Questions tagged [magic]
For questions about the nature of magic in a game. Use [spells] for questions on specific spells, and [spellcasting] for questions specifically about the process of spellcasting.
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How does D&D Vancian magic make sense in-game?
One thing that bugs me about Vancian Magic in D&D as I understand it is the following: How is "fire and forget" remotely believable when I can slot and ready more than one "copy&...
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How do I know if an ability is magical?
Often confusion arises when the Antimagic Field spell is used, an Armor of Invulnerability is worn, or the Beholder's anti-magic ray is employed, whether a given character's ability will still ...
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Can wizards really cast spells in armor?
I've just read the D&D 5e basic rules, and I'm not sure I'm up to speed regarding casting spells while clad in armor. The only mention I can find about this (page 79):
Because of the mental focus ...
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Can a creature take turns as normal if they are inside an Antimagic Field while another creature casts Time Stop?
Time stop is a spell that stops time for other creatures, allowing one creature to take multiple turns in a row. It says:
You briefly stop the flow of time for everyone but yourself. No time passes ...
user62688
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How do I keep spellcasters from casting while in jail?
Interesting situation came up in my session. The players captured a wizard NPC and put him in jail. Then came a long discussion about what measures needed to be taken in order to prevent said wizard ...
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Medieval problems in a magical world
This is a bit of a broad question, but I will try to narrow it down to this:
When GMing a medieval fantasy, and conflicts arise between the medieval times and the magical world (mostly D&D and ...
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Do teleportation spells conserve momentum?
To be more specific, do teleportation spells conserve momentum from before to after the obvious infinite violation of momentum conservation inherent in instantaneous magical travel? Credit to nitsua60 ...
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Is there a functional reason for wizards to live in towers so often?
The concept of wizard towers seems to predate D&D, but has there been a functional reason for this added to D&D? I'm going to be using the answer specifically in 5e, but wizard towers ...
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What is the difference between an Arcane Focus and a Component Pouch?
Reading through the Player's Handbook, I've noticed that the Sorceror, Warlock and Wizard classes can all take either an arcane focus or a component pouch. My understanding is that an arcane focus ...
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Creating a city made of illusion that won't be quickly figured out
We are playing DnD5e in custom world. This is going to be my first time as DM. Currently I'm trying to get my first adventure together. My idea was to trap my players in the city, which is just an ...
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How are spells made permanent in 5e?
As we all know, the golden-age era of spellcasters having access to spells like Permanency is now over with the arrival of 5E. I am now DM'ing a top-tier campaign, and several of my PCs are casters ...
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How can I make crime meaningful for rich players?
For the D&D 5e campaign I'm DMing, the party has been caught for a murder of a government official and put on trial. Out of character, a player pointed out that his character can just pay for a ...
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What should a GM do about players using magic in unforeseen game-breaking ways?
Firstly, a quick anecdote. In our most recent Pathfinder session our cleric jokingly mentioned he will soon be able to summon 1d3 dolphins. Another player then mentioned that some dolphins (orca) can ...
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What is the reason to only give casters a single high level slot up to the upper levels? [closed]
Looking at the spellcasting progression, casters only get a single 8th and a single 9th level slot, from when the spell level becomes available up to the 20th level(1). A similar situation happens to ...
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Does ki count as magic for the purpose of an antimagic field, or is it only fluff?
I was verifying whether my fighter's Sun Blade would in fact be a useless hilt in an antimagic field (AMF) and came across this question on a few other sites, and it piqued my interest.
My first ...
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How do I balance a very-low magic campaign?
Recently, my players and I got kind of bored with the fact that Pathfinder relies heavily on magic items than martial prowess for fighting classes. I realize and accept the fact that spellcasters are ...
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Is a pregnant creature considered a single entity for spells such as Banishment? [closed]
Using the D&D 5e RPG system. We'll use a Brown Bear and the spell Banishment as an example. What, if anything, occurs when you attempt to cast such a spell on a creature that is currently pregnant?...
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Does hitting a creature with a magical creature count as magical damage?
Half-Orc Barbarian Conan has been Enlarged, making him Large. During a fight against some Couatls, he managed to grapple one and beat it to death.
Now, having something (the body of the dead Couatl) ...
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Does Forgotten Realms setting count as “High magic”?
Could you please provide some sources about that? I am asking about the categories listed in the DMG in the Starting Equipment equipment table, and for calculating price of enchantment items and such ...
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What magic extends life or grants immortality?
Are there any magic items or spells that extend the natural life of a creature (meaning the age of the creature, and not preventing death from a wound or injury) or that grants immortality in the 5e ...
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Why aren't magocracies and theocracies dominant in D&D settings?
Anyone has (or has links to) well thought-out, logical explanations for why magocracies and theocracies are not the dominant forms of government of D&D worlds? I'd also be really interested in ...
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What are the official opposing schools of magic?
I understand that, in some editions of D&D, there has been this concept of opposing schools of magic, and that specialising in one school may prevent you from learning as another (in the context ...
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What happened to the Permanency spell? [closed]
As the title asks, I'm curious about why the permanency spell isn't in 5e. It's not in the PHB, DMG, or any forum page on the interwebs. It's been incorporated into various spells like true polymorph ...
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How to handle a warlock with the detect magic invocation?
My group has a warlock that took the eldritch invocation eldritch sight which allows them to cast it without consuming a spell slot.
This is causing some concern for me as the DM as I currently have ...
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How to introduce the levelless, cost-based spells of Cthulhu d20 into D&D 5e
Cthulhu d20 has a magic system in which spells aren't tied to classes nor to levels. Anyone can learn and use a spell, if they're willing to pay the price, which usually comes in the form of a ...
