D&D 5E 5e has everything it needs for Dark Sun

[Steampunkette]

If Paladin features or Eldritch Knight features are suppressed by an antimagic zone, then Psi Knight features are also suppressed by an antimagic zone.

Weapon Bond​

At 3rd level, you learn a ritual that creates a magical bond between yourself and one weapon.

Dead in a Beholder's Gaze.

Meanwhile, pop open your Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to page 43 and look through allll the abilities for "Spell" or "Magic". You'll find 1.

Telekinesis. At 18.

The rest? Function in an Anti-Magic field 'cause they're not magic. At least according to Jeremy Crawford and Mike Mearls.

 

[Maxperson]

Eh.

That is a level of detail about what happens that is too much, IMO.

The function of defiling is best kept abstract for DMs to describe as they desire.

This is what 2e says about defiling magic and it is sufficient in my opinion.

"With every spell cast, a defiler leeches the life-energy out of the plants and soil around him, leaving a lifeless zone."

It also causes pain in beings caught in the area. Life energy doesn't seem like water to me. I wonder when that change happened.

 

[Steampunkette]

This is what 2e says about defiling magic and it is sufficient in my opinion.

"With every spell cast, a defiler leeches the life-energy out of the plants and soil around him, leaving a lifeless zone."

It also causes pain in beings caught in the area. Life energy doesn't seem like water to me. I wonder when that change happened.

Water is life. Don't have enough? You die. So does every plant and animal you meet.

Lots of cultures hold to the idea that water itself gives life, or -is- life.

But for Dark Sun? The Earth, Air, Fire, and Water book for Dark Sun in 2e.

Still, they perform the age-old functions of water as healer and bringer of life. Since their creation, the patient water lords poured their very souls over the land, knowing that the land would eventually be saturated with their life giving liquids. They had not counted on the mass destruction caused by the defilers. Their evil spells turned everything to ash, and all ambient moisture was lost. And this was new. Water had evaporated, frozen, boiled, and passed through the systems of a billion beings, but it had never before been destroyed.

 

[Maxperson]

Water is life. Don't have enough? You die. So does every plant and animal you meet.

It's not energy. Defiling magic expressly uses life energy. And if you remove water from an area, you can water it again and grow more plants. Defiling magic prevents that, so it isn't just water in any case.

 

[Steampunkette]

It's not energy. Defiling magic expressly uses life energy. And if you remove water from an area, you can water it again and grow more plants. Defiling magic prevents that, so it isn't just water in any case.

It's not ONLY water. But it absolutely -includes- water.

Defiling destroys life and water. So I'd probably rule that it destroys water within a specific range based on the level of the spell. It comes with a cost, after all.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

This is what 2e says about defiling magic and it is sufficient in my opinion.

"With every spell cast, a defiler leeches the life-energy out of the plants and soil around him, leaving a lifeless zone."

It also causes pain in beings caught in the area. Life energy doesn't seem like water to me. I wonder when that change happened.

The “defiling leeches life-energy” has been burned in my memories, too. I suppose there is a case to be made that “water is necessary for life therefore water is life energy”. Elemental water = life energy feels unnecessary in a way that end up creating second order questions that are a distraction.

It may be a poor analogy, but equating life energy to elemental water gave me vibes of describing “The Force” with midi-chlorians. It’s … not an improvement.

 

[Yaarel]

Psionics=Magic

"D&D has many forms of magic, each of which can manifest through spells and without spells. This is true whether the magic is arcane, divine, psionic, or something else."

Sage Advice
Crawford 2019

The 1st and 2nd mystic UAs said that "psionics and magic are two distinct forces". The 3rd changed it to "psionics is a special form of magic use, distinct from spellcasting". Now, it seems there is arcane, divine and psionic spellcasting. Personally, I think the 3rd did it best.
— Millstone85 (@Stonemill1985) November 30, 2019

D&D has many forms of magic, each of which can manifest through spells and without spells. This is true whether the magic is arcane, divine, psionic, or something else. For example, the mind flayer has psionic abilities that are spells and others that are not. #DnD https://t.co/9YkyAce9nE
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 30, 2019

 

[Maxperson]

It's not ONLY water. But it absolutely -includes- water.

Defiling destroys life and water. So I'd probably rule that it destroys water within a specific range based on the level of the spell. It comes with a cost, after all.

There were rules in the 2e book about how much area each spell level defiled.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

If Paladin features or Eldritch Knight features are suppressed by an antimagic zone, then Psi Knight features are also suppressed by an antimagic zone.

Dead in a Beholder's Gaze.

Meanwhile, pop open your Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to page 43 and look through allll the abilities for "Spell" or "Magic". You'll find 1.

Telekinesis. At 18.

The rest? Function in an Anti-Magic field 'cause they're not magic. At least according to Jeremy Crawford and Mike Mearls.

Its worth noting that a lot of Paladin and eldritch Knight features aren't "magical".
Paladins can heal, Eldritch knights can teleport. Wizards can transmute matter, create illusions, teleport etc without using magic.

I think that some of the issues of the current discussion are caused by some using the word 'magic' to describe a supernatural effect called into being to perform, a change in reality, and some are using the word to only in its rules mechanics definition.

So: What is a good word to describe healing, teleportation, etc that isn't magic?
Would 'supernatural' do?

 

[Steampunkette]

Psionics=Magic

"D&D has many forms of magic, each of which can manifest through spells and without spells. This is true whether the magic is arcane, divine, psionic, or something else."

Sage Advice
Crawford 2019

2019...


2020.

Either he changed his mind between 2019 and 2020, or Anti-Magic Fields only affect -some- magics.

So it's less "Anti-Magic" and more "Anti-Magic-Items-Spells-And-Explicitly-Magical-Class-Abilities Field"

YMMV.

Yeah. Just gonna trash the Weave naughty word, entirely, in every setting I ever do. It clearly doesn't work, even for the designers who wrote it in the first place!