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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9599216" data-attributes="member: 2067">This design's premise is that, at least at high levels, we are going to embrace magic. That D&D is a game about magical characters doing magical things with magic, and that if you want a grittier game with lower stakes and more grounded kinds of fantasy, you're going to want to fit that in about the first 5-10 levels. Once you're slaying elder dragons and pit fiends and whatever, we're gonna assume you're doing that with magical help, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.That may very well be a non-starter for some folks, but the reason I trotted it out there is to see if it really was.It seems like it has a bit of traction, more than I thought it would, so I'd wager it's an avenue with exploring. It is a pretty big change from the assumptions of 5e, but since it relies on class features, it's not impossible to put it in the game as it is today...I think our difference is one of narrative more than one of effect, really. For me, there's too much semantic debate in the "what is magic and what isn't magic and what does that IMPLY?!" rabbit-hole. To me it resembles an argument about genre, and genre is fundamentally vibes-based and fuzzy at the edges (and endlessly debated on the internet, so here we are!).The proposed design tests the appetite for explicit magic by turning the magic from something "fighters can do with training" to something that fighters get via equipment that they exclusively can use (and are assured of getting). Turning the narrative to something with a bit more D&D historical cred and which raises fewer worldbuilding questions. We all grok magic items, and even exclusive magic items (holy avengers and whatnot) and even magic items of colossal narrative power.Are we OK with fighters doing magical things if we justify it in a way that's a little more...bald? A little less worried about semantics, and just says, yeah, it's magic (magic items!).I'm a little surprised at the harmony that proposal has managed to create, but excited by it!There are hiccups......but I don't think any of this is insurmountable.When D&D moved from "wizards find and research spells" to "wizards get spells when they gain levels," the justification was just...study. Off-screen downtime. For clerics, it's even easier, since the spells are deemed to be more like "gifts" from the divine. Wisdom is just the capacity to use these gifts; level is just what the deities use to help "prove" you can be trusted with those gifts.This is all pretty metagamey, but the game more or less accepted it.For D&D to move from "fighters find magic gear" to "fighters get magic gear when they gain levels," the justification can be just as simple. "I was forging this in my down-time." Or, "I was grabbing magical resources from all of the magical places we've visited - wood from they Feywild and stone from that cave warped by the aberration cult." Or, "While Jozan was busy praying, I was studying this blade, and I think I've made it +1!"Rogues can be similar. "I was honing this blade in my down-time." Or, "Guess what I nicked from that dragon's hoard?" or, "Guess I'm the favorite of the god of luck, 'cuz look what I made?"I imagine we can do even better if we workshop it a bit, but I suspect the idea's got legs enough.Putting magical gear into the hands of class features lets us diversify it in effect as much as we need to in order to feel like we're "sufficient." As much as I roll my eyes at the fad of "use the Warlock class design for everything!", you could see the shape of it there. Always-on abilities for things with passive effects; spend a limited resource on more powerful things that comes back on a short rest; you can take different paths as a melee or ranged character....We can just lock it to class, just like spells are. Martial characters know their gear and rely on it in a way that spellcasters simply do not understand. Testing out a shape, what if we had something like...Legendary GearAt 3rd level, you begin to discover storied items with grand legacies who recognize you as a potential hero of destiny. Legendary gear is magical, and how you have discovered it is up to you - perhaps you found the item on one of your recent adventures, or maybe a mundane piece of equipment you have was transformed into legendary gear by a blessing or by being suddenly inhabited by a spirit. Legendary gear that you have only works for you. In anyone else's hands, the legendary gear is simply a mundane piece of equipment. When this feature gives you a piece of legendary gear, you can select it from your class's list of legendary gear. If you are multiclassed, you can access additional lists. Each piece of legendary gear describes how it works. A fighter's weapon might look like...If a paladin picks up this sword, the magic just...doesn't work. Why not? Well, they're not a Fighter who has selected this. The Paladin couldn't cast a spell the party Cleric had on their list, either. The paladin's skill with longswords isn't like the fighter's - the fighter understands this weapon and how to coax the fire from it in a way the paladin simply cannot. The iconic flaming effect relies on spending Action Surge uses, which I don't think everything should do, but gives us a way to limit per-day use that also reinforces the link to the class.A rogue's bit of kit might look like this....If the party druid equips this armor, it's just a normal suit of studded leather armor. A rogue, though...they know leather. They trust it with their lives. The magic responds to that intimacy and trust in a way that the druid can never really duplicate. Even if the Druid was proficient in Stealth, they couldn't coax the same magic from this armor. And a Fighter? Maybe an Archer-type who would employ light armor? They still aren't as deeply connected to the powers of this. Heck, they don't even know the name of the famous assassin!Making the powers explicitly magical (rather than debatably magical) means we can get away with a lot in terms of out-of-character moments with a little bit of "any good reason."</blockquote>

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