[General] D20 What ARE Spell-Slots anyway?
Or making mechanics feel more magical...
What are Spell-Slots?
No, I don't mean what WoTC says they are in the PHB.
That seems awfully vanilla for what magic really is; a force supernatural, wildly untamed, and inhumanly bizarre...
Sure, I guess preforming spells makes you tired (and asking how a character would feel after casting a spell is an interesting question) but the mechanical limits of spell-slots offer a billion more interesting lore opportunities.
Here are 20 ideas, partially inspired by this excellent old blogpost.
Some of these impose a heavy consequence for casting above your spell-slots instead of a hard ban; but the play opportunities were too tasty to ignore. Enjoy.
- D20 Spell-Slots -
[PDF HERE]
1. The ruling government issues licensed wizards permissions to cast that amount of spells.
2. The laws of physics limit castable magic, as they do all things.
3. It is always possible to cast beyond your spell slots, but things NEVER work as intended.
4. Jealous of mortal ingenuity, the gods set these limits themselves.
5. Casting beyond your spell slots turns into blood magic; draining all the blood from the wizard's nearest and dearest.
6. When a mind is wrenched open beyond it's spell-slots, all sorts of infectious in-between entities would gladly enter in.
7. Wizards of a certain power are greedy; and would gladly hunt and devour your mind, or simply extinguish it, should they notice extraordinary power.
8. No-one knows what a "spell-slot" is, but a caster magically strained tends to crumble into ash.
9. Spells hate their siblings being in temporal proximity; casting too many too close together causes them to strike.
10. The universe is predetermined. Spell slots are just the number of spells you will cast that day. Fate has deemed it so.
11. Spells are the tendrils of the soul, and the soul only ever has so many tendrils.
12. Destiny herself limits spells. Prove yourself worthy.
13. A manifestation of ego, limited by self-doubt. Casting more spells causes an infinite loop of increasing self-belief and increasing ability.
14. Each caster is bound to an invisible omnipotent genie, the slots are just your wishes for that day.
15. Over time, magic users develop a benign bloat in the appendix, allowing the casting of greater spells more frequently.
16. Each casting is a manifestation of love, desire, and desperation from the caster; and the average mortal heart can only let go of so much each day.
17. Magicians attract plasmic parasites, each one an individual spell. They regroup each morning, sometimes having multiplied.
18. Buried beneath each mumbled incantation is the name of a god. Invoking such names too frequently draws unwarranted divine attention...
19. Magic is a waking dream; and anyone indulging too frequently cannot distinguish between the waking world and their fantasies.
20. Once, the night sky was full of stars. With each spell cast, another goes out. You wouldn't want to darken the night, would you?
That's all for now.
Thanks so much for reading, as always, and let me know how your cheeky 1st-level wizard manages to subvert the system entirely!
Woah!! These are really cool!