Skip to main content

Breadcrumb

Spellcasting Foci

Many spellcasters rely on a magical focus, an item that allows them to channel their power. Using a spellcasting focus allows a spellcaster to forgo many material components for their spells. A wide variety of items can be turned into magical foci, which fall into three primary categories:

  • Arcane Focus: These foci are soaked in arcane power and often engraved or painted with eldritch symbols and cosmic iconography. Orbs, crystals, grimoires, staves, or wands are often used as spellcasting foci by sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards.
  • Divine Focus: These foci (often called holy symbols) are representations of a deity, pantheon, or ideal. They usually depict the crest or icon of a specific god or are of symbolic importance to a particular faith. Reliquaries, censers, amulets, emblems, or tattoos are often used as spellcasting foci by clerics and heralds.
  • Nature Focus: These foci typically incorporate furs, feathers, living plants, sacred wood, or the bones or teeth of sacred animals. Staves, wands, wonders, fetishes, or totems are typically used as spellcasting foci by druids and rangers.

Table: Spellcasting Foci

Item

Cost

Weight

Amulet

5 gp

1 lb.

Censer

15 gp

2 lbs.

Crystal

10 gp

3 lbs.

Emblem

5 gp

Focus tattoo

75 gp

Grimoire

25 gp

5 lbs.

Orb

10 gp

3 lbs.

Reliquary

5 gp

2 lbs.

Rod

10 gp

2 lbs.

Staff

5 gp

4 lbs.

Totem

1 gp

Wand

10 gp

1 lb.

Wonder

30 gp


Focus Tattoo. Some spellcasters permanently mark their bodies with symbols of their deity, eldritch runes, or ritualistic symbols. You can apply a focus tattoo over the course of a long rest , after which it functions as a spellcasting focus. Focus tattoos draw on a bearer’s own magics, and must be attuned like a magic item in order to function and require an attunement slot. When you cast spells with a focus tattoo in this way, you must briefly touch your focus tattoo with your free hand.  

Grimoire. These large and imposing tomes can function both as a spellbook and as a spellcasting focus. 

Staff. In addition to its use as a spellcasting focus, a staff can also be used as a quarterstaff.

Wonder. A wonder is an unusual spellcasting focus such as a sacred flower that never wilts, a prismatic crystalized skull, or a polished burl that whispers with the language of the trees. If you lose a wonder, you can replace it as a ritual that takes 10 minutes and requires 5 gold worth of rare materials. You must be able to cast ritual spells to restore a lost wonder in this way. When you do so, any previous wonders created this way are destroyed.