Thursday, February 15, 2024

Castles&Crusades: Magic

     I do not love magic, which is ironic since I have been running fantasy games since I was 11 years old. As a game master, I find magic to be annoying: it creates complexities that slow the game down--conditions, areas of effects, resistances, time variables, etc. When I run a game, I rarely use spells against my players because I can't be bothered to keep track of them, and when my players do use spells, I tend to handwave a lot of things. 

    As I think about this now, I have not always felt this way. Because 5e is so freaking overpowered, I have learned--after running two full campaigns--that magic is an ass pain. Wizards and clerics are too powerful: they have offensive cantrips, they have more spell slots, and they have access to more powerful magic. The entire system is, in my opinion, more like a superhero game than a fantasy game. 

    Having just now read through the Castles&Crusades section on magic (not the spell descriptions; just the overview of what magic is and how magic works), I like it better already. Being a wizard should be difficult. You should have to struggle to survive, be weak and wobbly for a while, and slowly grow in power until you are utterly terrifying. That's how a wizard should work. Yeah, it's hard when you are at lower levels, but if your protection is prioritized by your party, you will become a weapon to be reckoned with. 

    My attitude is old school for sure. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

9 June 2026 "There are other worlds than this..." Module vs. Campaign vs. World

      There is a small but vocal (and caustic!) faction online the the TTRPG space called the BrOSR. These guys tend to be Christian, conser...