What Each Spellcaster Is To You

[I'm A Banana]

So, before we worry about the mechanics of the Wiz/Sor/Wlk, I think it's important to anchor these things in the goals for the classes -- what they represent and what their archetypes are. If we can anchor those a little more solidly, we can get a good idea of what each kind of spellcaster should look like in an ideal world.

I think this is something that has had some problems. When the wizard/magic-user was the only game in town, it represented EVERY kind of magic, just like the fighter represented EVERY kind of warrior. But I don't think that's quite as true any more as it once was. I think now, these once-generic classes represent something quite specific.

[sblock=Wizard]
What A Wizard Is To Me
To me, a Wizard is a student of magic. A wizard struggles to understand and manifest magic by ripping reality a new wormhole via complex formulas and bizarre implements. Wizards are mad scientists, with spellbooks halfway between mad ramblings and bizarre secrets. A combination of Nikola Tesla, The Mythbusters, and Einstein, they uncover the secrets of reality, and use these secrets to unleash colossal amounts of energy.

Because of this, wizard magic is academic and ritualistic, but with often dramatic effects. Wizards are smartypants scholars and sages, people of this world who are interested in the Otherworld.

Wizard magic is based in writing, and based in energy and forces. Bigby's Hand isn't just a magical talent, it's a theoretical framework for the functioning of the multiverse, more akin to a theorem or a dissertation than a magical superpower. Sure, it is magic, and it gives you some awesome powers, but a wizard tries to understand magic, to define the indefinite, to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Given the pseudo-medieval setting of D&D, this takes the form of scholarship, guilds, and clubs, of jealously guarded secrets, of weird guys doing weird experiments in their weird towers. This lends magic its mystery, though to the initiated wizard, magic is more of a fascinating series of questions that they are trying to discover the answers to.

Mechanics That Support That:

• Memorized, fire-and-forget daily magic. Limited effects performed only a few times per day help model the idea that magic is difficult and complex. The idea is that during spell preparation in the morning, you set up dominoes, you construct the Rube Goldberg device, you load the arequebus, you study for the exam. Then, once you fire the magic, it can't be easily set up again. The dominoes fall, the device is set in motion, the gun is fired, the test is over. To do it again, you'll need some prep time.
• Spellbooks. In a psuedo-medieval world, the ownership of something written is a sign of status and power.
• Ritual mechanics (thanks 4e!). Because wizards cast spells via complex motions, rituals make great use of that.
• Fragility. Wizards are academics, not warriors, and while they may choose to adventure to uncover more secrets, they're never going to be able to take a punch as well as any given farmer or barkeep. The fragility of their spells also applies to this: wizard magic should be easy to disrupt.
• Big Booms and Written Runes. Physics is awesome, especially in a world where your willpower can alter it. Science is often dangerous and high-powered, and magic should be the same way. It should feel like handling a live grenade: there is potential disaster coming sooner or later, energy has been built up, and it is waiting to be released.

[/sblock]

[sblock=sorcerer]
What A Sorcerer Is To Me
To me, a sorcerer is a "touched" individual. Their magic is innate and natural to them, a product of their own bodies rather than of some outside force. Their otherworldly nature manifests as a high charisma, and the more otherworldly they become, the more powerfully their magic resonates. Sorcerers are people with one foot in the real world, and another foot in the world of the supernatural, foundlings and blood-taints and mutants.

Because of this, sorcerers are spontaneous, but limited. They discover their magic within themselves. When they use Fireball, it isn't a studied principle of the multiverse, but something within themselves, and expression of their personality or their nature (perhaps they are aggressive and quick-tempered! Perhaps they have bright red hair and are always very warm!) They don't research others, they research themselves, mastering the magic that is a part of them.

Thus, sorcerers are inherently magical creatures that happen to otherwise be fairly normal people. This leads to mystery and mistrust around them, as they are inherently out of the control of others. They twist reality to their whims naturally, simply by being who they are. They don't understand the principle behind it necessarily, but they do understand how to call it out of themselves.

