PDA

View Full Version : Wizards, where does their power come from?('Fluff', not 'crunch')



Tola
2008-02-06, 05:12 AM
Sorcerers, Warlocks, Clerics and the like, these make sense, power from within(Be it blood or otherwise), or a granted ability from a higher power.

Even the Geometer Prestige Class makes a kind of sense-an exact movement or drawing has power, in same way that runes might work.

It's Wizards that do not make sense to me. Probably I missed the explanation(No basic handbook), but where ARE the wizards drawing the strength to invoke their magical effects from? The rituals and things mean little/nothing without a power source....

Is it coming from them? Or something else?

Nebo_
2008-02-06, 05:22 AM
Magic doesn't need to be attached to something to work. I think that one of WotCs biggest failures was trying to force power sources on classes. Wizards recognise that the world is full of ambient magic and they work hard to harness it and bend it so it works toward their own goals.

Prince Gimli
2008-02-06, 05:27 AM
Wizards get their power from extensive research into the laws of magic, into the very fabrics of reality. Once they discover or learn something they take notes in their books. Once a wizard has gathered enough of these notes on a certain subject, he can discover, invent or learn a new spell.

Zincorium
2008-02-06, 05:32 AM
In the forgotten realms, they have the 'weave' (and this is well before WotC, Nebo) and later the 'shadow weave' which are governed by Mystra and Shar respectively.

It's analogous to an elecromagnetic field, and if you create something that functions as an antenna, power will flow through it. Wizards basically turn themselves into selective conduits for this. What they need all that training for is to get any sort of specific effect out of this.

Tola
2008-02-06, 05:32 AM
Magic doesn't need to be attached to something to work. I think that one of WotCs biggest failures was trying to force power sources on classes. Wizards recognise that the world is full of ambient magic and they work hard to harness it and bend it so it works toward their own goals.

This implies they channel. That makes a kind of sense, though it prsumes that everyone can harness it, which raises questions of it's own.(Though it's sort-of answered in the mentioned Sorcerers and Warlocks-they ALSO channel the magic within and without .

Wizards get their power from extensive research into the laws of magic, into the very fabrics of reality. Once they discover or learn something they take notes in their books. Once a wizard has gathered enough of these notes on a certain subject, he can discover, invent or learn a new spell.

That gives a...'blueprint'. That doesn't answer where they're getting the power to CREATE what's in the 'blueprint'. THAT is the question.

Belial_the_Leveler
2008-02-06, 05:46 AM
Magic affects everything in the Multiverse. It is an energy field that flows through all things and anyone, under the right circumstances, can access it.

Sorcerors and Warlocks have an innate ability to channel magic, their strength limited by their talent in shaping magical energies. Sorcerors can store a very large but finite amount of magical energy in themselves then release it by exerting their wills and casting a spell. Warlocks have an infinite supply of energy but are adept only at very specific ways of releasing it, usually less powerful than spells.

Clerics and Druids are guided by a higher power, their powers limited by how much energy they can understand and learn to wield. (that's why a deity can't or won't give a 1st level cleric the ability to cast Miracle). The deity guides them through storing that energy (or gives them that energy outright) then the cleric uses prayers and spells to unleash it.



Wizards have neither talent nor divine guidance. However, a wizard spends many years honing his mind through mental patterns to gather energy from the world around him and lock it in his mind. Each day, a wizard has to spend a long time to rest and clear his mind. Then, the wizard has to go through hundreds of mental excercises to store energy in specific patterns within his mind That lengthy process takes hours each day-and it is called "preparing" or "memorising" spells. The wizard doesn't actually memorise the spells-he doesn't memorise the incantations or rituals required. He gathers and shapes the energy until he fills up his mind's capacity. Then, at the desired moment, a wizard unleashes the stored energy by forcing his mind through a very rapid sequence of mental excercises. To do so, the wizard either has to visualise and bring up in his mind an exact sequence of emotions used as a key or, much more simply, perform actions and speak words that will bring the desired emotions to unlock the power. E.g. to cast a fireball the wizard has to visualise the shape and type of the spell, visualise the desired location and conjure images of fire in his mind. Just about anyone can conjure these images-but noone without extremely intensive training can conjure them with mathematic precision. Therefore, the apprentice wizard describes by speaking the desired effect-the words effectively forcing his mind to visualise just as describing a person or reading a book can focre your mind to conjure exact images-making passes with his hands-the motions aiding in the visualisation of the desired direction, distance and shape of the effect-and uses bat guano whose smell, feel and shape the wizard's mind has linked with fireballs throughout his intense training just like the image of a fireball comes to the mind of a hardcore DnD player whenever he simply hears the words bat guano only moreso because the wizard has spent years doing nothing but making the mental connections required.
With the correct mental patters initiated by the incantation, spellcasting motions and material components, the power is unlocked and the wizard casts the spell effectively.
Powerful wizards can eschew material components, incantations and even spellcasting motions completely simply through rigorous training for many decades, ensuring their ability to correctly and accurately go through the mental patterns without such physical representations of the mental effort. But because a ;arger part of their concentration is required to make the mental patterns work, the spell is much more difficult to cast, taking up much more of the wizard's mind.
Note that costly material components or foci, unlike mundane components, don't only help in the visualisation. The magic uses such components as fuels to give greater power than a wizard has available in his mind and uses foci as anchors upon which it is cast.

