Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
I don't think ascribing things to nebulous "innate talent" is a satisfying solution, really, since that posits that all PCs (or just those that want to multiclass into a casting class, perhaps) happen to be drawn from a pool of exceptional individuals, and while many PCs have that kind of backstory there's plenty who have the "just an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances" backstory and don't want to discover midway that they've been special all along.

What might make more sense is to say that exposure to magic (both physically being exposed to it and merely encountering and studying it) improves your ability to create and open spell slots. They're magical channels in your mind and body, after all, so having magic flow through you would help with that, and being able to recognize the sensations of magic, see what other magic-users are doing, and so forth can help guide meditations and point out blind spots in practice regimens.

This helps explain why fighter PCs can pick up wizardry faster than an apprentice wizard if they want to--if you're repeatedly getting fireball'd and cure wounds'd on a daily basis and running into all sorts of strange magical fields, you can skip a lot of the basic regimens because you don't need several weeks to sense your chakras (they're still smarting from that behir's breath last weekend, thankyouverymuch), a month to figure out how to totally clear your mind (that mystical fountain on the third level of that tomb had a fairly similar effect), and so forth. It also explains why non-wizard arcanists might congregate in guilds (just being around experienced spellcasters is helpful for apprentices even if you don't directly learn anything from them), why wizards build towers (it concentrates lots of magic to make it easier for you to open your spell slots), and other setting conceits.
First, I'm very firmly of the opinion that all PCs have extraordinary potential, even the non-spell casters. It's part of the "innate magic" side of the theory. In 5e (where this theory originates), a 1st level Fighter (who is described as an apprentice) is already significantly better than a Guard. A 1st level wizard is much better than an Apprentice Wizard (the NPC stat block). And if anyone could achieve the pinnacle of human potential in a few months, there would have to be a lot more high power people around. Which makes for horrible worldbuilding. So I've made it canon in my setting that each individual has a cap on their potential for growth. Basically a maximum amount of aether they can handle. Most people cap at the equivalent of levels 1-3, if even they get that far, with exponential fall-off from there. So having PCs (and select others) with extraordinary potential works for me.

Also, I wanted to allow for non-traditional backstories. The 1st level Outlander Wizard who found a moldering spellbook on a desiccated corpse and learned magic in a few months or even a year (when most would take years of guided study). The bard who awoke to his potential while performing in a tavern. The soldier called by Torm on the battlefield, casting his first healing spell on the spot. I want to make it possible for the apprentice to a guild craftsman in a village to awaken to his potential and harness his inner rage, learning the art of the axe in (relatively) no time at all. I want to explain why that folk hero halfling can learn to cast spells in weeks without a significant magical training facility around, while the common high elf takes many years to learn that racial cantrip and may never progress beyond that.

I feel PCs should be special. Not because we're paying attention to them but rather the reverse. We're paying attention to them because they're special and doing interesting things. If they weren't special or interesting, we'd follow someone who is. D&D is not a game about ordinary people. It's about heroes, doing heroic deeds. So having them be special is, to me, the presumption.

But your tack would work for those who feel otherwise. It's a good model, just not one I happen to like personally.