Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 philvt101 Mar 14, 2015 10:57:50	Making a Drow Rogue with the Outlander background.  Outlander equipments lists "a staff".  Just staff.  The only staffs I can find in the PHB are quarterstaffs, arcane focus staff and druidic focus staff.  So which is it? My choice? Or is there another staff somewhere I am not seeing? It's important for this character because he has Drow magic and a focus would be nice, assuming any character can use a focus (or can they?).  Otherwise I would need to go around collecting odd bits of things to cast even the Dancing Lights cantrip that a 1st level Drow starts with. I see the quarterstaff only costs 2sp while the focus costs 5gp, so there's obviously something special about a focus.  Can a character make a focus, and if so can virtually anything be used as such?
#2 Coredump00 Mar 14, 2015 12:20:50	It is a staff... nothing more, Not a quarterstaff, not a spell focus, just a staff.  Kind of like a walking stick....
#3 Chameleon-X Mar 14, 2015 12:25:16	Technically, you can't use a focus unless your spellcasting feature gives you one (so Eldritch Knights must use a Component Pouch). However, you don't need a focus for Drow Magic. All it does is replace the material component cost, and racial spells are cast without material components.
#4 philvt101 Mar 14, 2015 12:28:10	So in a pinch the plain old staff could be an improvised weapon (maybe 1d2 or just plain 1 damage).   Good to know you don't need components for racial spells, but I couldn't find that info in the PHB, could you give me a reference page?
#5 Batgirl_III Mar 14, 2015 13:55:41	Chameleon-X wrote:
#6 philvt101 Mar 15, 2015 12:08:15	I still haven't found anything in the PHB, but I did find this in the description of Nezznar the Black Spider, a Drow villain in the starter set: "Innate Spellcasting.  Nezznar can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components. At will: Dancing Lights 1/day each: Darkness, Faerie Fire (save DC 12)
#7 Kalani Mar 15, 2015 12:24:39	Chameleon-X wrote:
#8 philvt101 Mar 15, 2015 12:42:44	Kalani wrote:
#9 Yunru Mar 15, 2015 15:06:30	Because no-one cares about (value-less) material components.
#10 Batgirl_III Mar 15, 2015 16:19:25	Most likely explanation is that the writer of the that supplement made a mistake when (s)he wrote up Nezznar's entry or was working from an earlier draft of the rules and the supplement's editor(s) didn't catch it. Happens all the time, that's why we have Errata Threads.    That said, your GM can easily slap a 25GP item on the guy if it bugs you. He's an NPC villain, it's not like he has to worry about his Starting Gold dice rolling poorly...
#11 Coredump00 Mar 15, 2015 17:09:10	NPCs don't always follow the same rules as PCs...
#12 Knight_Marshal Mar 17, 2015 6:00:43	Coredump00 wrote: