I have been working more on my shared world and want to reintroduce the "Chosen of Mystra" as a playable 5e "prestige class" available to spellcasters of 17th level and higher.
My thoughts were that Mystra would grant her "Chosen" the use of one 10th level spell per long rest.
I thought that getting a single 10th level spell slot would be worth the investment. The person that I am building this world with however feels that 10th level magic is far too powerful for 5e and that giving players access to even a single 10th level spell is a bad idea.
Just how powerful would a 10th level spell be, and is this not something that should exist in 5e, or could it be okay, if a player wanted to invest that much time and effort into becoming a "chosen?"
Can I have the communities opinions because me and my friend that I am building this world, can't agree? So what does the community think? Is epic-level magic awesome, or should it be avoided like the plague?
To answer your question about how powerful 10th Level spells are, there's one that can create a volcano, one that can lift an entire mountain, turn it upside down and make it float forever, a spell that can create a Mythal, one that can kill every living creature within a huge radius and so on.
As for the ability to use 10th level spells being banned...
Based on what Ed Greenwood said in a Q&A, even Mystra couldn't grant someone a 10th level spell as she wasn't the one that banned spells beyond 9th Level.
Apparently it was actually AO that did that, but mortals don't typically know about AO so they all coined it Mystra's Ban seeing her as the Goddess of Magic and in control of it all...
Yes. We know it in the Realms as Mystra's Ban because of priestly teachings (propaganda). "Regular folk" know nothing of Ao, but everyone knows about the goddess of magic.
At the time the Ban was enacted, Mystryl was in no condition to ban anything, and Mystra didn't exist yet.
Also apparently that ban not only applies to all mortals, but also to all beings, including gods.
@TheEdVerse
Ao cut off access through the Weave to spells above a certain power level (9th level in Torilian arcane magic terms) after the Folly of Karsus the over-reaching mortal. This means that more powerful spells fail upon casting when they access the Weave; it doesnft matter who casts them (so the spells of gods, archdevils, demon princes would fail, when cast into Realmspace, out of Realmspace, or within Realmspace).
It would be the power to unmake a world, or recreate it.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The FR 10+ level spells are silly. The 3e Epic Level Handbook gave a more coherent treatment of epic level spells. There were your traditional spells that could be upcast using metamagic feat to use a slot of 10th-level or higher... so an intensified (maximize damage, then double) meteor swarm required a 16th-level slot, which was only available to casters with a feat and a casting stat of 44+. The epic spells in that book were customizable, and weren't necessarily game-breaking, but generally had costly components. They also aren't ranked according to a spell level, but there were some that were absurdly difficult to cast.
I thought that getting a single 10th level spell slot would be worth the investment. The person that I am building this world with however feels that 10th level magic is far too powerful for 5e and that giving players access to even a single 10th level spell is a bad idea.
Your friend is right, especially given that there is no real "investment" here. Requiring a quest or some RP as "balance" for a stronger ability is silly because the character would be doing quests and RPing anyway. Give it a benefit on par with other class/subclass benefits of that level, or make it an epic boon for players after hitting 20 and make sure you have equivalent bonuses to hand out to all character types, not just spellcasters.
The Epic Level Handbook was known even among 3.0 products (which already had a bad rep) for being incredibly poorly balanced.
Sure, but the principles (a continuous scaling of spells) were more coherent than some weird divine barrier of character ability beyond which spells become ridiculous, especially with D&D's Vancian magic.
The Epic Level Handbook was known even among 3.0 products (which already had a bad rep) for being incredibly poorly balanced.
Sure, but the principles (a continuous scaling of spells) were more coherent than some weird divine barrier of character ability beyond which spells become ridiculous, especially with D&D's Vancian magic.
Only because the only thing that 10+ level slots did was give you more options for metamagic to increase the spell's range, duration, area of effect, or damage.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I thought that getting a single 10th level spell slot would be worth the investment. The person that I am building this world with however feels that 10th level magic is far too powerful for 5e and that giving players access to even a single 10th level spell is a bad idea.
Your friend is right, especially given that there is no real "investment" here. Requiring a quest or some RP as "balance" for a stronger ability is silly because the character would be doing quests and RPing anyway. Give it a benefit on par with other class/subclass benefits of that level, or make it an epic boon for players after hitting 20 and make sure you have equivalent bonuses to hand out to all character types, not just spellcasters.
This. I feel like there really wouldn't be point of a 10th level spell since anyone powerful enough to cast it wouldn't a) be out adventuring and/or b) even want to cast it. It's pretty much a "campaign over" tool that in some ways defeat the purpose of playing.
And it would be very unblanaced, especially at 17th level.
Thanks for all your replies everyone. It seems that most people agree that that 10th level magic would be a bad idea.
Maybe because I like magic so much, I really want to see more of it and more powerful versions as well.
My problem is that magic in 5e feels really low level. Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring.
I think Akko from "Little Witch Academia" best says how I feel about magic, when she's says. "I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
To me magic is the stuff of creation. It lives inside everyone and everything and it is truly wonderful, wondrous and awe inspiring. Those who see a wizard or sorcerer perform magic are inspired to become so much more. Again as Akko remarks when she says. "A few scratches won't stop me! If I say I'm gonna ride a broom, then I will ride it! Even if you don't like it, you're gonna help me win this race! Don’t even try to shake me off now. I'm going to hang on until the end of the world!"
When I consider magic in 5e however, I don't feel inspired to greatness, I don't feel like I could be so much more, I don't see road that would lead me to holding in tight to the ending of the world.
It's not wondrous or awe inspiring, it's just meh.
At least that's how I feel about magic in 5e, and that's why I am constantly searching for that feeling being a mage.
10th level spells aren't technically banned by Mystra, just that it takes multiple casters to cast them. Those casters pretty much have to be elves from what I read as they have to share their minds? Something weird, but yeah 10 11 and 12 are basically lots of caster simultaneously and elves.
Thanks for all your replies everyone. It seems that most people agree that that 10th level magic would be a bad idea.
Maybe because I like magic so much, I really want to see more of it and more powerful versions as well.
My problem is that magic in 5e feels really low level. Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring.
I think Akko from "Little Witch Academia" best says how I feel about magic, when she's says. "I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
To me magic is the stuff of creation. It lives inside everyone and everything and it is truly wonderful, wondrous and awe inspiring. Those who see a wizard or sorcerer perform magic are inspired to become so much more. Again as Akko remarks when she says. "A few scratches won't stop me! If I say I'm gonna ride a broom, then I will ride it! Even if you don't like it, you're gonna help me win this race! Don’t even try to shake me off now. I'm going to hang on until the end of the world!"
When I consider magic in 5e however, I don't feel inspired to greatness, I don't feel like I could be so much more, I don't see road that would lead me to holding in tight to the ending of the world.
It's not wondrous or awe inspiring, it's just meh.
At least that's how I feel about magic in 5e, and that's why I am constantly searching for that feeling being a mage.
But what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Flying on a broom doesn't even require being a spellcaster. With high enough level spells you can literally rewrite the fabric of space and time (Wish), you can summon beings from other planes, travel from one end of the world to the other in an instant, visit other planes of existance and be an awesome force of destruction (or a force of awesome destruction).
What is it that you think is missing that's not already there and why do you feel it needs to be a level 10 spell?
Thanks for all your replies everyone. It seems that most people agree that that 10th level magic would be a bad idea.
Maybe because I like magic so much, I really want to see more of it and more powerful versions as well.
My problem is that magic in 5e feels really low level. Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring.
I think Akko from "Little Witch Academia" best says how I feel about magic, when she's says. "I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
To me magic is the stuff of creation. It lives inside everyone and everything and it is truly wonderful, wondrous and awe inspiring. Those who see a wizard or sorcerer perform magic are inspired to become so much more. Again as Akko remarks when she says. "A few scratches won't stop me! If I say I'm gonna ride a broom, then I will ride it! Even if you don't like it, you're gonna help me win this race! Don’t even try to shake me off now. I'm going to hang on until the end of the world!"
When I consider magic in 5e however, I don't feel inspired to greatness, I don't feel like I could be so much more, I don't see road that would lead me to holding in tight to the ending of the world.
It's not wondrous or awe inspiring, it's just meh.
At least that's how I feel about magic in 5e, and that's why I am constantly searching for that feeling being a mage.
