Vancian Fluff (and clerics as a side topic)

[adembroski]

In Dragonlance, "The Curse of the Magi" is two-fold. First, magic is exhausting, draining the caster with each use of their powers. Second, and more relevant to the topic at hand, the words and gestures that were committed to memory that morning are "burned away" and forgotten.

In my homebrew campaign, every spell is much longer in casting time than the spell description states. Preparation represents a calling of the appropriate energies, which accompany the caster until the discharge of the spell. The final stage of the ritualistic casting is represented by the actual casting time listed in the spell description, but the caster doesn't "forget" the spell, as in Dragonlance, he simply no longer has the initial portion of the spell completed, so the final portion would have no effect. The initial portions are intense and complex, requiring a rested and refreshed mind, so additional castings are not possible until rest is had (I have a feat in my campaign that allows a caster to hold one second "preparation" period during a given day after a 3 hour rest).

I'm interested in what other people use as their vancian fluff. Also, as a side note, do you think Vancian magic is at all appropriate for clerics? I always think of the cleric praying for some worthy cause, but the god, in all his eternal wisdom, saying no, you didn't prepare the proper rituals this morning. I have a hard time making that connection.

 

[Li Shenron]

I admit that I have usually avoided thinking too much about explaining vancian magic with fluff

The only fluff I remember I have given to the players in the past was that of thinking about preparation as actually casting the spell itself already, with some sort of ritual for each spell that requires a fresh mind and reasonably comfortable environment, while the "cast a spell" action is more like discharging the actual effects at a later time (or "complete the casting with the final word & gesture" maybe).

Regarding Clerics, I have indeed in the past thought that their magic becomes more interesting if it's made more different from the arcance magic. Vancian Clerics are OK for me, but also are spontaneous Clerics (and I really appreciated the Spontaneous Cleric from Unearthed Arcana in 3e). Starting from the concept that a Cleric acts as a proxy of her deity, I have sometimes said that she really doesn't work her spells but rather just requests them from her God, and IMHO this matches the spontaneous cleric better. But I don't always want this setup... I also like the opposite idea that a Cleric (or anybody else) really doesn't know if the power comes from the deity or from herself.

 

[dbm]

Having a spell prepared is like holding a coiled spring - you release it to produce the effect, and once released the potential is exhausted (unless you had more than one prepared, naturally). More powerful spells need a greater mental discipline to hold, explaining why people start with the lower level ones first. The act of preparing the spells is like winding up the spring, requiring time and focus to achieve safely.

Clerics don't really fit the Vancian model (there weren't any clerics in his stories, for a start). If I had been in charge of DnD, clerics would have used a different mechanism to magic-users, or not existed at all. Healing would have been more the pervue of alchemy.

 

[DnD_Dad]

Clerics have rites and rituals they have to perform to have spells granted to them. Afterwards they just call out to their god and they are then used. It is a Vancian method where the legwork of the spell is done during downtime, but not completely as in dying earth terms anyone that can read can store an then cast a spell.

 

[Libramarian]

I think of memorizing a spell like holding something in working memory, like you would temporarily memorize a phone number by silently rehearsing it until you have a chance to write it down. When you cast the spell you lose it, like you lose the phone number if you get interrupted by something before you can write it down.

Wizards never memorize spells by heart (tranferring info from working memory to long term memory) either because the formula is too abstract and weird and mentally slippery or because if they do they go insane.

 

[lutecius]

I've heard the "discharge" explanation before but to be honest I still find it counterintuitive, be it for clerics or wizards, this is why I mostly use spell point variants that can be fully explained as fatigue. when I really have to play Vancian I leave it at "magic/gods work in mysterious ways". saves the headache.

 

[Iosue]

I always just accepted the fluff of the early D&D books, but didn't have any strong feelings on it one way or the other. But now I think this is the kind of Vancian fluff I like.

 

[DnD_Dad]

I love the dying earth series. Ya got this old world, atmosphere that can rarely be emulated in any game.

 

[Alzrius]

My Vancian fluff is in a four-part series of posts on my blog.

I will say though, that, when I wrote this I wasn't aware of the Vancian fluff that Gary had written into 1E (e.g. that magical energies wizards use are external, and that if they were internal then a 3rd-level spell would drain enough of their life force to kill them, or that verbal components shape the spell energies while somatic components direct them, etc.). Had I been, I'd likely have used them in the above articles.

 

[adembroski]

My Vancian fluff is in a four-part series of posts on my blog.

I will say though, that, when I wrote this I wasn't aware of the Vancian fluff that Gary had written into 1E (e.g. that magical energies wizards use are external, and that if they were internal then a 3rd-level spell would drain enough of their life force to kill them, or that verbal components shape the spell energies while somatic components direct them, etc.). Had I been, I'd likely have used them in the above articles.

Thank you for linking that, I really enjoyed it.