Kisanji Arael
First Post
The following is my start of an attempt to change the magic system. Good for a read, a bit of humor, but not much here yet.
Introduction
“Magic cannot be inferred; it cannot be understood, analyzed or manipulated unless one has a firm grasp of mathematics, physics and logic. Mathematics because you will, throughout your studies, be forced to comprehend complex formulae involving large numbers for the effects that you are attempting to create; physics because magic changes the universe, and you cannot change what you do not understand, and logic because the use of magic can effectively be considered to be one complex version of modus ponens and modus tolens. Ah, I see that Mr. Elerias has not completed his reading for today. That's quite all right; I used a scry before class, and I foresaw that almost half of you wouldn't. Assume the phrase, “If p therefore q.” Modus ponens will tell you that when this statement is true and P is true, then Q must also be true. Modus tolens, on the other hand, will look at this statement and tell you that if Q is not true, then it must also be the case that P is not true. From these building blocks, we make magic: cause and effect, that is what all of magic can be considered to be; if the necessary energy for the spell you are attempting to create does not exist, or if the spell was not assembled correctly, then your spell will not do what you are attempting to do. If energy and correct assembly, then spell. E and A, then S. If not S, then either not E or A. Very simple, really.”
-basic speech taught at introductory magical theory 114
Magic in D&D, as it is now, teaches it as a lay-person would understand it. Your wizard studies for an hour in the morning, and later in the afternoon he makes the monster go boom. However, not only has this understanding perpetuated ignorance, it has also over time led to the view that what is more useful should be higher level. The damage spells were the first to be affected (rightly so), because they were based around the concept that what caused more damage must invariably be harder to cast. However, this in, by its nature, a system where the natural laws are ignored. Whereas in our universe, we understand that things are either energy or matter, D&D has created a system involving matter, energy and magic, where something takes more magic to perform if the performed effect is more useful. Along the way, the laws of physics were thrown more or less out the window. Thermodynamics was the first to go; abandoned as soon as one had the ability to “create” anything; water, food and iron come to mind most readily. In addition to this blatant disregard of a law that we knew to be true, these “creation” spells were very easy to cast; the only law that they followed was the obvious one: that if something had only non-combat purposes, it was inherently less useful than if it had combat purposes. In fact, the amount of “magic” that any given spell required came to equal not how much use the spell was intended to have, but how much potential that spell could be exploited to have. This ignored, completely, something that should be a basic understanding of magic, the knowledge that spells are something that alters the laws of physics and logic, and that the difficulty of spell casting should be based upon the knowledge that altering those laws to greater degree should, by all means, be more difficult.
This system, that shall be detailed within, is an attempt to maintain game balance while still holding to some sense of realism. Obviously, one denies most of realism as soon as they begin to discuss magic, but this is no excuse to be lazy when it comes to game building.
The Premises
The current forms of magic in D&D can be reduced to three categories: the unnatural, the natural, and the conduit. The unnatural is the easiest to explain: he is not naturally magical by himself, but he learns defy the laws of the universe through study. In our world, we call them “wizards,” “bookworms” or “I think he goes to MIT.” The natural, by contrast, is naturally magical in himself. This character is the sorcerer who always knew he was special, but then one day he shot fire out of his finger and said to himself, “Oh. So that's why I'm special. It's because I shoot fire out of my fingertips.” He would later learn that he could also shoot it out of his ass to fly, but that's a different story. Other examples include, but are not limited to, spell-like abilities, supernatural abilities and whoever convinced Wizards of the Coast that the Duskblade was balanced. Finally we come to the conduit. He isn't magical at all; he doesn't even claim to be magical; rather, he blatantly and shamelessly admits that he's using someone else's magic. The cleric is the original example of this. His magic increases both as his magical source comes to depend more on him and as his faith expands to the point where he not only hopes but truly comes to believe or expect that his magical source will, on command, part seas for him and turn his walking staff into a snake. When his faith diminishes, we get examples such as “doubting Thomas.” When his faith remains intact but the power simply refuses to come, we get the children's crusade, and we all know how that ended.
