D&D General One thing I hate about the Sorcerer

[Gammadoodler]

Certainly, a fantastical setting comes with fantistical phenomena.

The surprise happens if defining a Fighter class as "nonmagical". Then it does magical things. To claim something is fantastical but isnt magical becomes confusing even nonsensical semantics.

The flavor of the Fighter class needs to make clear, this is a magical warrior that can achieve impossible effects.

It's all frame of reference. I choose the relevant frame of reference to be that of the characters in the setting.

For the fighter jumping chasms, do they or their peers recognize such a feat as being magical..or is it just something they've done enough mundane training to accomplish (or eaten enough fantasy Wheaties, or whatever other set of mundane-for-the-setting activities led them to this capability)?

Edit: Separately, the PHB does not actually claim that the fighter is non-magical. It doesn't claim that they are magical. But.. it does ask the player to consider "what sets the apart from the mundane warriors around them"

 

[CreamCloud0]

Ok, so there's these two schools of thought. One, that player characters are special in the game. The other that they are not special.

If you adhere to the first, everything makes sense. The player character human is magical and can do crazy stuff because it's assumed he's special.

But if you adhere to the second, things kind of break down because player characters can have classes and magic and preternatural abilities that only special people should have...and yet, we're saying they aren't special?

Like I said, if we say some people can do these things but most people can't, so the ones that can are the exceptions, and the player characters are always exceptions, great!

But if someone starts saying "some people can do these things but most people can't and player characters aren't particularly special or noteworthy in the world" and yet just about every player has these special traits...yeah.

where does 'this individual is considered special in the measure of their capabilities but their abilities are considered totally normal to what people can do', you don't consider an olympic athelete or a celebrity singer to be some supernaturally empowered individual whom has been bestowed abilities from beyond human capability but they're obviously not considered the standard, personally i would put that in the second category.

 

[TwoSix]

Over 2000 posts, and at least 200 of them are about Sorcerers!

 

[FrogReaver]

Over 2000 posts, and at least 200 of them are about Sorcerers!

Is that good or bad?

 

[TwoSix]

Is that good or bad?

It's downright supernatural!

 

[Remathilis]

Over 2000 posts, and at least 200 of them are about Sorcerers!

That said, a lot of it has dealt with the notion of how innately magical the world of D&D is. The OP complained that the sorcerer has eaten the idea that wizard magic has some innate magical component rather than purely academic ability. The diversion into fighters and humans cast that issue in new light.

If D&D characters are capable of using the ambient power of fantasy, then no further source is needed. Ambient magic + study = magic is all that's needed. Much like ambient magic + training = mythic fighter stuff. The sorcerer then becomes someone who channels that power without study. All they need is some key (blood of dragons, etc) to unlock it.

Basically, if the fighter doesn't need anything special to do amazing things, neither does the wizard.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There's a lot of moral and ethical issues in the Potter-verse that aren't even remotely explored, because it's a fun story first and the world-building is a distant second.

Yeah...by far my biggest issue with the Potter universe is the lack of worldbuilding rigor.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Getting back to Sorcerers, if the power does come from one's ancestry, why aren't there more Sorcerers running around? There's this bit in Order of the Stick where the Wizard, infused with evil power, murders all the descendants of a dragon that threatened his family with an epic spell.

Then we get a multitude of panels showing all that's dragons' descendants, each of whom is at least part dragon. There really could be some huge Sorcerer family trees in a game world!

That was an amazing tale! Blew me away, especially the punchline later.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh, well, that's just an observation. Of course verisimilitude is fun for some- who doesn't like a well fleshed-out campaign world? But the opposite is just as valid.

But let me put it to you this way. If verisimilitude is fun for you, then there's no difference. If verisimilitude made the game not fun for the people playing, I would think fun should take preference.

But does the game have to assume verisimilitude isn't fun?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yeah...by far my biggest issue with the Potter universe is the lack of worldbuilding rigor.

My biggest issue is the creator being a terrible bigot.