The Goldilocks Poll: How Magic is 5e?

[lowkey13]

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[lowkey13]

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[DEFCON 1]

The same way 5E (or really D&D in general) is primarily a "combat game"... because most of the statistics a character has are used for combat and an entire third of the trio of ruleset books is statistics for combat... 5E (and D&D in general) is also a magic game. Because most of the rules and statistics used for letting characters do things are magical-- whether that be spells, items, features or the like.

Compare the number of options weapon-using characters have to do things versus the number of options magic-using characters have (even just in spells.) There's no contest. When it comes to doing things in D&D, most of the game gives ways and means for magic to accomplish it. Heck... 5E's one attempt at making a more "non-magical combat system" involved the creation of Combat Superiority dice and Maneuvers, and they gave that to only ONE subclass of only ONE of the 12 classes... and have since then basically abandoned the system.

So while you can say that 5E put into a place a system that possibly could have begun moving the game into more of a balance between magic and non-magical combat... they had no faith in what they came up with and abandoned it. And thus the game is still medium-to-high magic across the board.

 

[Parmandur]

I voted that I'm not a number. Out of the box, 5E provides a DM the tools for either low-magic or high-magic, or inbetween.

 

[Satyrn]

I considered voting high magic, but then I figured that a real high magic would have 100% of the characters classes being magical.

Since 5e only rates about 95% on that scale, I went with medium.

(Seriously, I'd reserve the high magic label for a game where the characters and setting absolutely drip with magic, like Mage, Harry Potter or a friendly game of My Little Pony)

 

[Satyrn]

I voted that I'm not a number.

You only say that because you're not number 1.

 

[Monayuris]

5E is low magic only with regard to the necessity of magic weapons and armor. You don't need to be laden down like a christmas tree with magic swords, armor, shields, cloaks, etc to be effective in combat.

However, 5E is ridiculously off the charts high magic with regards to access to magic and magic spells. Every class in the game has one or multiple magic using options (even barbarians get abilities that are magical in nature). Access to magic is ubiquitous and you can expect almost every character in a party to have inherent magical abilities.

As a result, I'd definitely say 5E is HIGH magic.

 

[ad_hoc]

5e is high magic.

3e is ridiculous magic.

I consider fantasy stories to be the baseline.

The Princess Bride is low magic.
The Hobbit is medium magic.
D&D is high magic.

Conan the Barbarian is on the cusp of low/medium magic.
The Lord of the Rings is on the cusp of medium/high magic.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Low magic would be all non-casters who occasionally encounter magical elements or are allowed one off magic granted by the DM's. Any game that allows PC's to cast on their own authority is automatically at least "medium" magic to me.

5th edition D&D characters are creating 8 hour pocket dimensions (rope trick) at 3rd level. There are, what, like 5 subclasses that don't cast spells? They break the laws of reality more often than they poop. That's high magic.

 

[lowkey13]

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