Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Quixote" data-source="post: 111338" data-attributes="member: 694">I define magic in my campaign as breaking the laws of nature and physics -- which is what magic actually is -- but it can only be accomplished by drawing energy from another reality or plane.  In D&D magic has always been explained as the act of fixing anomalous extraplanar energy from "somewhere else" into one's own mind, and shaping it as a spell, as opposed to psionics, which was using one's own force of will to pull that energy out of wherever and do something extraordinary.  It's a far call from the typical explaination of magic in a Final Fantasy game (where magic is drawing on the life force of the planet and universe around you, like Star Wars) or in classical folklore (where magic is supernatural power granted by spirits, demons, faeries, etc).In my own game, in order to sort of explain everything (since I didn't like AD&D's nameless and distant "plane of magic"), I ruled that the extraplanar sources for magic vary depending on the caster.  My planescape is set up with the astral plane separating the material plane from the heavens, and the ethereal plane between the prime material and the hells.  Consequentially, the astral plane is mildly good aligned and the ethereal plane carries the midly evil aligned trait.  I pretty much left the inner plances alone.  Then I set up the magic system for each type of caster:Wizards: casters with just enough brains to use arcane lore to shape ethereal energy into spells without being corrupted by evil.Sorcerers: casters who are charismatic enough to make bargains with denizens of spirit worlds and the like to learn spells.Clerics/Paladins, Druids/Rangers, Shamans/Sohei: priests who are granted power from divine forces; not much change here.Shugenja: preists who draw magic directly from the inner (elemental) planes.Psions/Psychic Warriors: individuals with the will and ability to shape astral energy into psychic effects.Monks, Sohei: warriors who draw on ki are using their own internal energy, native to the prime material plane, sort of like FF's lifestream or the life force manipulated by Jedi.It makes for a pretty unique system where magic is dangerous only to the foolish or unwary, psionics are rare and innate but sorcery is not, and divine magic is much the same.</blockquote>

Verification