D&D 5E Wizard Energy

[Phazonfish]

Wizards clearly draw from some finite source of energy, because they can run out of spell slots (ignoring cantrips). Warlocks and clerics presumable have an amount of energy bestowed upon them from their patrons along with the spells themselves. Sorcerers draw upon energy from within themselves. Druids and rangers get their energy from nature (that could probably use some clarification too). What do wizard spell slots represent?

 

[Ancalagon]

I don't think that the source of energy is finite - rather the wizard's capacity to channel it is limited...

More in general, a wizard's access to power is very "free" as in it is completely on his or her terms. She is not beholden to a deity, patron or lucky accident of birth/ancestry (like a sorcerer). It is all power wrested from the multiverse through study, logic and willpower.

 

[Quickleaf]

Agreed.

Magic is limitless, like solar energy or brain capacity.

The Wizard is like a capacitor or maybe the neural webs electricity flows along.

 

[LordEntrails]

I have always envisioned all of the magic-users to be limited by their body and skill.

For instance, a strong man can perform an infinite amount of work (moving a block uphill) if he has an unlimited amount of time, but he can only perform so much work in a given day. Your muscles tire and your stamina runs out. Wizards, clerics, druids are the same. Whatever part of them channels and controls magical energy can only channel so much in a given time. That is what (to me) what spell slots represent.

 

[Phazonfish]

I really like all these explanations, especially LordEntrails'. Thank you all.

 

[ccs]

What do wizard spell slots represent?

Each wizards limited ability to channel magic.

Magic itself is limitless. But an individual can only process so much of it in a day.
The more experienced the wizard, the more magic he can channel.

Kinda like my tolerance for stupid people at work.....

 

[jgsugden]

One homebrews version of wizards allowed wizards unlimited spellcasting, but all spells required a spellcasting check and every spell they cast made the checks harder. A badly failed check resulted in bad spell fumbles. It was fun, but not well balanced and convoluted.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Druids and rangers get their energy from nature (that could probably use some clarification too).

Like The Force, the energy of nature may be vast, but the ability to channel it could be limited.

What do wizard spell slots represent?

Back in they day, they represented energy bound into the casters brain by the act of 'memorizing' the spell (no really, I'm not making that up, even Jack Vance didn't make that up, it was all Gygax).

Today? No telling, really. They no longer erase knowledge of the spell, so they're not 'memorized' and 'forgotten' (like back in the day, or weirdly, according to a fluff side-bar, in 4e) nor 'prepared' and released like magical fireworks mortars as in 3.x/PF. They could represent configurable mana grenades that you shape into the spell you want after you metaphorically pull the pin, or general magic-fatigue (spell points probably work more plausibly for that), or they could be a handy abstraction of all sorts of un-tracked/un-elaborated mystical factors, y'know like 'the stars being right' or 'if I cast that spell now, Sauron will notice,' or 'wefts in the Weave' or 'credit with the auditing department' or whatever.

 

[Soul Stigma]

Wizards clearly draw from some finite source of energy, because they can run out of spell slots (ignoring cantrips). Warlocks and clerics presumable have an amount of energy bestowed upon them from their patrons along with the spells themselves. Sorcerers draw upon energy from within themselves. Druids and rangers get their energy from nature (that could probably use some clarification too). What do wizard spell slots represent?

Traditionally, casting spells is physically and mentally exhausting for wizards (the only arcane class there was, once upon a time), and the prepared spell was "charged" in their memory, waiting to be unleashed. The number of spells per day (spell slots now) reflected the limitations of the caster's body, mind and resolve.

The magical power they pull from is in all things, the fabric of reality, if you will, and is limitless. The limitation is in the physical vessel of the wizard, something they strive to overcome as they gain experience and which is reflected in the increased spells memorized per day.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Today? No telling, really. They no longer erase knowledge of the spell, so they're not 'memorized' and 'forgotten' (like back in the day, or weirdly, according to a fluff side-bar, in 4e) nor 'prepared' and released like magical fireworks mortars as in 3.x/PF. They could represent configurable mana grenades that you shape into the spell you want after you metaphorically pull the pin, or general magic-fatigue (spell points probably work more plausibly for that), or they could be a handy abstraction of all sorts of un-tracked/un-elaborated mystical factors, y'know like 'the stars being right' or 'if I cast that spell now, Sauron will notice,' or 'wefts in the Weave' or 'credit with the auditing department' or whatever.

This is purely subjective, but I favor explanations that don't require so much abstraction. If you want to have a magic system that requires the stars to be right or what-have-you, there are far better rules you could write for doing that than the standard rules in D&D. (And I would love to see a class or variant that uses those rules, someday.) That's not to say that I think the rules have to be a one-to-one simulation of what's going on in the world, of course. Some simplification is inevitable, and greatly to be desired, just as all the complicated things the fighter does are simplified into an attack roll and a few modifiers. But whatever sort of brain-bendingly complex magic the wizard rules are modeling, I would say that three things are true of it: (1) it treats spells as discrete units that (2) are limited primarily by the need to rest and (3) require preparation.