Curious about magic?

[Typhon]

So I keep seeing many people on the forums talking about the various spell casters and how they imagine them.

My question is simple and I am just trying to see what the consensus is, there is no right or wrong. I am just trying to ascertain what Playgrounders see as training for the role of an arcane spellcaster, divine spellcaster a monk and/or a mystic. I am also curious as to how others perceive their day to day life as such a spellcaster would be.

I bring this up mostly because I have noticed people who are prefer spellcasters seem to think that after attaining magical power, their character just doesn't care about the mundane anymore. Such as trying to avoid weapons over spells, avoiding practical armor over spells, and, well, trying to solve everything with magic. I get it, that is your fantasy belief and it is a good one. I just see it a little different.

To me, Clerics live to serve their Gods and Druids become at one with the spirits of nature. Theirs is a life of service and reverence to those that grant them their powers. Similar for a Paladin and Ranger, just more directly combative to the opposition. Magic is a blessing bestowed on them and one that can be just as easily removed.

Warlocks are the essential ritual casters as I see them gaining their powers from a ritual that bonded them in service/allowed them to steal a portion of power for a Greater Being. However they came to gain their powers, be it a chance deal or discovery during study, the power is their to control as long as they can. If they serve, they do so at their own risk and if they stole it is only as long as fortune favors them.

Sorcerers are born to their power, it is their blood and a defining part of who they are as much as what they are. No matter how it is that they became infused with it, the power simply is theirs to command and forge with purpose.

Bards are the harmony of the spirits of the world and the secrets of knowledge that hide in plain sight. They are a force that can heal the body and the soul, heedless of Gods and spirits. Yet their words and will can charge a mob into a fighting force to be reckoned with. Their power is gained with wit and play countering the oppressiveness of the worlds bleakness.

Wizards find their power in their study of ritual and knowledge. Theirs is power by determination to seek it out, and bring it to bear. Through long hours of study, labors of the body to show determination to persevere to a master or school, and the dangers of experimentation that may do harm to themselves or others. Wizards are flexible to a fault and that flexibility is where they must accept their powers having limitations.

Monks seek unity and perfection of self. Tempering the body to be the extension of the spirit. The spirit harnessed by the mind to empower the body. The monk seeks to rely on only her/himself and to live as one with their world. In doing so they may become more than mortal.

The Mystic seeks to bring forth the full power of their mind and use that power to bend reality. Their strength is not in muscle. Their dexterity is in thought and not flesh. For all the power they possess within their mind, their body is still mortal. Their meditations have sought out the darkest corners of their own minds and given them clarity into themselves.

But that is how I see them. Let me know what you think and if you would be so kind, let me know how you see the spellcasters.

[Honest Tiefling]

I sorta been playing around with the idea that clerics don't always devote themselves to the ideals of a religion...But satisfies a god. They make the ritual offerings so the god blesses a city. They do the dirty work of a god on the mortal plane because the god tells them they ought to if they want to keep their standing and all of the benefits.

The god does not care for a spiritual unity between mortal and god, they care about stuff getting done. Blessings are to be bartered with a city, divine power given according to who is willing to honor and serve.

Think of how Athena gained control of Athens from Poseidon. He offered jewels and all of riches of the oceans for worship, she offered knowledge. They did not seek to change people's minds, but to make it clear the power of a god and the benefit of following one.

[Typhon]

I sorta been playing around with the idea that clerics don't always devote themselves to the ideals of a religion...But satisfies a god. They make the ritual offerings so the god blesses a city. They do the dirty work of a god on the mortal plane because the god tells them they ought to if they want to keep their standing and all of the benefits.

The god does not care for a spiritual unity between mortal and god, they care about stuff getting done. Blessings are to be bartered with a city, divine power given according to who is willing to honor and serve.

Think of how Athena gained control of Athens from Poseidon. He offered jewels and all of riches of the oceans for worship, she offered knowledge. They did not seek to change people's minds, but to make it clear the power of a god and the benefit of following one.

I didn't think that I had insinuated spiritual unity with between the deity and divine casters. Mostly the subservience and giving offerings which you also noted, is what I was trying to get at. The whole with out sacrifice one does not gain power kind of deal.

[DragonSorcererX]

This is mostly for my homebrew world, but, it is how I see the classes:

Clerics: Through study, faith, and meditation, you forged a connection between you and your deity. You draw your power from this connection and you will not lose it while you have your faith even if what you are doing is considered wrong by other members of your religion, while you believe in your deity and also believe that you are working for him, you can keep your power (Paladins are the same).

Warlocks: They are like sorcerers, except that the source of their magics is foreign to their being, violent and invasive. This power is so violent that it gives the warlocks the ability to cast the most powerful cantrip, Eldritch Blast, by simply unleashing this energy. Also, this invasive power slowly changes their body, mind and soul into something similar of the creatures of the same type as their patrons, outsiders.

Sorcerers: While sorcerers can be people born with the innate ability to cast spells, most of them are forced into being or have their power forcibly awakened. Bandits, goblins and similar evil humanoids inject themselves with something that is simply called "magical juice", this thing is a mix of anything of magical nature that they can find mixed into a concoction that most of times kills the user or leave it completely warped and twisted, but when it works, it creates wild sorcerers. Dragonborns forcibly awaken the powers in their children using enchantment and illusion spells to make them think from the deepest parts of their soul that they are in mortal danger or that someone they want to protect is in mortal danger and this unlocks the explosive draconic power. Some human, elven and even dwarven wizards infuse their young with elemental might to create sorcerers, who are cheaper to train and more useful in the battlefield than wizards.

Bards: TBD.

Wizards: Same as you.

Monks: Same as you.

Artificers: Artificers are similar to wizards, except that they work to create alchemical and technomagical objects that can be used by others, some of their creations include the firepowder (basically gunpowder), the pistol, the musket, and the gunsmith signature weapon, the thunder canon.

Mystic: While mystics can exist everywhere in the world, the humans are the only ones that truly use the psionic powers to their maximum. Most of human soldiers are either martial or psionic. Some human psionic soldiers can shoot enemies from up to 800 ft, others can survive months without food or water, others can heal their fellow combatants with their psionic power and a few can kill their enemies without moving a single finger or shedding blood.

Druids, Rangers and other Hippies: Same as clerics, but more like 4th edition stuff of spirits of nature.