That's kind of the opposite of what I am suggesting.
D&D General Flip or Twist A D&D Cliche
GreyLord
Legend
Your Ranger (with Criminal Background) is actually the Headmaster of the Thieves Guild. They may be a Ranger, but are actually using their abilities as a Rogue. (Urban, break into things, stealing things, robbing others in the city, masterminding how to rob banks...etc).
Haven't seen that one much.
Haven't seen that one much.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Maybe not right at the start at a later point in the campaign it would be in my game, because odds are high one of the PCs would set it on fire within minutes.One time, when I started an adventure with the words, "The party is sitting in a tavern...", one of the players who knew me well immediately asked, "Is it on fire?"
From my current campaign: party is in a tavern. Wisdom-6 mage, who has just acquired a brazier of fire elemental summoning, sits down at the party's table, pulls it out, and says "Let's see how this thing works".....
Or you can go the other direction, and get rid of the "mage" classes: magical power doesn't just come from nowhere, and it doesn't come free. Goes against my stated interest in Charles Atlas Superpowers but it feels more authentic than atheist-rationalist wizards.
Corinnguard
Hero
In the Urban Fantasy Allison Beckstrom series by Devon Monk, magic use does comes with a cost. If a spellcaster in that setting were to cast a spell without setting Disbursement first, they would suffer a short-lived but random aliment like a really bad head cold or sore muscles. Now if they were to set a Disbursement up first, then they could decide what cost they were willing to pay. It would be like someone deciding what Disadvantage they wanted to have ahead of time. "I am going to have my next skill check or my next saving throw at disadvantage."
Another way to pay the cost for casting a spell in this Urban Fantasy setting is to have someone be your Proxy. You get to cast the spell without any issue, but they get to pay the cost in your place. There are people who are willing to be someone else's Proxy. They get paid to be someone else's Proxy. But there are those spellcasters who will make someone into a Proxy without their consent.
Anyhow, I always felt that Spellcasting should be a skill. You are given a DC to cast a spell of a certain level. If you succeed at your spellcasting check, you cast the spell as normal. If you fail at your spellcasting check, then the spell either doesn't work, it backfires on you or you have a moment of Wild Magic.
I absolutely think D&D magic needs some uncertainty and danger, but that is a completely different question than whether the game needs "divine magic."
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
the point though is that if you want to emulate pre-dnd fiction and myth then ALL magic comes from external sources - most of them divine.
The idea of a academic mage with internal power to control magic via formula-sans spiritus, is a modern dnd cliche
Gandalf is Maia (an angel?), Merlin was half-demon, the Scorcerers of Conans Hypoborea were worshippers of Set, others got power from pacts with Fey or Familiar spirits etc etc. of course it really suggest that Warlock should be the only magic class with cleric as celestial-pact
CreamCloud0
One day, I hope to actually play DnD.
so you're saying delete the wizard, it's the sorcerer and warlock is where's it's at? yeah i can definitely get behind that!
(so long as neither of them immediately becomes wizard.2 hiding behind a cheap disguse of 'technically it's not called a wizard')
Last edited:
Corinnguard
Hero
Which is perfect if you want a more modern D&D setting.
As technology progressed alongside science, so did a brand new form of magic. A magic which didn't rely on Nature spirits (Primal Magic) or the Gods (Divine Magic), but on men and women using science-driven magic. 
