D&D 5E D&D Magic: Does it Feel Magical to You?

[MechaPilot]

There is a thread going about whether magic is impressive in 5e, and it got me thinking again about magic in D&D. One of the recurring thoughts that I've often had about magic in D&D, across several editions, is "does this feel magical to me?" Frequently, I have to say the answer to that question is "no, it doesn't."

When I think of magic, I often think of candles/bonfires, magical circles, ritual sacrifice, materials of sympathetic or antipathetic significance, cauldrons, invocations of powerful beings/patrons, multiple casters working together on a single spell, ritual chants and/or dances (or other performance), and other things that take substantially more time and are much more involved than the magic we typically see in D&D.

Naturally, people are going to have different perspectives on what feels magical, and I'm not saying that I think D&D should cater to my preference here more than anyone else's. But, it did set me to wondering how you (my fellow DMs and players) would answer the question "does D&D's magic feel magical to you?"

So, I put the question to you, does D&D's magic feel magical to you? If it does, what is it about D&D's magic that appeals to your concept of what feels magical? If it does not, what are the areas where you find it not appealing to your concept of what feels magical?

Edit:
Please bear in mind that there is a separate thread for discussing how rare/commonplace magic is or should be in D&D. I fully acknowledge that rarity might be part of your concept of magic and that it might impact whether D&D magic feels magical to you. I have no intention or desire to stifle that expression. However, in the interest of not having duplicate threads about the prevalence of magic I would like to respectfully request that you focus on issues other than rarity in this thread. If rarity is relevant to you, by all means mention it, but please (for the sake of not having the same discussion in two different threads) don't make it the bulk of your post.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Does it feel magical? Yes.

Does it feel like the magic found in various folklore or any fiction other than D&D? Not much (but that's okay, because I don't expect it to and it never said it was trying to).

All it takes for something to feel magical, to me, is for that something to do things obviously outside the realm of normal - so even if how a character goes about throwing lightning doesn't feel particular spectacular or in keeping with some sense of the mystical or strange, it's still clearly magical.

 

[Salamandyr]

Class magic does not feel like particularly magical at all. The wizards ubiquitous fire bolt is dull as dishwater.

The magic that shows up as a mcguffin in the adventure can often feel magical. The magical chalice guarded by a sphinx that the party had to recover that never empties no matter what liquid you fill it with, which was the only way to create enough curative to halt the deaths in a plague wracked city? Plenty magical.

 

[Illithidbix]

No, not really.
Spell lists and spells/day slots and the progression of power by level makes it very formulaic.
Which perhaps suits conceptions of hermetic magic.

Arguably, it's precisely this which makes it very suited to a game.

I find this is doubly problematic for Divine Magic, which doesn't feel at all miraculous, although if the DM and Players try they can create something of a veil of this. Magical healing is relied upon by the game, at least how most of us would recognise playing D&D, and becomes one of the more banal parts of the game.
I've taken this as a thing in some of my homebrew worlds: Divine magic is regarded with suspicion by some theologians, precisely because it resembles arcane magic so closely.

 

[Hussar]

Ever increasingly, I'm starting to feel that no, magic isn't all that magical. It's just become so commonplace that it might as well not be magic at all. IME, this is due to two factors - 1. The upward spiral of just how much magic a character can use during an encounter and, 2. The number of magic using classes in the group.

Remember, typical groups used to be 3 fighter types, a cleric, wizard and thief. You only really had two spell casters and one of them had virtually no spells that applied in combat. Sure, you might be dropping Cure Lights after a combat, but, in combat? The cleric was far more likely to be a front line fighter than a spell caster. So, you really only had one character casting spells in a given encounter, and even then, probably only one or two spells for the entire encounter.

Compare to now. It's not unreasonable to have a group where 5 out of the 6 characters have spells that they can cast, and every class has spells that directly relate to combat and are widely applicable. Water Breathing might be a great spell, but, it's a pretty limited use choice. Now, every class has several broadly applicable spells at every single level. Plus the ability to jack up lower level spells into higher level slots for increased utility as well.

I've been beating this drum for a while, but, I do think it's a valid complaint (or I wouldn't be beating this drum... durrr). We've gone from a system where you might see a couple of spells cast in an entire encounter to a system where you see multiple spells being cast every single round of every encounter. Plus, with at-will utility spells, we can easily see magic being used in every single encounter period. It's very likely in a campaign to have magic being used in combat and out for every single scenario throughout the entire campaign.

D&D has dialed up magic to about an 8 out of 10 with 5e. And I'm feeling a bit bummed about it.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Feel is subjective. No magic system has ever felt like more than rules to me.

The only magic portrayed in fiction I've really liked was...no wait. Can't think of anything. Dr Strange got close, but eh, whatever.

Guess I watched too much Stargate SG-1.

 

[Voort]

D&D magic feels too consistent. Magic should be unpredictable, and only wild magic surges have anything less than textbook precision.

 

[Kite474]

Magic feels in D&D feels like magic that came from where I fist discovered magic.
http://www.ghostfire.net/chibi/s00105-blackmage.png

So all in all still feels magical to me. Still pissin thunder and shittin lighting.

 

[MechaPilot]

Please bear in mind that there is a separate thread for discussing how rare/commonplace magic is or should be in D&D. I fully acknowledge that rarity might be part of your concept of magic and that it might impact whether D&D magic feels magical to you. I have no intention or desire to stifle that expression. However, in the interest of not having duplicate threads about the prevalence of magic I would like to respectfully request that you focus on issues other than rarity in this thread. If rarity is relevant to you, by all means mention it, but please (for the sake of not having the same discussion in two different threads) don't make it the bulk of your post.


I will be editing the OP to include this statement.

 

[Salamandyr]

How wondrous is anything one can do consistently really? The audience applauds when the magician pulls a rabbit from his hat, but he doesn't impress himself much. He's done it a hundred times.

Pretty much any kind of magic in D&D outside the realm of DM fiat is going to be more akin to engineering than magic. And that's okay. Because a wizard isn't going to stand around in awe of his magic missile every time he casts it.