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Are illusions just mind tricks or do they produce physical images and sounds?
Do illusions exist as images and sounds in the world, like holograms, or do they exist only in the beholder's mind, like mass hallucinations? There are paragraphs in the PHB that can support both ...
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History of the Wish Spell
A friend of mine was wondering about the history of the wish spell in Dungeons and Dragons. It is his suspicion that the spell “only” exists because they needed something for genies to cast to work in ...
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Does Force damage count as magical if the feature causing it doesn't?
A recent question asked whether it's possible to cause non-magical damage of every damage type, to which the answer was apparently yes. However, a point was raised a couple of times, such as this ...
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Which incarnation is created by True Resurrection when used on a reincarnated creature?
Reincarnate creates a new body for a creature who has died.
True Resurrection is able to create a new body for a creature when the original no longer exists. What happens when a reincarnated creature ...
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How to handle the magical girl genre in Fate Core?
I'm a newcomer to Fate Core, and working out a magic system is daunting. I have read over the core and glanced through the system toolkit as well, but some experience-based advice would be helpful (...
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Making magic "magical" [closed]
When I work with settings that contain magic, whether traditional fantasy or others, I always perceive something of a tension when trying to portray the magic between the following factors:
Magic ...
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Is there a way to force a doppelganger to revert to its true form without killing it?
The scenario is this: The heroes have figured out there's a doppelganger, and they know who it is, but the only way they can prove it is to make it reveal itself as a doppelganger.
The party can use ...
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Does GURPS Thaumatology require GURPS Magic?
If I picked up the sourcebook GURPS Thaumatology, would I need GURPS Magic? There seem to be a lot of negative reviews of 4th-edition GURPS Magic and nothing but rave reviews of Thaumatology.
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How to Reconcile the MERP/RM High-Magic System with the Low-Magic Middle Earth Setting?
Our group is regularly playing in Tolkiens Middle Earth universe, and we use a combination of MERP extended with Rolemaster as our system. And from what I gathered online, this seems to be a popular ...
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What's the in-universe reasoning behind sorcerers needing material components?
Sorcerers are "spontaneous" spell casters. They don't "learn spells" the way a wizard does; their spells aren't granted by a powerful extraplanar entity the way a cleric's, paladin's, or warlock's ...
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What counts as a spell?
There are many things in D&D that are spells, spell-like effects, magical effects, magic-like effects, or otherwise special abilities.
There are also many things that affect such things.
What is ...
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What happens if 2 wizards cast Secret Chest on the same chest?
In my game, in which I play a wizard, I have met an NPC wizard who is willing to let me learn Leomund's Secret Chest from her spellbook. This got me wondering what would happen if I learned the spell ...
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Can a 6th level monk choose to not deal magical damage with unarmed strikes?
In my campaign we have a 6th level monk. She has:
Ki-Empowered Strikes
Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical ...
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Is future technology that is almost indistinguishable from magic considered a "Magical Effect"?
My players are currently in a futuristic setting where they are being shot at by lasers and such. One of my players tried to justify that an antimagic field should be able to disable future tech ...
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What happens when Detect Magic is used upon something that is magically invisible?
Does a simple casting of Detect Magic reveal the presence of magical invisibility?
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How prevalent is magic use among the general population in Shadowrun?
How prevalent is magic use among the general population in Shadowrun?
What percentage (and what "classes") are most likely to use magic? What percentage of this percentage (of these "classes) does ...
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How can I reason with a game master who shoots down any magical solutions?
I have recently joined a game and there were several instances where the dungeon master just shot down any idea that didn't fit her plot.
We were supposed to have this encounter in this forest with ...
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Can detect magic reveal illusions?
In 5th edition, would detect magic reveal illusions such as invisibility, disguise self, etc. by the rules as written? While it would not reveal the nature of the illusion, it would reveal that one is ...
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Are magic weapons and weapons considered magic for the purpose of overcoming resistances different?
After reading an interesting comment in another question, I realized there are some rare cases when the difference between a magic weapon and a weapon considered magical for the purposes of overcoming ...
user27327
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What happens when you target a "magical effect" with Dispel Magic?
In D&D 5e, the spell Dispel Magic says
Choose one creature, object, or magical effect within
range.
The rest of the spell description explains that spells "on the target" of a level lower ...
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How can an NPC replace some pages of a book with different pages, without leaving a trace of manipulation?
A NPC in my adventure (set in Eberron), which I lead as DM, wants to replace some maps in a book with different maps. The person removes the maps by cutting out the pages containing them and somehow ...
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Can a Spiritual Weapon be summoned within someone's body?
A little bit out of left field I know, but someone in my game tried to summon a Spiritual Weapon within an enemy's body. Now, strictly speaking the range of the spell is 60' and doesn't say anything ...
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Should encounters be adjusted to a full-magic party?
I am still a new GM and I am building a session for three first-time players. After discussing the game, rules and setting, all of them are interested in playing magic characters (Draconic Sorcerer, ...
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Can the Nystul's Magic Aura spell make you immune to/unable to be targeted by the Dominate Person spell?
Nystul's Magic Aura can make it so that magic and spells treat a creature as though it were another creature type. However the extent of this effect is ambiguous.
At first, it says the following, ...
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Why does arcane magic work outside Toril?
I'm currently DMing a campaign in the Forgotten Realms, but I want to later on add some Planescape and Spelljammer stuff in the story, allowing the PCs to travel beyond the world of Toril to other ...
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