Mechanics that Support That:

• Small Spell List, Large Manna Pool: Sorcerers should only know a few tricks, but those they know, they can use like second nature. They don't have to carefully ration their magic. It flows from them easily. Sorcerers are good candidates for at-will magic being their ONLY magic.
• No-Hassle Magic: Sorcerers don't use components, don't need elaborate motions, and can't be interrupted easily. They can cast in armor, or in the roiling sea, or with a sword in their gut. Their magic is easy for them, not an elaborate arcane process. This makes it especially easy to combine with things like weapons, armor, and other training.
• Charms, Blasts, and Transformations: Being innate spellcasters, sorcerers easily master magic that flows from them, alters their bodies, and that just require a wink and a nod. They don't often have the patience for more detailed or planned-out magic.
• Themed Spell Lists: A sorcerer's magical aptitude follows a particular theme, not simply a generalized magical ability. A sorcerer with a draconic heritage will learn magic that manifests that heritage: wings and claws and scales and breath weapons and (depending on the type of dragon) unique spells like a Red Dragon's powerful divinations or a Green Dragon's powerful charms, or a Gold Dragon's luck and blessing.
• Metamagic and Flexible Magic: Sorcereries, unlike wizard spells, aren't discrete effects. A wizard sets up a spell to do one specific thing, but a sorcerer shapes and alters their spells on the fly. Thus, they can amplify a burst of fire to hit more than one creature, or switch up a charm to work on animals rather than people, and they don't need 50 unique spells for each case. Rather, they use one, and use it flexibly.
• Transformations: As a sorcerer gains levels and increases in power, they should become more like the source of their magical ability, surrendering their humanity in order to be a hybrid creature, rather than simply manifesting that briefly.

[/sblock]

[sblock=Warlock]
What A Warlock Is To Me
All magical ability comes with some cost. Wizards study for aeons, clerics beseech deities, and sorcerers surrender their humanity. For a warlock, magic is very nearly free. All they must surrender is a small piece of their very soul.

Souls in D&D are a powerful source of energy. The gods tap this energy to govern their own significant power: the souls of their faithful, given to them out of love, respect, and honor, power their immense might. And the clerics of the gods would have you believe that this is right and proper, that a soul should be given willingly, in the hopes that the gods will use this power to help the faithful. Even evil and untrustworthy gods have those who love them or what they stand for, and who will gladly sacrifice themselves for the glory of this greater being.

That's typical of how a cleric works: they are given gifts based on their sacrifice, on their display of loyalty and love.

A warlock, however, is not so selfless. Rather than debase herself at the foot of some divinity, she seeks a more equitable arrangement. If her soul has value, then she won't simply give it up willingly. Rather, she will trade it, for services rendered.

The gods, of course, condemn this as heresy. But there are many entities in the D&D world who are willing to give someone power for their soul, powerful beings who may not be gods, and may not even desire to be gods, but who want the power a soul offers all the same. Demon princes and slaad lords and faerie queens and vanished ideas might all impart some of their power onto a warlock, in exchange for the promise of a soul.

Warlocks rarely enter such a pact ignorant of its consequences. They know they will be bound to servitude of this entity long after their lives have passed on. Some see it as an acceptable price to pay: great power now, when it is needed, only to be paid back at some later point? Deal. Others might hope to change cicrumstances: if you pledge your soul to a demon, perhaps you hope to never surrender it, gaining immortality, or slaying that demon yourself before the bill comes due.

To live the life of a warlock is to live a life in hiding, however. Because your magic is sort of a perverted divine arrangement, churches -- even in evil areas -- aren't often your friends. Your deal for your soul represents a dangerous precedent.

Mechanics That Support That:

• Warlock Magic Is Divine: It functions like that of a cleric, not like that of a wizard. It comes as you request it from your chosen entity, not as you memorize and master it. Because of this, it is less subject to disruption and warlocks get to choose from a large pool of magic which talents to master.
• Selfishness: A big theme in warlock magic is that it is selfish -- the warlock and their chosen entity are using each other, at the very least. Warlock magic often has unintended consequences or high prices to pay, might only affect or benefit the user, or may actively hinder his allies. A warlock contributes a lot, but weighs the party she is part of down.
• There Is A Cost (someone else usually pays...): Warlock magic must be powered somehow. Typically, it is powered by the death or blood of others, or by that of the caster. Warlocks gain power as their enemies fall, and can also give power from their allies or themselves. Defiling is a great idea for warlocks: it ups the power at a cost. There is always a trade-off in warlock magic.
• Themed Spell List: Something like domains could work well for a warlock, with a "channel divinity" thing replaced by a "sacrifice": when the warlock can power his spells, he gains that special ability.
• Summoning: As creatures bound to the Otherworld, warlocks make perfect sense for specialized summoners, calling up angels and demons and elementals to do their bidding based on the commands of their masters.

[/sblock]

[sblock=How the current mechanics make me feel]
I don't like the fact that neither one of them are entirely at-will magic users. I want an at-will magic user who hurls around minor spells all the livelong day. I think a Sorcerer would be a perfect venue for that.

