Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
The origins of the D&D 5e spellcasting classes are ad hoc. The power sources help systematize and disambiguate them.
The earliest spellclaster is the D&D "Magic-User", contrasting the "Fighting-Man". This mage intended to be a caster of any and every kind of magic, including sorcerer, warlock, wizard, witch, etcetera. The Cleric was intentionally a part-caster gish, wearing the vestments of the knightly crusader military orders, including Hospitaller and Templar, but actually deriving from Van Hellsing contra Dracula as its inspiration, whence the antipathy against Undead. This conceptual amalgam evolved into a healbot and support class, while also a tough warrior. As the dedicated healer, the Cleric class "stole" the Magic-User access to the healing spells. The Druid split from a kind of Cleric dedicated to nature, ambiguously referring to animism, and at the same time psionics formed part of Original D&D. Later, AD&D 1e will have the Magic-User as the full-caster, plus the part-casters Cleric and Druid, and featlike psionics. The Bard enters as a complex gishy and roguish prestige class. The Fighting-Man whence Fighter also included subclasses that dabbled in magic. Originally, the term "gish" originated as a title of an officer in a Githyanki military that multiclassed Fighter/Magic-User, but served as the nickname for any multiclass, subclass, or base class that is both part-caster and part-warrior.
Fast forward to 5e 2024. There are six, potentially eight, full spellcasters. The Magic-User, now Wizard, never stopped being the everymagic full-caster, despite many other full-casters now in play. The Warlock and Sorcerer originated earlier because of a demand for an alternative mechanics for spellcasting. Now the 5e Wizard is the 3e Sorcerer with spontaneous spellcasting mechanics. Hence the 5e Sorcerer class lacks in both flavor and mechanics, while its official flavor entangles ambiguously both Wizard and Warlock. The Warlock continues alternate mechanics for spellcasting but also has distinctive flavor of ill-gotten magic from a dangerous otherworldly patron. Albeit the mechanics avoid substantiating this flavor in order to ensure player autonomy. The Druid is an amalgam of animal shapeshifter and healer, along with elemental weather magic. The Cleric is a full spellcaster, that is a combat tough healer. The Bard is a full spellcaster, specializing in mind magic, spacetime magic, and body magic, along with a roguish aspect. In addition to these current six, the Psion class seems in progress to adapt the 3e Psion full-caster rather than the 2e Psionicist gish. Plus, the 4e Swordmage class is conceptually distinct as a full spellcaster whose spell range is melee. In this sense, the Swordmage differs from a part-caster gish. These eight spellcasters evolved at different times for different reasons, and ambiguously entangle each other in both flavor and mechanics.
For the purpose of disambiguating these eight mages, the power sources can be useful. The spellcasters correlate wellenough to the four main power sources for magic: arcane-divine and psionic-primal.
Arcane: Wizard, Swordmage.
Divine: Cleric, Warlock.
Psionic: Psion, Bard.
Primal: Druid, Sorcerer.
Here the Warlock patron resembles a Cleric patron, to a degree that the Warlock functions as if a darkside Cleric with forbidden knowledge. But also, this shared Divine power source, relatedly correlates the Astral Plane, with its Celestials, Fiends, and Anti-Astral Aberration. The "aster" is a platonic realm of ideals, a mindscape made out of thoughtstuff, forming information constructs. It forms the blueprints for how the Material Plane is constructed. The divine power source relates to words of creation. Mages attune the aster via the linguistic magic of symbols, archetypes, paradigms, prayer, mantras, oaths, cultures, and sacred communities. Even the name Warlock, literally "oath breaker", implies this divine magic of oaths.
Splitting the Sorcerer away from the Wizard and Warlock, does much to begin the process of individuating its own identity. The primal power source is the animistic nature beings of the Material Plane, and by extention its Ethereal overlap, Elemental landscapes, seascapes, and skyscapes, plus the otherworld Feywild and Shadowfell. The elements include earth, water, air, fire, as states of matter, plus ether being force, and plant as a kind of living element emerging from the other five. These related planes are somehow aspects "inside" the Material Plane of the natural world. A primal Sorcerer transmits the natures of fire and elemental chaos, and the bloodlines of Dragons and Giants. Often the innate magic of a Sorcerer is or becomes an animistic nature being.
