Spell Components

Parent page Casting Your Spells

The rules about how spell components work when casting are located here. But it can also help to understand what these components might mean to spellcasters.

Shouting out verbal components forces magic out into the world via a word laden with magical power. Spells that require only a verbal component tend to be direct and forceful, such as power word kill or power word stun. Verbal components are especially unsubtle, so spells that benefit from stealth, such as invisibility, might not have any verbal components in favor of having somatic components, material components, or both.

Somatic components, such as twisting your hand in a complex gesture, shape magical energy into directed forms. While verbal components bring forward powerful forces, somatic components compel those forces to obey the spellcaster's wishes.