In your system or setting, how do you explain magic failing to cast? Traditionally magic gets a handwave from grognards, but for those of you who have more explicit and described phenomenon, how do you go about reasoning a failed casting?
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The wizard briefly thought about breasts and lost focus.
Every
Single
Time
> "רוחות, בבקשה תהרוג את אשתי"
> "רוחות, בבקשה תהרוג את אשתי"
> "רוחות, בבקשה תהרוג את אשתי"
> *Hrmm, that woman at the stables had a nice pair*
> ...
> "Dammit"
>those specific runes
more like
>*Hmmm, that merchant in Balmora had a nice pair of coins*
>...
>"Oy Veyyyy"
You performed the gestures or chanted the words slightly wrong. The rituals are incredibly finicky and a single finger bent at the wrong angle or a syllable out of place will make it not work.
Magic is like the Law in rl.
Any lawyer who tells you you have a 100% sure case is 100% lying to you. This varies a lot from one field to another, civil cases in many jurisdiction are a lot more 'set', but anything to do with IP Law, for example, its like tossing a coin. I consider myself a good lawyer and I hate IP law because I can only predict about 50% of the outcome. Worse than that if its in LA. Frick that place.
But anyways, preparing a good case is like putting all the odds you can on your side, but regardless, there's always a 1-5% chance the judge is gonna be moronic that day.
tfw the magic judge refuses to grant a certificate of appealability
>In your system or setting, how do you explain magic failing to cast?
casting a spell is basically to use the contextual correct combination of power words, signs and thoughts to trigger an extremely unlikely event to manifest in a serendipitous combination of chance. For example the spell that allows you to make a burst of flame out if thin air could be achieved using different formulae combinations depending on the situation the mage is currently which he tries to guess by intuition alone on the spot. Failing the spells only means that the mage couldn't get the correct combination with that attemp (he failed the roll to cast). Sometimes he can make some catastrophic wrong assumption triggering inadvertently a dangerous combination (a critical spell failure) with unforseen results (some magical backfire), some other time may figure the perfect combination making the desired spell extra effective (critical success).
Spellcasting is simultaneously like bulk-buying a product as an investment, and using a handwriting-to-text app. If you trace the rune incorrectly, magic goes “idk wtf you want from me”, and leaves you with tonnes of excess product (energy).
depends on the components, you didn’t do the finger wiggle right, you mispronounced the abracadabra, you lost focus etc
>holy magic
As long as you aren't going against your god, the spells WILL succeed. The problem is that, in order to regain magic power, you need to make rituals properly.
Frick up when sacrificing an ox, and no one knows whether the god is unhappy or simply doesn't notice the sacrifice, but you aren't getting much power back.
>animism
There's no spells. You can fail to find spirits, or fail to communicate to them - possibly pissing them off.
If you manage to make a deal with a spirit, or to force your will onto it with your spiritual might, then the spirit will do its best to do it's duty.
If you piss off the fire spirit, then you're the one getting burned.
Things mostly "fail" due to the spirit not being interested in helping, or the PC not agreeing with whatever the spirit wants in exchange for its help.
>folk magic
Channeling the natural magic of the world. Very easy and available, it's easy to get a spell or two for free during character creation.
It's not academic, but instinctual. You have a certain amount of slowly refilling magic power, and success/failure is about how well you channel that natural energy. The spell costs no power on a critical, double power on a fail (but the spell still works), and double power plus a wild magic table roll instead of the expected effect on a critical fail.
>sorcery
Extremely complex rituals to manipulate the nature of the world and magic itself. It can take hours, days or even months to cast a single spell, but it's the most powerful magic by far.
It's messing with the fabric of reality. Do anything wrong, and the results can be catastrophic. The rituals are highly experimental, poorly understood, and very complicated, so errors are sort of like bugs in programming. You can get anything from the spell just not working, to it getting stuck on a devastating loop, to it wrecking the entire region or even a chunk of the world.
Sorcerers are rare, since they tend to nuke themselves with their research.
Magic is pulled from an outer proto-reality, sometimes that reality says no.
In my setting
> Psionics
I compare this to demanding physical skills, like juggling, doing a cartwheel, or sprinting or an extended period of time. Your brain is trying to do something (speak telepathically for example), but just like juggling, you need to practice to get it consistently, and even if you practice alot, you can still mess it up by sheer chance (like how even though you walk all day you can stub your toe on a table leg). With juggling, you don't throw a ball high enough or lose focus on one of the balls. With Psionics, you don't have the mental effort to produce the effect, or you make a mistake in how your focusing your mind. Obviously it's not a perfect comparison, but you get it. It's a skill that you need to hone to get consistently.
> Sorcery Rituals
I compare this to putting on a musical performance. You need to produce the correct sounds at precise times and frequencies, and make the correct movements with your body over a long time (at least 10 minutes in my setting). Additionally, if you don't have the Rituals words/movements laid out in front of you (it's "sheetmusic" so to speak), there's a chance you forget where you're up to in the "song", or accidentally sing the chorus an extra time, wienering up the whole thing. Again, it's a skill you need to hone to get right.
This means that people who work to hone/master these skills will eventually be able to produce powerful effects consistently. Like how professional musicians can play something crazy and make it look effortless.
In the case of magic-users competing (like two Psionicists trying to read each others mind), you can compare it to wrestling. It's a skill you need to hone, and it's possible for a noob Psionicist to beat a more competent Psionicist.
With Sorcerous Rituals that call upon spirits though, there's just a chance that there are no spirits "near by" to hear your call, so even if you play the song perfectly, it doesn't matter if no ones around to hear it.
🙂
Casting a spell requires drawing a magic sigil in the air with your wand/staff/other casting implement. If you go too quickly or your hands are shaky, you flub it and the spell doesn't cast.
The really complex spells require you to draw a three dimensional shape rather than just a flat sigil. Truly complex ritual spells are four dimensional, you have to update them over time as you go. Naturally, the equivalent of cantrips are basically one dimensional - just a move in a single direction with a point.
Correlating the spells difficulty to the dimensionality of your gestures is cringe af, but I like the idea of spells needing updating over time.
It's kinda the other way around, the dimensionality determines how difficult it is.
I spoke of correlation, not of causation. And yes, I got your concept. Cringe af.
I like the dimensional idea alot. It explains why humans can't produce extreme magical effects, because they require a 5D sigil. Cool idea anon 🙂
In AD&D the overwhelming reason spells fail is because the wizard gets hit with an attack while he's casting - unless he's also wearing armor and sucking up the outright spell failure chance. Then on top of all that is fairly common for different places (Ravenloft, Planescape) to alter magic, causing some spells to auto-fail if not worse.