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<blockquote data-quote="Bluebell" data-source="post: 8782844" data-attributes="member: 7034545">That does make complete sense, and I can see how that would act as a hard limiter on magic in the world, particularly wizards (requiring both innate ability AND wealth). And depending on how rare you decide to make that spark, I feel like this question kind of answers itself: if magic is mostly hereditary, then yeah, it's probably a common element among the ruling class and therefore your world leaders are almost certainly going to be casters. On the other hand, if that &quot;spark&quot; is so rare as to be extremely uncommon, then there might not be enough magic users to really consider them a social class, and it would be hard to maintain generational power if family lines can't reliably inherit the ability. To me, magic is so variable between the classes in terms of the source that the individual is drawing from that it makes more sense that some types of magic are accessible to the average person and others aren't. Clerics and paladins gain their magic from their belief -- and sure, for many, that belief will never translate into functional magic -- but why shouldn't someone with intense belief in their god be able to pray and meditate long enough to tap into a couple cantrips and a low-level spell? There are other kinds of magic that explicitly come from one's birth -- sorcerers, of course, but also certain races such as genasi have their own innate spells. I prefer to draw a contrast between those innate kinds of magic and ones that come from other sources. That's a good point, it makes sense that NPCs simply don't work the way that PCs do. I'm really just using the classes as a basis point in this discussion since that's sort of the agreed-upon canon that we can look to.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bluebell, post: 8782844, member: 7034545"] That does make complete sense, and I can see how that would act as a hard limiter on magic in the world, particularly wizards (requiring both innate ability AND wealth). And depending on how rare you decide to make that spark, I feel like this question kind of answers itself: if magic is mostly hereditary, then yeah, it's probably a common element among the ruling class and therefore your world leaders are almost certainly going to be casters. On the other hand, if that "spark" is so rare as to be extremely uncommon, then there might not be enough magic users to really consider them a social class, and it would be hard to maintain generational power if family lines can't reliably inherit the ability. To me, magic is so variable between the classes in terms of the source that the individual is drawing from that it makes more sense that some types of magic are accessible to the average person and others aren't. Clerics and paladins gain their magic from their belief -- and sure, for many, that belief will never translate into functional magic -- but why shouldn't someone with intense belief in their god be able to pray and meditate long enough to tap into a couple cantrips and a low-level spell? There are other kinds of magic that explicitly come from one's birth -- sorcerers, of course, but also certain races such as genasi have their own innate spells. I prefer to draw a contrast between those innate kinds of magic and ones that come from other sources. That's a good point, it makes sense that NPCs simply don't work the way that PCs do. I'm really just using the classes as a basis point in this discussion since that's sort of the agreed-upon canon that we can look to. [/QUOTE]

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