Introduction
“Magic cannot be inferred; it cannot be understood, analyzed or manipulated unless one has a firm grasp of mathematics, physics and logic. Mathematics because you will, throughout your studies, be forced to comprehend complex formulae involving large numbers for the effects that you are attempting to create; physics because magic changes the universe, and you cannot change what you do not understand, and logic because the use of magic can effectively be considered to be one complex version of modus ponens and modus tolens. Ah, I see that Mr. Elerias has not completed his reading for today. That's quite all right; I used a scry before class, and I foresaw that almost half of you wouldn't. Assume the phrase, “If p therefore q.” Modus ponens will tell you that when this statement is true and P is true, then Q must also be true. Modus tolens, on the other hand, will look at this statement and tell you that if Q is not true, then it must also be the case that P is not true. From these building blocks, we make magic: cause and effect, that is what all of magic can be considered to be; if the necessary energy for the spell you are attempting to create does not exist, or if the spell was not assembled correctly, then your spell will not do what you are attempting to do. If energy and correct assembly, then spell. E and A, then S. If not S, then either not E or A. Very simple, really.”
-basic speech taught at introductory magical theory 114
Magic in D&D, as it is now, teaches it as a lay-person would understand it. Your wizard studies for an hour in the morning, and later in the afternoon he makes the monster go boom. However, not only has this understanding perpetuated ignorance, it has also over time led to the view that what is more useful should be higher level. The damage spells were the first to be affected (rightly so), because they were based around the concept that what caused more damage must invariably be harder to cast. However, this in, by its nature, a system where the natural laws are ignored. Whereas in our universe, we understand that things are either energy or matter, D&D has created a system involving matter, energy and magic, where something takes more magic to perform if the performed effect is more useful. Along the way, the laws of physics were thrown more or less out the window. Thermodynamics was the first to go; abandoned as soon as one had the ability to “create” anything; water, food and iron come to mind most readily. In addition to this blatant disregard of a law that we knew to be true, these “creation” spells were very easy to cast; the only law that they followed was the obvious one: that if something had only non-combat purposes, it was inherently less useful than if it had combat purposes. In fact, the amount of “magic” that any given spell required came to equal not how much use the spell was intended to have, but how much potential that spell could be exploited to have. This ignored, completely, something that should be a basic understanding of magic, the knowledge that spells are something that alters the laws of physics and logic, and that the difficulty of spell casting should be based upon the knowledge that altering those laws to greater degree should, by all means, be more difficult.
This system, that shall be detailed within, is an attempt to maintain game balance while still holding to some sense of realism. Obviously, one denies most of realism as soon as they begin to discuss magic, but this is no excuse to be lazy when it comes to game building.
The Premises
The current forms of magic in D&D can be reduced to three categories: the unnatural, the natural, and the conduit. The unnatural is the easiest to explain: he is not naturally magical by himself, but he learns defy the laws of the universe through study. In our world, we call them “wizards,” “bookworms” or “I think he goes to MIT.” The natural, by contrast, is naturally magical in himself. This character is the sorcerer who always knew he was special, but then one day he shot fire out of his finger and said to himself, “Oh. So that's why I'm special. It's because I shoot fire out of my fingertips.” He would later learn that he could also shoot it out of his ass to fly, but that's a different story. Other examples include, but are not limited to, spell-like abilities, supernatural abilities and whoever convinced Wizards of the Coast that the Duskblade was balanced. Finally we come to the conduit. He isn't magical at all; he doesn't even claim to be magical; rather, he blatantly and shamelessly admits that he's using someone else's magic. The cleric is the original example of this. His magic increases both as his magical source comes to depend more on him and as his faith expands to the point where he not only hopes but truly comes to believe or expect that his magical source will, on command, part seas for him and turn his walking staff into a snake. When his faith diminishes, we get examples such as “doubting Thomas.” When his faith remains intact but the power simply refuses to come, we get the children's crusade, and we all know how that ended.
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