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="Felon" data-source="post: 3797715" data-attributes="member: 8158">In the fantasy tales I grew up reading--Howard, Leiber, Moorcock, Wagner, for instance--mages wren't super-powered beings capable of casually channeling bolts of energy. Rather, the core feature of wizards was that they knew secrets--secrets like the signs and portents that tell the future, the rituals to summon and bind a demon, the words and symbols of power that could protect you from a malevolent spirit, the mantra that would put you in a trance for astral projection, the rules of sympathy and contagion that give you power over the living (if you had a personal possession or a proper image of your target), and other traditional abilities atrributed with wizards and witches. In most classic fantasy, mages aren't a flashy lot. Magic wasn't treated like some utilitarian force that you could use to throw a fireball or lightning bolt--which is a good thing, becasue classic fantasy heroes were rarely portrayed as being anything more than flesh and blood. Oh, their flesh might be a little more sturdy than yours or mine, but I doubt Howard would have envisioned Conan blithely shrugging off a direct hit from a blast-furnace-hot fireball. It should be sinking in by now that what I think of as being true to the fantasy genre bears little relation to D&D, and not just the upcoming edition either. D&D is basically the superhero genre thinly disguised as fantasy--which is why it's always boggled my mind that some fantasy gamers will refuse to play a superhero game.</blockquote>

Verification