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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Urriak Uruk" data-source="post: 8051576" data-attributes="member: 7015558">Here's a longer explanation of spellcasting;In 5E, magic honestly isn't split up by "what it does," or "how it works" or even "what it is," there is only one point of separation; "what is the source." The wizard gets magic through studying, the sorcerer gets magic through themselves, and the cleric/warlock from an external god/patron (and the psionicist from the power of their own mind). The other classes if they have spellcasting dip across these various sources depending on the subclass.So in Dark Sun, where magic is restricted, we should think about magic less as restricted by class and more by source. There are no gods, and a lot fewer powerful creatures to act as patrons. There is also no magical weave that wizards or sorcerers can manipulate, so they need a different source. You can still learn how to become a wizard, or be born with power like a sorcerer, but magic still must be filtered through to systems; preserver or defiler.In the Dark Sun lore, the world is essentially brought to its state because the pyreen Rajaat discovered magic through the Pristine Tower, created by the lost halfling civilization (the tower is also responsible for people developing psionic power). Rajaat found two ways to harness magic, preserving and defiling. The former is more mundane and not as powerful, the latter stronger but destructive to the environment.Moving on from lore, it's a problem that some classes wouldn't face penalties for spellcasting (cleric/druid) while the wizard would (either weak preserving or environmentally destructive defiling). So here's my suggestion; that the filter of preserving/defiling be applied to all spellcasting, regardless of source.What this means, is that whenever someone does a spell of any kind, they need to make a choice; will this inflict harm on myself (preserving) or harm on the land/people around me (defiling). The idea being that the ultimate source of this magic is irrelevant; it can be your Sorcerer King patron or your own psionic power. But in order for you to complete the spell, the power required to cast calls for a cost. I know this isn't exactly how perserving worked, but I'd like to keep the two magic forms in parity (preserving being the "good" option as your only harming yourself, not others and the environment).Now exactly what that cost should be I'm not sure; I don't love the idea of it being a direct "You take an extra 1d6 damage for every level" as that's kind of boring and makes spellcasting extremely unattractive. But a table similar to the "curse table" being rolled everytime someone casts a spell would be a great way to add flavor to spellcasting in Dark Sun, while also being a lot more fluid.</blockquote>

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