#Dnd 5e homebrew classes without magic how to#

And the rest of magic in D&D works how it works because Jeremy Crawford said so and that’s why. Even if that means rubbing different - and wholly incompatible - incarnations of magic from different editions against each other. Or at least, most magic works in D&D the way it’s worked in at least one prior edition of D&D.

Thus, most magic in D&D works the way it’s always worked in D&D. And that, because it was magic, they could also change it however they wanted. I think they just assumed magic worked the way it’s always worked in every edition of D&D. I don’t believe for a single, solitary f$&%ing second that D&D’s designers and developers gave any thought to how magic works from a setting perspective. Thus, even if s$&%’s not explicitly defined or explained, the game’s players can still infer at least some of the fluffy narrative details from the game’s rules and systems. But the designers should have some understanding of how their game’s world works so they can build consistent mechanics to represent that s$&%. Games don’t have to explicitly explain everything. It doesn’t try to explain what magic is or where it comes from or how and why it works. See, D&D’s current E doesn’t really address anything about magic in setting terms. What I’m talking about is how magic fits into the fantastic, imaginary world of D&D. I’m not talking about spell slots and class progressions and magic mechanics. But - as I already explained in the Long, Rambling Introduction™ - I’m not talking about the rules here. At least in the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons it is. See? My whole transparency thing’s a two-edged sword, huh?Īnyway… magic is bulls$&%.

Rereading a bunch of old PHBs sounds like hard work to me. Which is a nice way of saying they exist not because I’ve got something to say, but because I need some filler and don’t feel like working very hard at it.

#Dnd 5e homebrew classes without magic how to#

And if it’s bad, all that matters is how to unbad it.īesides, these bulls$&% articles are supposed to provide me with Breather Levels between the big, important articles. What’s the point in comparing editions anymore? All that matters - assuming you want to run the least worst game possible - all that matters is the edition you’ve got in front of you. Hell, there used to actually be some magic lore in D&D. At least, it used to be a lot more consistent. Initially, I was going to compare the current crop of magic lore in 5E to the s$&% from older editions to show you that, even though D&D’s always been pretty crappy on the magic lore front, it used to be a lot better. I’m ranting about the narrative and story and worldbuilding s$&% behind D&D’s magic systems. And everyone’s talking about hard and soft magic these days and which one’s better. Everyone’s got a rant about how awful Vancian magic is and how D&D 5E is not not-Vancian enough. It’s gonna be 90% pissing and moaning about how the magic systems in D&D are total bulls$&% these days. While I generally don’t know where these bulls$&% articles are actually going to go when I start them, I do know this one’s taking a midnight express to Ranty Town. Even it’s stream-of-vomit-consciousness usually contains some chunks of wisdom. That said, my brain’s pretty f$&%ing amazing. Just my brain vomiting up some thoughts about D&D. It’s just a bunch of blather and yammer about a topic I think’s worth yammering and blathering about. There’s no rules or hacks to cram into your game. It ain’t a deep dive into basic GMing skills.

First, let me do the standard disclaimer.