Quote Originally Posted by Thrudd View Post
Yeah, having such an open-ended magic system comes with its own problems. World of Darkness does that in the Mage games, and GURPS can do it, too. In Mage, you gain skill in general categories of magic called disciplines and can create any effect that you can justify as being related to that category; the level of your skill in each discipline determines how powerful/extensive/long lasting the effect can be. The problems can be that what you can accomplish is highly dependent on the GM's rulings. The benefit of neatly defined spells is obvious for a game that has a tactical element.

It's true, D&D wizards don't "master arcane forces". They gather and learn how to use spells that someone else created, by means most wizards don't and never will understand. To try to fluff it otherwise does cause verisimilitude conflicts, which annoys me about some of the D&D rule books that make this mistake and cause confusion in players. Why are there just these specific spells with such specific effects? They are probably just a small set of what was once a far more extensive repertoire created by the people that really had mastered the arcane forces, that has now been lost. Why did the masters of the arcane codify spells in this manner? Maybe for their own reference/posterity, or as a shortcut to access the effects that were commonly used, or to allow less masterful people to access some useful magical effects.

Although 5e cantrips sort of give that feel, of being able to create a lot of minor and open ended effects at will.
So what you're telling me is that Wizards have convinced everyone including themselves that they are delving into the inner workings of the universe when in reality they are just gathering tricks, bobs and ends from old books?
That is fantastic.