Discussion:Magic in a Godless Setting

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Kanon (talk)

Hi, so I’m working on a campaign called Broadbarrel and I was wondering whether or not magic would work in the way that it does in the setting. See this page. It works in spaces where the weave is concentrated because there is no god of magic to guide it, and I was wondering if this is canonically correct, or if the weave works the same whether there is a deity of magic or not.

Oborosen (talk) 23:04, 13 October 2020 (MDT)

Well, the simplest way to answer that. Would be to say both yes, and no. This is D&D, there are more than a few settings that don't legitimately have gods who oversee magic, or even miracles for that matter.

Even when Ao banished all of the gods to the mortal realm, which of course included the goddess of magic, all magic still worked. Though her absence was eventually felt in the fact that some magic had the chance to spontaneously become wild and there was no one gatekeeping magic. So older spells that were forbidden by the gods, could now be cast. Such as level 11th & 12th magic.

What you need to do is find out how to rationalize just how "Your" ideal of magic, works in this way.

Qnang5284 (talk) 04:47, 19 June 2021 (MDT)

Well, according to D&D canon (which, I understand, is your main concern), you don't always need gods for magic to exist.

Let me break it down: Magic is derived from the planes of existence. There are, mainly, two categories of magic: Arcane Magic and Divine Magic. Divine Magic, the one associated with the gods (Clerics, Druids, Paladins...) are drained from the Outer Planes, which is where the "Gods" dwell in. Arcane Magic on the other hand, (bards, sorcerers, wizards... the one you use to fireball shit off) come from the Inner Planes, the planes of elemental raw power and such. There is another (and others) sources of magic, such as psionics, which have nothing to do with planes... or at least not so intimately related with them.

So yeah, your setting would work, nevertheless, just make a sensible explanation of why it works that way.

Also, keep in mind that "BECAUSE" counts as a sensible explanation.