Both primal Material and divine Astral correlate planar affinity. Arguably, the primal Sorcerer might gain the Fey and Undead affinities, and the Warlock lose them. Conversely, the divine Warlock might keep its Aberration and gain the Mechanus Clockwork, and the Sorcerer lose them. However, because these are the affinities of subclasses, it is reasonable for a subclass to dabble in flavors elsewhere beyond the base class. Even so, the primal Sorcerer of the Material magic, versus the divine Warlock of Astral magic, do well to contrast each other. In some places, primal shamanic animism is called "the old way", in contrast to divine priestly theism called "the new way". The Sorcerer is a being of the old way. The Warlock is a darkside of the new way.
The Bard can be interpreted variously as arcane (3e and 4e), divine (healer), and primal (1e Druid). Most clearly the Bard is psionic, manifesting the innate magic of the "soul" of an artist, for telepathic influence, metamorphic healing and shapeshifting, and spacetime teleportation and prescience. Contrasting each other, the Bard and the Psion are different kinds of psionic spellcasters. Psionics is the innate magic of a soul. Necessarily, psionic is innately ones own soul, and never depends on material components nor external forces. A soul includes various levels, the bodily aura of lifeforce, the self identity of spirit, and the transcendent existential consciousness.
When these other spellcasting classes individuate their own clear separate identities, the Wizard can finally be a Wizard, instead of the everymagic caster. Arcane magic is protoscience with the weird formulas and impersonal precisions of science. Possibly, a Wizard has zero innate magic. All of the sympathetic magic is external. It is the magic of material components: different objects have different properties, like how a magnet picks up iron. It is the magic of somatic components: different bodyparts correspond sympathetically with various strary constellations. Various ingredients and ceremonies combine to articulate and manipulate specific processes. Arcane is the science of microcosm-macrocosm. Both Wizard and Swordmage are equally arcane, while the Wizard is artillary attacking at a distance, and Swordmage the heavy infantry attacking upclose and personal.
The earliest spellclaster is the D&D "Magic-User", contrasting the "Fighting-Man". This mage intended to be a caster of any and every kind of magic, including sorcerer, warlock, wizard, witch, etcetera. The Cleric was intentionally a part-caster gish, wearing the vestments of the knightly crusader military orders, including Hospitaller and Templar, but actually deriving from Van Hellsing contra Dracula as its inspiration, whence the antipathy against Undead. This conceptual amalgam evolved into a healbot and support class, while also a tough warrior. As the dedicated healer, the Cleric class "stole" the Magic-User access to the healing spells. The Druid split from a kind of Cleric dedicated to nature, ambiguously referring to animism, and at the same time psionics formed part of Original D&D. Later, AD&D 1e will have the Magic-User as the full-caster, plus the part-casters Cleric and Druid, and featlike psionics. The Bard enters as a complex gishy and roguish prestige class. The Fighting-Man whence Fighter also included subclasses that dabbled in magic. Originally, the term "gish" originated as a title of an officer in a Githyanki military that multiclassed Fighter/Magic-User, but served as the nickname for any multiclass, subclass, or base class that is both part-caster and part-warrior.
Fast forward to 5e 2024. There are six, potentially eight, full spellcasters. The Magic-User, now Wizard, never stopped being the everymagic full-caster, despite many other full-casters now in play. The Warlock and Sorcerer originated earlier because of a demand for an alternative mechanics for spellcasting. Now the 5e Wizard is the 3e Sorcerer with spontaneous spellcasting mechanics. Hence the 5e Sorcerer class lacks in both flavor and mechanics, while its official flavor entangles ambiguously both Wizard and Warlock. The Warlock continues alternate mechanics for spellcasting but also has distinctive flavor of ill-gotten magic from a dangerous otherworldly patron. Albeit the mechanics avoid substantiating this flavor in order to ensure player autonomy. The Druid is an amalgam of animal shapeshifter and healer, along with elemental weather magic. The Cleric is a full spellcaster, that is a combat tough healer. The Bard is a full spellcaster, specializing in mind magic, spacetime magic, and body magic, along with a roguish aspect. In addition to these current six, the Psion class seems in progress to adapt the 3e Psion full-caster rather than the 2e Psionicist gish. Plus, the 4e Swordmage class is conceptually distinct as a full spellcaster whose spell range is melee. In this sense, the Swordmage differs from a part-caster gish. These eight spellcasters evolved at different times for different reasons, and ambiguously entangle each other in both flavor and mechanics.
