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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 5866719" data-attributes="member: 92511">My game world tends to have areas that are higher &quot;magic&quot; and realms that use or have access to lower levels of magic.In the lands/areas/races/NPCs that have or use magic a lot, I am likely to explain some &quot;mysterious&quot; or &quot;intriguing&quot; magical effects or abilities that are not, necessarily, explainable with &quot;by the book&quot; spell use.Some examples of what I'm talking about: 1) A magical sorceress/lady who &quot;walks&quot; without seeming to walk (no discernable &quot;leg&quot; movement or ever seeing her feet beneath her flowing robe/skirt)...more &quot;floats&quot; across the floor.2) An NPC wizard, who I suppose would be considered an &quot;archmage&quot; of sorts who is able to invoke spectacular effects (like teleporting the whole group at once) without concern or looking up, how many persons should this level wizard be able to teleport and what are his chances of error?3) A magical being, appearing human/oid, who is able to transmute themselves into a vague incorporeal image of him/herself as a snowy wind, or a bunch of leaves or flower petals (a la that tree &quot;woman&quot; from the Narnia movie).4) An old witch with wrinkled wooden bark-looking skin. But she isn't actually &quot;wood&quot; or &quot;part-dryad&quot; or anything like that...but the result of a botched spell or potion, though there are no potions on the books that give you &quot;barkskin.&quot; (or at least not to my knowledge at the time)5) Doing things like &quot;opening/closing windows or doors without actually having/marking down the cantrips the mage has access to.Generally speaking, these things have no &quot;in game&quot; mechanical consequence. They're just used to invoke a sense of &quot;oo. ah. they're magicky.&quot; My players, for the most part, have always enjoyed them. But every once in a while, you get that book-worm who either out of pure curiosity or argumentative rules-lawyering asking (or &quot;demanding&quot; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/rant.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":rant:" title="Rant&nbsp; &nbsp; :rant:" data-shortname=":rant:" />) &quot;How'd they do that? What spell is that? Why can't I do/find a spell to do that?!&quot;When you DM, how much leeway/ &quot;off piste&quot;, as it were, is too much? How magical do you go before having to &quot;explain&quot; yourself in book/rules terms? Or do you not do this at all? Is it something to be avoided or something that adds to the game, in your humble opinions?Just a curious thought that passed through my head with the morning's coffee. No &quot;right&quot; answers, obviously. But curious to hear what you all think.Happy Friday all!--Steel Dragons</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 5866719, member: 92511"] My game world tends to have areas that are higher "magic" and realms that use or have access to lower levels of magic. In the lands/areas/races/NPCs that have or use magic a lot, I am likely to explain some "mysterious" or "intriguing" magical effects or abilities that are not, necessarily, explainable with "by the book" spell use. Some examples of what I'm talking about: 1) A magical sorceress/lady who "walks" without seeming to walk (no discernable "leg" movement or ever seeing her feet beneath her flowing robe/skirt)...more "floats" across the floor. 2) An NPC wizard, who I suppose would be considered an "archmage" of sorts who is able to invoke spectacular effects (like teleporting the whole group at once) without concern or looking up, how many persons should this level wizard be able to teleport and what are his chances of error? 3) A magical being, appearing human/oid, who is able to transmute themselves into a vague incorporeal image of him/herself as a snowy wind, or a bunch of leaves or flower petals (a la that tree "woman" from the Narnia movie). 4) An old witch with wrinkled wooden bark-looking skin. But she isn't actually "wood" or "part-dryad" or anything like that...but the result of a botched spell or potion, though there are no potions on the books that give you "barkskin." (or at least not to my knowledge at the time) 5) Doing things like "opening/closing windows or doors without actually having/marking down the cantrips the mage has access to. Generally speaking, these things have no "in game" mechanical consequence. They're just used to invoke a sense of "oo. ah. they're magicky." My players, for the most part, have always enjoyed them. But every once in a while, you get that book-worm who either out of pure curiosity or argumentative rules-lawyering asking (or "demanding" :rant:) "How'd they do that? What spell is that? Why can't [I]I[/I] do/find a spell to do that?!" When you DM, how much leeway/ "off piste", as it were, is too much? How magical do you go before having to "explain" yourself in book/rules terms? Or do you not do this at all? Is it something to be avoided or something that adds to the game, in your humble opinions? Just a curious thought that passed through my head with the morning's coffee. No "right" answers, obviously. But curious to hear what you all think. Happy Friday all! --Steel Dragons [/QUOTE]

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