Yaarel
Mind Mage
D&D traditions are highly conflictive with each other. It is the job of each DM to makes sense of the contradictions as best one can.Yaarel, I've read lots of your posts about your home game's lore and underpinnings of your universe, and I can't help but clearly recognize that they are personal ideas that you seem to call out as truths, or state as facts for the game. What you are describing is not the lore of D&D to me, so I just look at your ideas and consider them on their own merits and what potential value they bring to me. Maybe because D&D has tried all kinds of potential lore, and I view that old lore the same way. What can it add to my own game?
The "rulebook jargon" is actually the official description of D&D magic from the perspective of a character in the setting. For example, a "slot" is a packet of magical energy.Also, because this thread is about in-game narrative, what is a sorcerer actually saying if they use the word "slot"? A slot of what? To me, that word has no relevance to me in magic lore, rather it is just rulebook jargon.
D&D spells have discrete amounts of power. For example, a Wizard who is level 5 can only cast spells of 3 and lower, and cannot cast spells of 4 or higher.
The ingame universe recognizes these peculiar properties of magic.
A "slot" refers to these discrete amounts of magic. From the perspective of a Wizard character, the scrolls and codices about magic refer to terms like "level" and "slot", when describing how magic works.
In 5e, the 2014 Players Handbook mentions the "Arcane" and "Divine" power sources and that the Forgotten Realms setting (only) describes the concept of a "Weave". In FR, both Arcane and Divine use the power of the Weave.Where does it say again in 5E that Psionics is a different source, rather a different way to access one of the known sources? Also, Primal does not seem to me a "Mind" power, any more or less than Divine is. Primal is the Primal forces of Nature.
Meanwhile, the 2014 Monster Manual mentions "Psionics", and defines it as a kind of "innate spellcasting" "using only the power of its mind". In other words, psionics is a kind of magic but doesnt use the power of the Weave.
The Primal power source actually doesnt appear in 2014. However, it is thematically present, later 5e books develop its themes via Druid and Barbarian, and the current UA playtests for 2024 explicitly make Primal a different power source, separate from Divine and Arcane.
So far, 5e officially ahs four power sources: Arcane and Divine, and Psionic and Primal.
Also, because this thread is about in-game narrative, what is a sorcerer actually saying if they use the word "slot"? A slot of what? To me, that word has no relevance to me in magic lore, rather it is just rulebook jargon.
In fact, just off the top of my head, I would rather call Bard spell levels "grooves" because at least thematically, grooves are slot-like, and records have grooves that the needle follows. Why doesn't a bard synch with a "groove" of magic, join the melody, and manipulate magic from those metaphysical vibrations? ... That's actually pretty cool to me.