That's because in previous editions, wizards were effectively godmode characters by the time their level hit double digits while fighters were effectively irrelevant at about the same point. One of the core points of 5th Edition was to try to balance things more effectively between the classes while still allowing wizards to have cool magic abilities, and I think they did.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Thanks for all your replies everyone. It seems that most people agree that that 10th level magic would be a bad idea.
Maybe because I like magic so much, I really want to see more of it and more powerful versions as well.
My problem is that magic in 5e feels really low level. Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring.
I think Akko from "Little Witch Academia" best says how I feel about magic, when she's says. "I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
To me magic is the stuff of creation. It lives inside everyone and everything and it is truly wonderful, wondrous and awe inspiring. Those who see a wizard or sorcerer perform magic are inspired to become so much more. Again as Akko remarks when she says. "A few scratches won't stop me! If I say I'm gonna ride a broom, then I will ride it! Even if you don't like it, you're gonna help me win this race! Don’t even try to shake me off now. I'm going to hang on until the end of the world!"
When I consider magic in 5e however, I don't feel inspired to greatness, I don't feel like I could be so much more, I don't see the road that would lead me to hold in tight to the ending of the world.
It's not wondrous or awe-inspiring, it's just meh.
At least that's how I feel about magic in 5e, and that's why I am continually searching for that feeling being a mage.
But what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Flying on a broom doesn't even require being a spellcaster. With high enough level spells you can rewrite the fabric of space and time (Wish), you can summon beings from other planes, travel from one end of the world to the other in an instant, visit other planes of existence and be a formidable force of destruction (or power of awesome destruction).
What is it that you think is missing that's not already there and why do you feel it needs to be a level 10 spell?
So; it's not the fact that Akko can fly a broom that I was meaning. It's the way magic has inspired her to greatness and given her the determination to be more than she ever thought possible, and the way she approaches magic with a combination of grit and childlike wonder.
Akko sucks at magic; and yet, her magic is fantastic, and through it, she opens the hearts and minds of the people around her - she gives them the desire, the will, to not just dream big, but to kick reason to the curb and reach for the stars. Still, most of all, she makes people believe in themselves and each other.
She might not be able to move mountains, to travel across the world in the blink of an eye, but she is incredible none the less. Although her magic might be technically far less potent than the kind of magic that wizards and sorcerers, bards and warlocks can wield in d&d, it looks, and feels much, much more wondrously impressive. Akko's magic draws in and wraps around like the comfort of an old friend, and even when she makes mistakes, she is still somehow glorious to behold.
It is this kind of magic that I have been searching for, and thus far failed to find in d&d.
I hope you understand what I mean, because am finding it so very hard to explain.
You're not describing anything intrinsic to magic, but how this Akko person uses magic. You're conflating the means and the method; there's nothing about the magic in D&D that dictates how it's effects can be applied. You could be a simple hedge mage, knowing nothing but thaumaturgy or prestidigitation, but you could travel from village to village inspiring wonder and awe in the people you meet. Sure, they know of magic, but they likely haven't seen it up close and in the flesh.
Although her magic might be technically far less potent than the kind of magic that wizards and sorcerers, bards and warlocks can wield in d&d, it looks, and feels much, much more wondrously impressive. Akko's magic draws in and wraps around like the comfort of an old friend, and even when she makes mistakes, she is still somehow glorious to behold.
This has literally nothing, zilch, to do with the power of magic and describes her relationship with magic. It's 'impressive' because she's passionate about her magic, not because the magic is powerful.
Chosen are a very select few named NPC's throughout the entirety of Faerun history. They're about 2 steps down from being gods themselves (or at least powerful enough to usurp one and take its place). I think saying that any player can be placed at that level would be undigestable to most who've read about the Chosen (certainly I would have no desire to play a campaign like that, and most certainly not with an entire party of Chosen or Chosen equivalents).
Also, i don't see many scenarios where a campaign written to allow players to become Chosen would not be so riddled with holes and inconsistencies that it would be brushed off as non-playable....at least to anyone whose read the books.
But, if you really want to go there, how about just giving them the already defined abilities of the Chosen instead of inventing your own? I see no need at all for a 10th level spell. I think even Sammaster didn't have anything more powerful than wish and he came very close to destroying all civilization across Toril.
