What sources of magic would oppose each other?

Question

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I honestly did not know how to search for it properly as my question is more broadly than the arcana class Wizards use, which is often what I find. Rather, I am more confused about the broader scope; understanding how one class of magic might perceive the others, which one they would feel as a competitive rival, and which ones would be complete oppositions.

For instance, I read that druid magic is sourced by nature and has a strong focus on maintaining the natural life cycle. Therefore, it is directly opposed to undead creatures and necromancy, which defies such an order. However, I am still unsure how the druids feel about other forms of arcana, eldritch, or divine magic. Would they see an Archfey Warlock as a cousin to their cause?

Given that they can be sourced from warring factions such as devils, demons, and celestials, I thought that there would be more lore readily available, but perhaps due to my lack of effectively communicating my query in a single question, I am not finding the answer.

Answer 1

There isn’t really anything like this.

Certain forces, groups, or ideologies may oppose certain uses for magic. For instance, druids may be opposed to using necromancy to thwart death, because it is “unnatural.” Many clerics—as in, almost-all of the good ones and a large chunk of the neutral ones—oppose it also, because it is “evil.” But this is specific opposition to undeath in all its forms—not in what sort of magic created them. And it’s consistent with the broader themes of each of these groups—druids oppose all things unnatural, good clerics oppose all things evil.

Moreover, you conflate undeath and necromancy, but that’s not accurate. Necromancy can do a lot of things unrelated to undead creatures—and druids have no problem with those uses of necromancy. Indeed, several necromancy spells, such as blight, are “classic” druid spells. Blight has nothing to do with the undead, and druids don’t have a problem with it.

Anyway, there is no objection to arcane magic among divine-magic users, no objection to divine magic among nature-magic users, and so on. Eldritch magic has some opposition—from everybody, simply because it is dangerous. But again, this is more like the opposition to undead creatures—it’s not like a fiend-patron warlock is any more objectionable than a fiend-summoning wizard.

There are a few specific exceptions. I don’t believe 5e has printed any of them, but there are a number of god-hating groups within the wider canon of D&D, such as ethergaunts and ur-priests. They object to divine magic. And in the Dark Sun campaign setting, arcane magic is universally feared and hated—because in that setting, arcane magic needs to draw upon the life force of the surrounding environment, and its overuse has turned the entire planet to a barren husk. But these are special exceptions, and you find rather the opposite thing in other exceptional situations: for example, in the Forgotten Realms, all magic ultimately comes from Mystra, even the non-divine ones. An objection to a particular type of magic wouldn’t make any sense there.