I do like the sorcerer's transformations, but I'm not sure about their trigger...rather than running out of spells, I see these transformations happening when they're FULL UP! As they use magic, they become more mundane, loosing that otherworldly quality until they're no more than an especially charismatic commoner.

I don't think Sorcerers and Warlocks need to truck about with spells, generally speaking. It's another layer of complexity and weirdness that removes what makes them feel special. Let their mechanics do the heavy lifting, I think.

I want Warlocks to have some alternate mechanic for powering their effects than "rest." Warlocks are good candidates, I feel, for "rising power"-style effects, where they start weak and gain strength as they do things (such as awarding a Boon when an enemy dies near them, or after an encounter in which something died). Magical secrets also don't seem to be a Warlock thing to me -- more Wizard.
[/sblock]

I think that there's a lot of potential for other spellcasters, too. I'd like to possibly see Specialties based around wizard schools or priest domains (so you could take Illusionist or Enchanter and gain magic while you stay a thief or fighter or generalist wizard or whatever).

Anyway, that's my overly long babble. Lets hear yours! How are these classes actually different in archetype in your mind? And how do the mechanics help reinforce those archetypes -- or not?

 

[Li Shenron]

Uhm... with cantrips and minor invocations, aren't all of them technically at-will spellcasters?

 

[The Shadow]

I very much agree with your depictions of the wizard and sorcerer. The thing that frustrates me a little, though, is that the two classes by all rights ought to synergize beautifully - imagine a mad scientist with a nuclear power plant in his chest. The wizard's savvy with the sorcerer's raw power ought to be a natural combination. In fact, I could even envision a world where wizards encourage/coerce sorcerers to train as wizards, so they aren't as much a danger to everyone around them.

And yet, mechanically, there is very little reason ever to do this. Certainly not in 3e, and I doubt in Next.

 

[tuxgeo]

What arcane magic users are to me.

Anyway, that's my overly long babble. Lets hear yours! How are these classes actually different in archetype in your mind? And how do the mechanics help reinforce those archetypes -- or not?

Arcane magic manipulates the underlying, essential nature behind everything. (There, I said it.)
The differences between one type of arcane magic-user and another come from the differences between their approaches to it.

The wizard approaches magic through intellect: They figure it out. They try to define it in terms of other concepts that they already understand. This leads them to elaborate, roundabout written circumlocutions that try to express basic magical essentials in terms that are utterly foreign to those essentials -- terms that are profane, worldly, and static. (Magic isn't static. It flows.)

The sorcerer approaches magic through "the inner flow of that which flows inwardly": they use magic on its own terms, not as defined in terms of any other things they might have already understood. To some extent, this limits their choices of ways to use magic - sorcerers tend to do the same things over and over again because they have few ways to learn to apply magic in different directions.
Regarding the transformations of sorcerers: this happens, if it happens at all, neither when they are depleted of power nor when they are *FULL*; rather, it happens as a consequence of the act of using the power, in this wise: when sorcerers are casting, it helps them to try to adopt a physical form and posture that is most closely compatible with the source of their power. Draconic bloodlines achieve better casting if they adopt a sinuous form; stormy bloodlines achieve better casting if they adopt a swirling or roiling or glowering form; and chaotic bloodlines achieve better casting if they adopt a fluctuating form, somewhat like a Changeling. With long practice, those adopted forms become more or less a habitual part of the sorcerers' beings; but that becoming is still subject to those sorcerers' own preferences.
The sorcerer-kings of Dark Sun would be the ones who always sought to maximize their powers by permanently adopting draconic forms, because they cared most about their own powers and least about how their appearances might be pleasing or displeasing to onlookers -- who, in the opinions of each sorcerer-king, "should" be the sorcerer's subjects anyway.

The warlock approaches magic through resolution: they make decisions and they form habits; and those decisions and habits flavor their capacities and their concepts and their behaviors forever thereafter. ("If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.") The power of a warlock isn't about breaking souls, because the essential fact of a soul is its unity. However, souls can become corrupted and damaged and weakened (they just cannot become "broken into parts"), and the resolute nature of warlock pacts reduce the freshness and flexibility of the warlock's soul, flavoring it with the nature of the being most closely aligned with the nature and content of the resolution that the warlock made. Thus, a warlock who is resolved to keep secrets, come death or high water, will find that his soul, to that extent, effectively belongs to Vecna; and a warlock who is resolved to remove fey artifacts from the normal world and return them to the Feywild will find that her soul, to that extent, effectively belongs to The Eochaid.
The beings that grant power to warlocks on the occasion of the forming of a pact do so because they recognize a compatible soul who is making a resolution that, while it continues to be honored, will always serve to further the aims of the granting being. The granting being grants those powers partly in order to enable that warlock to further the granting being's aims more effectively; but it's a simultaneous thing, with the granting being offering powers to the warlock if the warlock will form such a resolution, and the warlock accepting the offer and forming that resolution in order to gain those powers -- because the warlock might have no other reason to form such a resolution without being offered the prospect of gaining those powers.
The concluded agreement is their pact.

