Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 7673810" data-attributes="member: 5100">I agree with most of what you say, here. Any quibbles I have aren't worth exploring. Most of the middle of you post is very much in line with what I said, earlier, about why trying to nail down the in-game "how" of D&D magic is a fool's errand. It's a rules structure, first, and a reflection of the narrative fiction, second.Specific example from my campaign setting, which started in 1E: Wizards, Clerics, and Druids are all different.Wizards are actually doing the whole spell thing. Not much more really needs said.Clerics don't cast spells. They petition their gods for intervention and miracles. Based on explicit passages in 1E AD&D, the god (or his agents) give a general indication of the type of aide they'll provide that day, but they're free to change it up, at time of casting because, well, divine choice. Since most of the favors being offered will be done by intermediaries or raw faith, the contract is generally followed. When the cleric "casts" her spell, it isn't a chunk of Weave that's set off; it's actual intervention of an angel or some lesser agent -- in the case of the highest level spells, it might actually be the god, but there are only a few clerics in the world capable of those.Druids are animists (this is home brew, but totally within flavor of RAW up to 5E). They don't deal with gods. They deal with the spirits of the world. If you follow a god, you're a cleric, not a druid. Clear, yet? Druids don't use spells in the wizardly fashion, either, though. Instead, they spend their prep time communing with the anima and striking bargains for future favors. These favors get transferred to local spirits wherever the druid decides to call on them. Again, no weave. Just anima performing acts for the druid.Why does dispel magic work across sources? Shut up! It's a game and done for balance. Maybe the same disruptive energies shock the anima or there's an ancient agreement that intervention must have limits to avoid a direct war among the gods. I don't really care because the above descriptions of wizard, cleric, and druid are more detailed than any player in 30+ years of play has ever wanted. If I ever find one that does care, I'll worry about it, then.As a bonus, psions are inherently magic. They pretty much work with the same energy as the wizards because, honestly, I didn't see any point in having two different pockets of random energy floating around to be shaped. That's not the important part of psionics. The important part is that these folks are self-powered -- at least enough that they can give a healthy shove to "the force/the weave/Sven". They don't need the rote methodology of the wizard, but they aren't dependent upon the gods or anima, either. They want something to happen and it does. What does that say about their humanity -- or the divinity of the so-called gods? Sure, wild talents may not have the breadth or depth of a celestial or god, but the fact is that someone who really pushes it can practically use his own bootstraps to become a demigod. What if that's only the surface of the secrets out there?In practice, most people who play psionics do so either because a) they want to focus on some other class, but want a single cool power or b) like magic, like D&D, but don't care for the pain of slots. All the other conversation is somewhat moot to most folks. In fact, I'm not sure that 5E doesn't handle both these cases out of the PHB with a combination of Magic Initiate and either Warlock or the refined preparation rules for other casters. Everything else is a victim of the 80/20 rule.</blockquote>

Verification