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<blockquote data-quote="jmartkdr2" data-source="post: 8634415" data-attributes="member: 7017304">Another way to look at the question: when a wizard casts detect magic and a cleric casts detect magic, are they doing fundamentally the same thing? That is, aside for slight variations in skill and/or style, are they making the same important gestures and saying essentially the same magic words? Can a wizard hear the start of the clerics casting and guess what the outcome it will be because they already know the opening words? Are all spellcasting classes doing the same thing with different teachers?The &quot;no&quot; would mean they are doing two different things (reciting a formula vs praying to a deity for aid), saying different words (likely in different languages) and making different movements, for two effects that are distinct in-universe but modeled the same mechanically because the player gets the same information (even if the pc's don't- ie the wizard sees and the cleric feels, but the players both know there's an enchantment on the door). Are the two &quot;spells&quot; totally different tools for the same job?5e can support both lines of thinking, since it's so vague about how magic works. In the first case, aside from a few edge cases the mechanical term &quot;spell&quot; and the in-universe understanding of what a &quot;spell&quot; is will be the same or at least very close, although the wizard pc will have a deeper understanding than the players ever will. In the latter case, &quot;spell&quot; wouldn't be a meaningful in-universe concept unless you're talking to someone of the same class (or another class of the same tradition, like a wizard and an eldritch knight.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jmartkdr2, post: 8634415, member: 7017304"] Another way to look at the question: when a wizard casts [I]detect magic[/I] and a cleric casts [I]detect magic[/I], are they doing fundamentally the same thing? That is, aside for slight variations in skill and/or style, are they making the same important gestures and saying essentially the same magic words? Can a wizard hear the start of the clerics casting and guess what the outcome it will be because they already know the opening words? Are all spellcasting classes doing the same thing with different teachers? The "no" would mean they are doing two different things (reciting a formula vs praying to a deity for aid), saying different words (likely in different languages) and making different movements, for two effects that are distinct in-universe but modeled the same mechanically because the [I]player[/I] gets the same information (even if the pc's don't- ie the wizard sees and the cleric feels, but the players both know there's an enchantment on the door). Are the two "spells" totally different tools for the same job? 5e can support both lines of thinking, since it's so vague about how magic works. In the first case, aside from a few edge cases the mechanical term "spell" and the in-universe understanding of what a "spell" is will be the same or at least very close, although the wizard pc will have a deeper understanding than the players ever will. In the latter case, "spell" wouldn't be a meaningful in-universe concept unless you're talking to someone of the same class (or another class of the same tradition, like a wizard and an eldritch knight.) [/QUOTE]

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