How Do You Explain Spontaneous Spellcasters In Your Campaign?

[victorysaber]

Well, as the title says. And also because I just reread Dragon 280, when sorcerers were way cool dragon-descended dudes.

At least for my campaign, sorcerers and mystics (spontaneous clerics) are descendants of dragons and outsiders, respectively. Bards can do the spontaneous magic thing because of music and song. The rest just study or pray.

But what do YOU do?

 

[Mouseferatu]

I tend to treat wizardry and sorcery as simply two different courses of magical study. Sorcerers do not "arise" any more spontaneously or naturally than wizards. One simply learns a narrower variety of spells than the other, but learns them so well they can cast multiple times without advanced preparation.

If I want someone whose magical abilities are truly the result of enheritance or blood, I go for the warlock or... I forget the name, but the draconic warlock equivalent in Dragon Magic.

 

[Sound of Azure]

For my homebrew setting, spontaneous casters are explained in the following ways:

Sorcerers: People who have consumed the essence of a spirit. This happens in one of three ways:
1) By defeating a spirit creature in physical combat, then eating its remains.
2) By undertaking ceremonial battle of will against against a spirit creature, who if defeated surrenders its essence to the prospective sorcerer.
or
3) A spirit creature who tried to displace the sorcerer's spirit while the sorcerer was in the womb. The spirit was defeated by the mother's spirit, and merged with the spirit of her child.

Favoured Souls: Descended from one of the god-spirit races. Naga decended favoured souls gain alternate class features compared to the normal class, but the Garuda descended ones are normal.

Spirit Shamans: enter pacts with spirits to gain their power.

I don't have any other spontaneous casters in my campaign setting at the moment, though I'm considering revising that restriction due to the influx of "foreign" people into the setting. There might be new forms of magic from these regions.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I guess I never liked the whole idea of 'descended from dragons' as an idea for a variety of reasons. I found a better way to approach sorcerers was the idea of a strange a mysterious bunch. They can be mistrusted and feared like mutants in the old approach of Marvel Comics.

 

[James Heard]

I don't worry about. However the players justify it is alright, just as long as they realize that their version isn't the only truth either.

 

[hopeless]

Regarding sorcerors

Well I have always tried to go towards having some kind of explanation for their abilities unfortunately in the games I've run a sorceror in the dm has viewed them as being entirely dependent on scrolls and wizards for spells ignoring the fact its supposed to be an entirely different character class kile the druid is to the cleric and please do not get me started on that abomination of a class known as the Favoured Soul or as I prefer to call it the other half of the sorceror class they split up just so they wouldn't have everyone going for a class that can call upon both arcane and divine spells as part of their known spells and would have d6 for hp even though wizards are supposed to have d4 for hp because they're indoors studying all day whilst the sorceror doesn't have to... so if thats actually the case why yhe heck does it still hve a d4 HD?
Hmmm....

When i ran the game the first time I allows the sorceror a d6 hd, 3 bonus class skills and ignored the rule they are dependent on another class for their spells, the second time i ran it under living greyhawk rules so reverted to type and the third time didn't even bother.

Guess I'm not sticking to my guns...

Take care and all the best!

 

[DragonLancer]

Sorcerers in my campaign are from one of two possible sources.

Dragon Bloodied. Somewhere in the individual's ancestry there is a dragon or dragon-kin.

Demonic Investment. Since I don't like the idea of demons having clerics, they instead can invest their cults with arcane power.

 

[Herobizkit]

Personally, I've abolished non-spontaneous spellcasters in my games. We've always run clerics/wizards as spontaneous spellcasters ever since 1st edition, so it's nothing new to my group.

We've been working here and there on making the ACTUAL spontaneous spellcasters have more oomph for having a more limited spell choice. I suggested that the Sorcerer and Favoured Soul receive metamagic feats at the same rate as warriors gain combat feats, and they don't suffer the full-round penalties for using metamagic versions of their spells. Thoughts?

 

[Ravellion]

I only have wizards as prepared spellcasters. The rest are all spontaneous as per the Unearted Arcana rules. So the question and explanation become different: "Why do wizards cast their spells after preparing them first?" "Because they learned their magic through formulas and ritual".

 

[Aaron L]

In my campaign, Sorcerers have to study and learn just as much as Wizards do, but not as much with books so much as with meditation and internal reflection. There are very close ties between Sorcery and Psionics in my game world. There is an inborn quality to it that needs to be called fourth, usually from ties to Outsider blood, unlike Wizardry which anyone of sufficient intelligence can learn.


But I despise the idea of Sorcerers being descended from dragons. Dragons are done to death, in my opinion. I've never really had that much liking for them.

Outsiders, on the other hand, I love dearly. Give me a Demon or a Devil over a Dragon any day of the week.