But, if you really think you need a 10th level spell for 5e - I think the only one that would make any sense at all would be wish without the negative consequences (without somehow getting access to heavy magic and now you're talking spells that Krasus had access to - definitely god-killing level magic)....and then you have a player that can do pretty much whatever they want...good luck designing a playable adventure around that.
" Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring. " if that were built in, you'd have a game world with no ability at all to be consistent....every single module - every single story - would make every other one completely irrelevant. Read the Forgotten Realms Style Guide....what you want would no longer allow anyone to replace their divots.
Thanks for all your replies everyone. It seems that most people agree that that 10th level magic would be a bad idea.
Maybe because I like magic so much, I really want to see more of it and more powerful versions as well.
My problem is that magic in 5e feels really low level. Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring.
I think Akko from "Little Witch Academia" best says how I feel about magic, when she's says. "I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
To me magic is the stuff of creation. It lives inside everyone and everything and it is truly wonderful, wondrous and awe inspiring. Those who see a wizard or sorcerer perform magic are inspired to become so much more. Again as Akko remarks when she says. "A few scratches won't stop me! If I say I'm gonna ride a broom, then I will ride it! Even if you don't like it, you're gonna help me win this race! Don’t even try to shake me off now. I'm going to hang on until the end of the world!"
When I consider magic in 5e however, I don't feel inspired to greatness, I don't feel like I could be so much more, I don't see the road that would lead me to hold in tight to the ending of the world.
It's not wondrous or awe-inspiring, it's just meh.
At least that's how I feel about magic in 5e, and that's why I am continually searching for that feeling being a mage.
But what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Flying on a broom doesn't even require being a spellcaster. With high enough level spells you can rewrite the fabric of space and time (Wish), you can summon beings from other planes, travel from one end of the world to the other in an instant, visit other planes of existence and be a formidable force of destruction (or power of awesome destruction).
What is it that you think is missing that's not already there and why do you feel it needs to be a level 10 spell?
So; it's not the fact that Akko can fly a broom that I was meaning. It's the way magic has inspired her to greatness and given her the determination to be more than she ever thought possible, and the way she approaches magic with a combination of grit and childlike wonder.
Akko sucks at magic; and yet, her magic is fantastic, and through it, she opens the hearts and minds of the people around her - she gives them the desire, the will, to not just dream big, but to kick reason to the curb and reach for the stars. Still, most of all, she makes people believe in themselves and each other.
She might not be able to move mountains, to travel across the world in the blink of an eye, but she is incredible none the less. Although her magic might be technically far less potent than the kind of magic that wizards and sorcerers, bards and warlocks can wield in d&d, it looks, and feels much, much more wondrously impressive. Akko's magic draws in and wraps around like the comfort of an old friend, and even when she makes mistakes, she is still somehow glorious to behold.
It is this kind of magic that I have been searching for, and thus far failed to find in d&d.
I hope you understand what I mean, because am finding it so very hard to explain.
Again, so what is that you want and why does that require 10th level spells? Nothing you have mentioned so far explains why you need more or less gamebreaking magic to accomplish your goal.
What is it that you want magic to do that you can't do with the powerlevels available to you?
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Hi,
I have been working more on my shared world and want to reintroduce the "Chosen of Mystra" as a playable 5e "prestige class" available to spellcasters of 17th level and higher.
My thoughts were that Mystra would grant her "Chosen" the use of one 10th level spell per long rest.
I thought that getting a single 10th level spell slot would be worth the investment. The person that I am building this world with however feels that 10th level magic is far too powerful for 5e and that giving players access to even a single 10th level spell is a bad idea.
Just how powerful would a 10th level spell be, and is this not something that should exist in 5e, or could it be okay, if a player wanted to invest that much time and effort into becoming a "chosen?"
Can I have the communities opinions because me and my friend that I am building this world, can't agree? So what does the community think? Is epic-level magic awesome, or should it be avoided like the plague?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
So powerful they broke The Weave and are now forbidden to mortals. Think Wish or steroids. Most would probably agree that they are gamebreaking.
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If 10th level magic isn't breaking the game, it isn't truly 10th level.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
To answer your question about how powerful 10th Level spells are, there's one that can create a volcano, one that can lift an entire mountain, turn it upside down and make it float forever, a spell that can create a Mythal, one that can kill every living creature within a huge radius and so on.
As for the ability to use 10th level spells being banned...
