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Why Has D&D, and 5e in Particular, Gone Down the Road of Ubiquitous Magic?
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<blockquote data-quote="Rod Staffwand" data-source="post: 6829344" data-attributes="member: 6776279"><p>I don't much care for editions awash in magic as a player or DM (3x, 4e and 5e). I'd hoped 5e would make it easier to run rarer magic games but when like 3/4 of the classes (or whatever) use magic, it takes too much effort to change. Much easier to just grab an OSR. We did low-magic 4e tolerably well by focusing on the martial source with the warlord for support. I find 5e works about the same, but they added way to much magic to paladins and rangers which basically negates their inclusion in a rare magic setting, leaving the choice of classes pretty slim.</p><p></p><p>Magic has always inspired players and content-creators in D&D. It's easy to wrap your head around the sub-system (cast spell once per day, spell does what's in its description). D&D spells are the epitome of player empowerment. They can trump many obstacles and enemies, give the player a choice of options, and are usually an asymmetrical resource that the PCs possess but enemies do not. In short, magic in D&D has always been the "cheat code" that allows you to "break" normal game resolution or practical constraints to great effect. The game itself is complicit in these feelings as it presents many scenarios in which magic is required (most healing/resurrection, removing curses, dispelling magic, teleportation, flight, etc.). There's even a passage at the beginning of the PHB about the "Wonders of Magic" which says you'll need magic to survive. Literally: "For adventurers, though, magic is key to their survival."</p><p></p><p>At the same time, the simple and structured format of spells make them one of the easiest things to create content for. Think of a spell effect and some parameters, assign it a spell level and you're done. There's a reason why 3x has a ton of splatbooks filled with thousands of spells. It's because someone thought: "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a spell that did this?" and went through the trivial process of writing it up.</p><p></p><p>So you have a powerful, fun and simple subsystem that has gone from helpful to preferred to essential as we progress through editions. Magic is awesome. MOAR magic is even MOAR awesome! This mirrors a change in media content where magic is far more ubiquitous (such as the aforementioned Harry Potter and games such as WoW). These have a much different tone then OSR's Inspirational Source Materials where magic is often exceptionally dangerous and mysterious--truly something that is not lightly meddled with.</p><p></p><p>I truly dislike casters having a ready supply of magic for most D&D settings. It works in an outlandish campaign like Eberron, Planescape or Spelljammer, but the levels of magic in 3x, 4e and 5e are too much for me in just about any other type of setting. Doing sword and sorcery is a non-starter in 5e without major house-ruling. That's just a shame.</p><p></p><p>I also find the desire of some caster players to always be spellcasting to be a little preposterous. Should fighters always fight everything? Should rogues always be hiding, backstabbing and stealing? Should barbarians always be getting ragey? That the rules explicitly condone this bias with at-will cantrips is one of the reasons I don't run 5e on a full-time basis. We'll dabble from time to time, but the game gets tiresome and has little of the flavor I (or my fellow players here) want. Sure we can house rule stuff, but we can do that with ANY edition so it's not much of a feature.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rod Staffwand, post: 6829344, member: 6776279"] I don't much care for editions awash in magic as a player or DM (3x, 4e and 5e). I'd hoped 5e would make it easier to run rarer magic games but when like 3/4 of the classes (or whatever) use magic, it takes too much effort to change. Much easier to just grab an OSR. We did low-magic 4e tolerably well by focusing on the martial source with the warlord for support. I find 5e works about the same, but they added way to much magic to paladins and rangers which basically negates their inclusion in a rare magic setting, leaving the choice of classes pretty slim. Magic has always inspired players and content-creators in D&D. It's easy to wrap your head around the sub-system (cast spell once per day, spell does what's in its description). D&D spells are the epitome of player empowerment. They can trump many obstacles and enemies, give the player a choice of options, and are usually an asymmetrical resource that the PCs possess but enemies do not. In short, magic in D&D has always been the "cheat code" that allows you to "break" normal game resolution or practical constraints to great effect. The game itself is complicit in these feelings as it presents many scenarios in which magic is required (most healing/resurrection, removing curses, dispelling magic, teleportation, flight, etc.). There's even a passage at the beginning of the PHB about the "Wonders of Magic" which says you'll need magic to survive. Literally: "For adventurers, though, magic is key to their survival." At the same time, the simple and structured format of spells make them one of the easiest things to create content for. Think of a spell effect and some parameters, assign it a spell level and you're done. There's a reason why 3x has a ton of splatbooks filled with thousands of spells. It's because someone thought: "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a spell that did this?" and went through the trivial process of writing it up. So you have a powerful, fun and simple subsystem that has gone from helpful to preferred to essential as we progress through editions. Magic is awesome. MOAR magic is even MOAR awesome! This mirrors a change in media content where magic is far more ubiquitous (such as the aforementioned Harry Potter and games such as WoW). These have a much different tone then OSR's Inspirational Source Materials where magic is often exceptionally dangerous and mysterious--truly something that is not lightly meddled with. I truly dislike casters having a ready supply of magic for most D&D settings. It works in an outlandish campaign like Eberron, Planescape or Spelljammer, but the levels of magic in 3x, 4e and 5e are too much for me in just about any other type of setting. Doing sword and sorcery is a non-starter in 5e without major house-ruling. That's just a shame. I also find the desire of some caster players to always be spellcasting to be a little preposterous. Should fighters always fight everything? Should rogues always be hiding, backstabbing and stealing? Should barbarians always be getting ragey? That the rules explicitly condone this bias with at-will cantrips is one of the reasons I don't run 5e on a full-time basis. We'll dabble from time to time, but the game gets tiresome and has little of the flavor I (or my fellow players here) want. Sure we can house rule stuff, but we can do that with ANY edition so it's not much of a feature. [/QUOTE]
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