Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Kurotowa" data-source="post: 8095268" data-attributes="member: 27957">I see it the other way around. When your DM gives you permission to alter your character sheet by DM fiat, it's a retcon. When there's a game mechanic for swapping your available spells, it reflects something your character does.What I usually do is emphasize that &quot;knowing a spell&quot; isn't at all the same thing as knowing how to roast a turkey or install a motherboard. It means having a complex and delicate magical process suspended and ready to activate at a moment's notice. You're not casting Magic Missile from scratch every time, you're feeding power into the previously prepared formation and letting it activate. So when you swap Magic Missile for Absorb Element, you don't &quot;forget&quot; how Magic Missile works. That sort of abstract magical knowledge is covered by Arcana. What you're doing is tearing apart your Magic Missile spell formation and using the parts to build an Absorb Elements one instead.I find that detailing spells like this makes so many of the D&amp;D mechanics make more sense than treating them as simple learned skills. You can do similar things for martial classes swapping out Maneuvers or Fighting Styles. It's not a retcon, they're not wiping their memory of old skills, they're changing their off-camera daily routine to train different combat techniques. They still know the theory of the other moves, but can only reliably perform the techniques they're staying in constant practice with.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kurotowa, post: 8095268, member: 27957"] I see it the other way around. When your DM gives you permission to alter your character sheet by DM fiat, it's a retcon. When there's a game mechanic for swapping your available spells, it reflects something your character does. What I usually do is emphasize that "knowing a spell" isn't at all the same thing as knowing how to roast a turkey or install a motherboard. It means having a complex and delicate magical process suspended and ready to activate at a moment's notice. You're not casting Magic Missile from scratch every time, you're feeding power into the previously prepared formation and letting it activate. So when you swap Magic Missile for Absorb Element, you don't "forget" how Magic Missile works. That sort of abstract magical knowledge is covered by Arcana. What you're doing is tearing apart your Magic Missile spell formation and using the parts to build an Absorb Elements one instead. I find that detailing spells like this makes so many of the D&D mechanics make more sense than treating them as simple learned skills. You can do similar things for martial classes swapping out Maneuvers or Fighting Styles. It's not a retcon, they're not wiping their memory of old skills, they're changing their off-camera daily routine to train different combat techniques. They still know the theory of the other moves, but can only reliably perform the techniques they're staying in constant practice with. [/QUOTE]

Verification