 

[mlund]

And yet, mechanically, there is very little reason ever to do this. Certainly not in 3e, and I doubt in Next.

Now I'm just imagining Wizards forcing Sorcerers to take the Arcane equivalent of Driver's Ed with the Magic-User Theme. Upon completion you'll be able to use the super-secret Mage Hand hand-shake and have your very own morality pet (Familiar) to warn you not to turn into a blathering, soul-riven abomination.

Also, Wizards are those who attempt to control the universe through System Mastery from the ground up. Warlocks are those who attempt to manipulate the universe through whatever back doors, loop-holes, and exploits in the System. Sorcerers were arbitrarily assigned super-user permissions while system illiterate and are constantly at-risk for running a recursive deletion or overwrite on their user profile.

- Marty Lund

 

[Yora]

Wizard: A relic from old rules editions that exist only because spell slot casters have only exited.

Sorcerer: A basic mage class to represent basic arcane spellcasters from most fantasy sources.

Warlock: A sorcerer who has made a pact with the devil for dark powers.

 

[The Shadow]

Now I'm just imagining Wizards forcing Sorcerers to take the Arcane equivalent of Driver's Ed with the Magic-User Theme. Upon completion you'll be able to use the super-secret Mage Hand hand-shake and have your very own morality pet (Familiar) to warn you not to turn into a blathering, soul-riven abomination.

That... is a very interesting idea. In fact, it's an idea that harmonizes almost perfectly with an existing world of mine. (Originally 2e, then 3e, then True20.) Consider it swiped! Now I wish I knew what the remaining feats of Magic-User are.

(Can't XP you, but would gladly do so if I could!)

Also, Wizards are those who attempt to control the universe through System Mastery from the ground up. Warlocks are those who attempt to manipulate the universe through whatever back doors, loop-holes, and exploits in the System. Sorcerers were arbitrarily assigned super-user permissions while system illiterate and are constantly at-risk for running a recursive deletion or overwrite on their user profile.

Wow, yet another reason for wizards to hate them both! And for wizards to take sorcerers in hand before they crash the system entirely...

"It's perpetual September for sorcerers, isn't it?" If you'll permit me a little early net.humor.

Back at the OP:

I can't get on board with your idea of warlocks as renegotiating the terms of mortal/divine relations, but it certainly did inspire quite a few thoughts in me. I view pact-givers as very, very wannabe gods. While there is a certain resemblance to divine magic, I can't see it as the same thing.

(I just realized something, though: While the fluff makes them sound like crazed loners, warlocks would also work well as cultists!)

You realize you almost make warlocks sound like unionizers, or even Bolsheviks, right? "Worshippers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!"

 

[The Shadow]

Sorry to post twice in a row, but I had a sudden idea of how to get the wizard and sorcerer to synergize:

Basically, spells in the wizard spellbook are added to the sorcerer's spell list as potential 'spells known'. By casting spells as a wizard repeatedly, he can eventually get them down well enough to cast using Willpower. Meanwhile, sorcerer levels give a wizard some much-needed flexibility.

I'm having a lot of trouble imagining a wizard/warlock or sorcerer/warlock multiclass, I have to admit. Why would anyone go to the trouble of a pact when they've got other options already?

 

[howandwhy99]

As it stands for me none of them have much at all to do with fluff. It is all mechanical differences.

 

[Vikingkingq]

You realize you almost make warlocks sound like unionizers, or even Bolsheviks, right? "Worshippers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!"

Hey, it goes beyond that. In a pre-modern setting, what kind of people are going to have the time and money and literacy to sit around reading a bunch of books on magic, and what kind of people get accepted as apprentices or students at a wizard school?

People born with money, which is a tiny proportion of the population. Now imagine you're a bright peasant who looks around and sees all of these rich layabouts who spend all day sitting around reading, who won't let anyone who isn't the right sort into their club, and who get handed ultimate power as a result. And then someone comes up and says that there's a way to get that kind of power that's open to everyone...