners/crafters and merchant PCs can sell off their excess for coin to restock their own stores. A buffer of shops to work with would make it a lot more viable and beneficial to play a component merchant.

If you wanted it to make more sense realistically, you could have merchants in rural areas that sell mostly plants, those in the mountains and barren areas would mostly sell mineral components. Both would sell animal remains of some kind, based on the wildlife that would be around. Rural - domesticated animals probably. Wastelands - pests (bats, spiders, etc.). And urban areas would probably sell a little bit of everything, but have more pricey options like platinum cones and titanium shields.

[Azgar]

I am all for several component shops throughout the realms that will sell to anyone. They would ideally have all basic components. But as already mentioned, they would not include very "rare" items, animal parts, or other things that are very unique and would realistically be hard to find. Or maybe each individual shop would only carry 1 or 2 rare items.

These are just some random examples of things the would not sell: vampire fang, yuan-ti eye, tounges, stomachs, wings, etc

Items they should sell: smooth stones, supher, phosphorus, sand, feather, silver wire, gem powder, soot, scale, salt, candle, flask of water, fur, reed, arrow head, etc

I think rarer items such as earthstones, lodestones, jacinths, black onyx, moonstone, starstones etc should be a bit more available, but am generally fine with their availability as it is now.

I would like to see more availability to things like Yuan-ti eyes, as in more of these monsters across the realms. I only know of 1 place, but could be wrong.

[Yemin]

If the new shop is still taking ideas. I think it ought sell some items made via the precision forge at a much inflated price.

perhaps not all, but a few. Hourglasses, tiny smith's hammers, that sort of thing.