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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6194002" data-attributes="member: 2067">But then, what qualifies one to be a &quot;mage?&quot; Are hexblades included? What about swordmages? Bladedancers? Rangers who take a 1e &quot;arcane magic&quot; style option? How about druids or clerics who take Gandalf as their primary inspiration? Priests of the god of magic? Rogues patterned after &quot;detectives&quot; who use divination magic? What about illusionists who don't normally cast the spell? Arcane tricksters? Arcane Archers?The distinction becomes functionally meaningless in practice. What falls into the &quot;mage&quot; bucket is essentially arbitrary, without relevance to the characters that people play. At least &quot;If you can cast Magic Missile...&quot; is a clear mechanical and fictional criteria, and it opens it up to a Fighter, Thief, Assassin, Druid, Cleric, or Barbarian who takes a hypothetical &quot;Arcane Student&quot; feat (that gives them a few cantrips), regardless of which class they take. I mean, why give Character X some advantage or benefit just because they checked the right box at character creation, and prohibit Character Z from getting that same benefit because they didn't? Whether or not you cast the Magic Missile spell might be relevant for whether or not you can use the Wand of Magic Missiles, but it says jack all about HD size, armor proficiency, role in the world, or if you should be able to qualify for metamagic feats. It's not exactly orthogonal, because that's among the reasons mearls gave for why class groups are useful. But I don't see their utility from that. There's no benefit to saying &quot;All mages automatically use Magic Missile from this wand, and everyone else has to make an INT check,&quot; because it still relies on the essentially meaningless border-guarding of what a &quot;mage&quot; is and is not. If you said &quot;Those who know Magic Missile can use it automatically from this wand, and everyone else has to make an INT check,&quot; that'd be better. If you said, &quot;Everyone can use Magic Missile from this wand, but remember that DMs can impose restrictions for any reason&quot; I'd be pretty much totally satisfied, but that's a little &quot;un-D&amp;D.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6194002, member: 2067"] But then, what qualifies one to be a "mage?" Are hexblades included? What about swordmages? Bladedancers? Rangers who take a 1e "arcane magic" style option? How about druids or clerics who take Gandalf as their primary inspiration? Priests of the god of magic? Rogues patterned after "detectives" who use divination magic? What about illusionists who don't normally cast the spell? Arcane tricksters? Arcane [I]Archers?[I] The distinction becomes functionally meaningless in practice. What falls into the "mage" bucket is essentially arbitrary, without relevance to the characters that people play. At least "If you can cast Magic Missile..." is a clear mechanical and fictional criteria, and it opens it up to a Fighter, Thief, Assassin, Druid, Cleric, or Barbarian who takes a hypothetical "Arcane Student" feat (that gives them a few cantrips), regardless of which class they take. I mean, why give Character X some advantage or benefit just because they checked the right box at character creation, and prohibit Character Z from getting that same benefit because they didn't? Whether or not you cast the [I]Magic Missile[/I] spell might be relevant for whether or not you can use the [I]Wand of Magic Missiles[/I], but it says jack all about HD size, armor proficiency, role in the world, or if you should be able to qualify for metamagic feats. It's not exactly orthogonal, because that's among the reasons mearls gave for why class groups are useful. But I don't see their utility from that. There's no benefit to saying "All mages automatically use Magic Missile from this wand, and everyone else has to make an INT check," because it still relies on the essentially meaningless border-guarding of what a "mage" is and is not. If you said "Those who know Magic Missile can use it automatically from this wand, and everyone else has to make an INT check," that'd be better. If you said, "Everyone can use Magic Missile from this wand, but remember that DMs can impose restrictions for any reason" I'd be pretty much totally satisfied, but that's a little "un-D&D."[/I][/I] [/QUOTE]

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