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Origomar
2009-08-08, 01:14 AM
I know there is arcane magic, and also divine but what is the difference between those two other than the fact one you get from the gods? Also im not sure what the diffrence between arcane magic and invocations are.

Are there other sources of magic aswell ? x.x

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-08-08, 01:15 AM
Dragon Shamans get auras.

Truenaming

Shadow Magic

Binding

Saph
2009-08-08, 01:28 AM
Thematically, the only difference between arcane and divine magic that I know of what you already said. Divine magic comes from the gods, arcane magic doesn't.

Warlock invocations are arcane spell-like abilities, basically spells that you can use at will.

Other sources; there's also Incarnum, which is basically soul magic.

Ecalsneerg
2009-08-08, 01:32 AM
For completeness, there's also psionics, but it's not really fluffed as magic.

Tempest Fennac
2009-08-08, 01:32 AM
Fluffwise, Invocations are the result of a pact which grants the user power (they can inherit the pact or forge one themselves with Fey or Evil Outsiders). I think the only differences between Arcane and Divine are the that Divine power comes from an outside source but Arcane power comes from within the user*, while Arcane magic is intended to be flashier and more powerful.


* This at least applies to Core; Warlocks, Shugenjas, Archivists and Favoured Souls mass this up a bit

Origomar
2009-08-08, 01:34 AM
Edit: nevermind thanks for the help. i get confused sometimes with magic.

Tempest Fennac
2009-08-08, 01:40 AM
It's okay (to be honest, I think it stopped being anything more then a mild flavour rule when 3.0 sourcebooks started to appear).

oxinabox
2009-08-08, 02:17 AM
For completeness, there's also psionics, but it's not really fluffed as magic.
For completeness, there's Weea-Bu Fighting Magics
ie ToB
But that's not fuffed as magic and is almost all Extraordinarily abilites.
(all though for some stupid reason the chapter about it is called blade magic
It's source is from martial skill.

Also for completeness there is ki powers.
Like the ninja gets (and which is used to explain alot of the monk class features), which is thematically from ... meditation?

BTW all spell like abilities are considered arcane, even those of outsider's like the acheons.

Sliver
2009-08-08, 02:24 AM
Divine magic comes sorta more like a gift for true devotion, and is simpler by itself to cast (no ASF)..

Eldariel
2009-08-08, 06:52 AM
The fundamental explanation as I've understood it for arcane magic isthat it's manipulating the powers surrounding the user. Warlocks don't cast spells hence why they're different, and Sorcerers derive their powers either from the same source as Wizards or from their bloodlines (depending on your continuity).

Dark Sun goes to great lengths with regards to this; it may not be universal for all campaign settings, but it's a sensible separation given that this basically gives divine, arcane & psionics all their own source (divine magic is from the gods, arcane magic is from the world and psionics is internal).

kamikasei
2009-08-08, 07:02 AM
The fundamental explanation as I've understood it for arcane magic isthat it's manipulating the powers surrounding the user.

Yes, this is how I see it. Divine magic, you're getting in touch with some more powerful entity and having it make a change for you. Psionics, imagine it as that you internally model the world and then decide/believe that it's different - and it agrees, because you're just that strong-minded. But arcane magic deals with the stuff the world is made of, and all the interacting forces and hooks by which they may be manipulated.

So a wizard learns by study what those hooks are and the words and gestures that manipulate them. A sorcerer is kind of tricky, overlapping with a wilder, but since they still need the words and gestures you could say they have an intuitive understanding. Dragons are made of arcane magic and have a similar intuition. Invocationists have the hooks embedded in their very beings so that they can manipulate them as if they were an extension of their own body.

Truenaming and shadow magic can be treated as essentially arcane in concept, binding is like getting a bundle of arcane invocations together as a single package that you can swap in and out, and Incarnum is like an arcane/psionic hybrid.

Supernatural maneuvers from ToB could be treated as either arcane or psionic, depending; obviously they tend to require particular gestures, but less so than arcane.

Jack_Simth
2009-08-08, 07:44 AM
BTW all spell like abilities are considered arcane, even those of outsider's like the acheons.Sorta. They register as Arcane under Arcane Sight; nowhere in the Core Books are they specified as actually being Arcane in nature.

Glimbur
2009-08-08, 10:10 AM
There's also Incarnum. You shape bits of souls to give you greater abilities. Look, some find the fluff weird, but it is a different source of power.

Knaight
2009-08-08, 10:19 AM
Seems pretty typical to me, but this is coming from a guy where having decided magic was energy, made a magic system where you burned calories gained by eating things*, which included meditation as a way to slow ones metabolism**. So I see some really weird stuff as normal.

* Food was scarce in the setting and it was really cool.
** Which was useful to everyone, as a certain amount of calories were burned on a per day basis for everyone, and fighting increased that.

TheCountAlucard
2009-08-08, 10:21 AM
Aww, c'mon, don't you guys know that the source of magic is a by-product of the presence of X(A/N)th? :smalltongue:

Yes, I read those books. My favorite was Ogre, Ogre.