Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1468305" data-attributes="member: 10201">Well, i've always had some issues with that, too. So i figured it out to make sense:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">there's mana in the world</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">wizards (and bards) have learned to tap this mana through study and arcane ritual--that's why all the components</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">priests (and paladins and rangers) instead call upon deities (and divine servants) who do the dirty work for them--but it's still the same mana being used. and thus divine casters never need material components (beyond their holy symbol), and the only verbal/somatic components are a prayer</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">druids have tapped into the fundamental nature of reality, drawing upon the Powers that underly (and possibly created) it. This power is, of course, the mana that flows through reality. The difference in their method is that they are working "within" the laws of reality, rather than end-running around them--think of it as they have a really deep esoteric knowledge of the easter eggs of reality. The difference shows up in that (1) druid spells are sometimes more powerful for their level, (2) they are distinctly limited in scope to nature-related effects, and (3) there's no such thing as researching/inventing new spells. An arcane caster can do some research and experimentation and invent a new spell. A divine caster can pray to their god and ask that an unusual effect be granted. Druids are stuck with what they've got.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">psionics doesn't use mana. It comes from within a being, rather than from the world around. It is the power of the sentient mind directly affecting reality (rather than affecting mana, which affects reality). As such, it doesn't show up when you "detect magic"--but there's nothing preventing someone from casting a "detect psionics" spell. It is inherently limited in that it is very difficult for psionic powers to affect things without minds. So, telepathy is easy, clairsentience as fairly easy (because you're not affecting/altering the outside world, just observing it). Psychoportation and Psychometabolism become a bit trickier, but mostly you're only affecting your own body, and while that's actual physical matter, it's very much under the influence of your mind to begin with. Psychokinesis, however, is pretty hard, with pure energy effects (light, fire, etc) being the "easiest" (still much harder than doing it with any flavor of magic), and the more "physical" the effect, the harder it is.</li> </ul>So, yeah, I had a problem with divine/arcane transparency--or at least as soon as i thought about introducing psionics i did. So i rationalized it, specifically preserving the important parts (IMHO): that psionics work differently, and that magics at least mostly interact. I've actually thought about making the various magics non-transparent, too. Instead, my current thought is that there need to be actual "nature" and "spiritual" powers, and that the spells clerics and druids cast really *are* the same thing as wizards cast--one of the things divine blessing gets you is shortcut access to slinging spells. But the other powers of the classes are most definitely *not* the same thing as magic. Still sussing out the exact ramifications (and how not to shatter any semblance of balance), but i'm thinking the first thing is they won't show up on a detect magic--but might show up to other spells (such as true seeing).</blockquote>

Verification