For the purpose of disambiguating these eight mages, the power sources can be useful. The spellcasters correlate wellenough to the four main power sources for magic: arcane-divine and psionic-primal.
Arcane: Wizard, Swordmage.
Divine: Cleric, Warlock.
Psionic: Psion, Bard.
Primal: Druid, Sorcerer.
Here the Warlock patron resembles a Cleric patron, to a degree that the Warlock functions as if a darkside Cleric with forbidden knowledge. But also, this shared Divine power source, relatedly correlates the Astral Plane, with its Celestials, Fiends, and Anti-Astral Aberration. The "aster" is a platonic realm of ideals, a mindscape made out of thoughtstuff, forming information constructs. It forms the blueprints for how the Material Plane is constructed. The divine power source relates to words of creation. Mages attune the aster via the linguistic magic of symbols, archetypes, paradigms, prayer, mantras, oaths, cultures, and sacred communities. Even the name Warlock, literally "oath breaker", implies this divine magic of oaths.
Splitting the Sorcerer away from the Wizard and Warlock, does much to begin the process of individuating its own identity. The primal power source is the animistic nature beings of the Material Plane, and by extention its Ethereal overlap, Elemental landscapes, seascapes, and skyscapes, plus the otherworld Feywild and Shadowfell. The elements include earth, water, air, fire, as states of matter, plus ether being force, and plant as a kind of living element emerging from the other five. These related planes are somehow aspects "inside" the Material Plane of the natural world. A primal Sorcerer transmits the natures of fire and elemental chaos, and the bloodlines of Dragons and Giants. Often the innate magic of a Sorcerer is or becomes an animistic nature being.
Both primal Material and divine Astral correlate planar affinity. Arguably, the primal Sorcerer might gain the Fey and Undead affinities, and the Warlock lose them. Conversely, the divine Warlock might keep its Aberration and gain the Mechanus Clockwork, and the Sorcerer lose them. However, because these are the affinities of subclasses, it is reasonable for a subclass to dabble in flavors elsewhere beyond the base class. Even so, the primal Sorcerer of the Material magic, versus the divine Warlock of Astral magic, do well to contrast each other. In some places, primal shamanic animism is called "the old way", in contrast to divine priestly theism called "the new way". The Sorcerer is a being of the old way. The Warlock is a darkside of the new way.
The Bard can be interpreted variously as arcane (3e and 4e), divine (healer), and primal (1e Druid). Most clearly the Bard is psionic, manifesting the innate magic of the "soul" of an artist, for telepathic influence, metamorphic healing and shapeshifting, and spacetime teleportation and prescience. Contrasting each other, the Bard and the Psion are different kinds of psionic spellcasters. Psionics is the innate magic of a soul. Necessarily, psionic is innately ones own soul, and never depends on material components nor external forces. A soul includes various levels, the bodily aura of lifeforce, the self identity of spirit, and the transcendent existential consciousness.
When these other spellcasting classes individuate their own clear separate identities, the Wizard can finally be a Wizard, instead of the everymagic caster. Arcane magic is protoscience with the weird formulas and impersonal precisions of science. Possibly, a Wizard has zero innate magic. All of the sympathetic magic is external. It is the magic of material components: different objects have different properties, like how a magnet picks up iron. It is the magic of somatic components: different bodyparts correspond sympathetically with various strary constellations. Various ingredients and ceremonies combine to articulate and manipulate specific processes. Arcane is the science of microcosm-macrocosm. Both Wizard and Swordmage are equally arcane, while the Wizard is artillary attacking at a distance, and Swordmage the heavy infantry attacking upclose and personal.