Did you find the above explanation adequate?

Rad
2008-02-06, 06:01 AM
Wizards get their power from extensive research into the laws of magic, into the very fabrics of reality. Once they discover or learn something they take notes in their books. Once a wizard has gathered enough of these notes on a certain subject, he can discover, invent or learn a new spell.

That gives a...'blueprint'. That doesn't answer where they're getting the power to CREATE what's in the 'blueprint'. THAT is the question.

Uh? the power is just there, it is part of the world even if invisible and the wizards study it in an empirical way. Men discovered fire much earlier than developing the chemistry theory to a degree where the chemical reaction that actually takes place is understood; they merely knew that if you did that and that again you could make and maintain the fire going. Wizards use a wide array of similar tricks that rely on a part of the physics of their world that they do not fully understand; what they have is a bunch of tricks that have been discovered over time and pass from a wizard to another.
The magic? It just exists as much as the earth, the air, the light and the negative energy...

Nebo_
2008-02-06, 06:11 AM
In the forgotten realms, they have the 'weave' (and this is well before WotC, Nebo) and later the 'shadow weave' which are governed by Mystra and Shar respectively.

I was talking about the fluff they force feed us for the Warlock and Sorcerer, mostly.

shaggz076
2008-02-06, 06:14 AM
In the forgotten realms, they have the 'weave' (and this is well before WotC, Nebo) and later the 'shadow weave' which are governed by Mystra and Shar respectively.

It's analogous to an elecromagnetic field, and if you create something that functions as an antenna, power will flow through it. Wizards basically turn themselves into selective conduits for this. What they need all that training for is to get any sort of specific effect out of this.

One that is similar to this and also in a D20 RPG book is the Wheel of Time RPG. They use two distince sources for magic, one that males can see and one that females can see. A male cannot teach a female magic and vice versa. In the same respects the weave and shadow weave are the same, you can't see one if your attunded to the other. I would really like it if they could adapt the Wheel of time magic system to D&D as it is more fluid and each "wizard" would have it's own strengths and weaknesses (depending on their chosen talents and abilities). On top of that you would never really be out of spells since you can always attempt to overchannel.

As for the normal D&D game, Magic as mentioned is everywhere and in everything. The gestures, words and components act as keys to unlock the burning potential within these things. Once a Wizard has perfected the precise wording and gestures and combined it with the proper components the magic is bent to the casters will.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-02-06, 07:42 AM
Basically study and concentration over years to develop the spellcasting ability/skill/talent that comes naturally to a few others since anyone with a intelligence 10+ can be taught to cast cantrips or level 1 spells with a intelligence of 11+ .

FirstAdam
2008-02-06, 01:30 PM
Wizards use magic like the Force in the original Star Wars Trilogy. Sorcerers are like the prequels with the whole midi-chlorian mess.

sikyon
2008-02-06, 02:07 PM
This is how I think of it:

Using arcane magic is like moving air in the atmosphere.

Sorceror's have the innate ability to blow.

Wizards learn how to make fans to fan the air around them.

Learnedguy
2008-02-06, 02:07 PM
They bug reality by saying very complex code out loud.

Or maybe they are just very good at dividing by zero.

Illiterate Scribe
2008-02-06, 02:09 PM
This is how I think of it:

Using arcane magic is like moving air in the atmosphere.

Sorceror's have the innate ability to blow.

Wizards learn how to make fans to fan the air around them.

Deep, man.:smalltongue:

Yakk
2008-02-06, 02:10 PM
The laws of nature in a D&D universe include magic.

If you make the right mental thoughts, do the right preparation, and use the right gestures and utterances, things happen.

Wizards figure this out via intense study to get it exactly right.

Sorcerers, on the other hand, have their knowledge passed down to them via their blood.

Other beings, such as Warlocks and Clerics, make deals with external powers who provide them with the power to create magical effects.

In the real world, knowing how to program a computer or solve a physics problem is a skill that takes years of practice to become half decent at, and results in you being able to do things that other people cannot. The same is true for learning how to shoot a bow, or how to juggle.

There is a field of activity in D&D that bends what we would call the laws of physics. This is called wizardry. With enough practice and study and brains, you can bend reality itself to your whim.