Based on what Ed Greenwood said in a Q&A, even Mystra couldn't grant someone a 10th level spell as she wasn't the one that banned spells beyond 9th Level.
Apparently it was actually AO that did that, but mortals don't typically know about AO so they all coined it Mystra's Ban seeing her as the Goddess of Magic and in control of it all...
Here's a link if you want to read it: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13323&whichpage=2 (near the bottom of the page in Wooly Rupert's post).
The short Q&A is a very interesting read...
Also apparently that ban not only applies to all mortals, but also to all beings, including gods.
It would be the power to unmake a world, or recreate it.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The FR 10+ level spells are silly. The 3e Epic Level Handbook gave a more coherent treatment of epic level spells. There were your traditional spells that could be upcast using metamagic feat to use a slot of 10th-level or higher... so an intensified (maximize damage, then double) meteor swarm required a 16th-level slot, which was only available to casters with a feat and a casting stat of 44+. The epic spells in that book were customizable, and weren't necessarily game-breaking, but generally had costly components. They also aren't ranked according to a spell level, but there were some that were absurdly difficult to cast.
The Epic Level Handbook was known even among 3.0 products (which already had a bad rep) for being incredibly poorly balanced.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Your friend is right, especially given that there is no real "investment" here. Requiring a quest or some RP as "balance" for a stronger ability is silly because the character would be doing quests and RPing anyway. Give it a benefit on par with other class/subclass benefits of that level, or make it an epic boon for players after hitting 20 and make sure you have equivalent bonuses to hand out to all character types, not just spellcasters.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Sure, but the principles (a continuous scaling of spells) were more coherent than some weird divine barrier of character ability beyond which spells become ridiculous, especially with D&D's Vancian magic.
Only because the only thing that 10+ level slots did was give you more options for metamagic to increase the spell's range, duration, area of effect, or damage.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Read this. Then tell me that 10th level spells aren't gamebreaking. I dare you.
There is no dawn after eternal night.
Homebrew: Magic items, Subclasses
This. I feel like there really wouldn't be point of a 10th level spell since anyone powerful enough to cast it wouldn't a) be out adventuring and/or b) even want to cast it. It's pretty much a "campaign over" tool that in some ways defeat the purpose of playing.
And it would be very unblanaced, especially at 17th level.
Thanks for all your replies everyone. It seems that most people agree that that 10th level magic would be a bad idea.
Maybe because I like magic so much, I really want to see more of it and more powerful versions as well.
My problem is that magic in 5e feels really low level. Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring.
I think Akko from "Little Witch Academia" best says how I feel about magic, when she's says. "I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!"
To me magic is the stuff of creation. It lives inside everyone and everything and it is truly wonderful, wondrous and awe inspiring. Those who see a wizard or sorcerer perform magic are inspired to become so much more. Again as Akko remarks when she says. "A few scratches won't stop me! If I say I'm gonna ride a broom, then I will ride it! Even if you don't like it, you're gonna help me win this race! Don’t even try to shake me off now. I'm going to hang on until the end of the world!"
When I consider magic in 5e however, I don't feel inspired to greatness, I don't feel like I could be so much more, I don't see road that would lead me to holding in tight to the ending of the world.
It's not wondrous or awe inspiring, it's just meh.
At least that's how I feel about magic in 5e, and that's why I am constantly searching for that feeling being a mage.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
10th level spells aren't technically banned by Mystra, just that it takes multiple casters to cast them. Those casters pretty much have to be elves from what I read as they have to share their minds? Something weird, but yeah 10 11 and 12 are basically lots of caster simultaneously and elves.
But what exactly are you trying to accomplish? Flying on a broom doesn't even require being a spellcaster. With high enough level spells you can literally rewrite the fabric of space and time (Wish), you can summon beings from other planes, travel from one end of the world to the other in an instant, visit other planes of existance and be an awesome force of destruction (or a force of awesome destruction).
What is it that you think is missing that's not already there and why do you feel it needs to be a level 10 spell?
That's because in previous editions, wizards were effectively godmode characters by the time their level hit double digits while fighters were effectively irrelevant at about the same point. One of the core points of 5th Edition was to try to balance things more effectively between the classes while still allowing wizards to have cool magic abilities, and I think they did.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
So; it's not the fact that Akko can fly a broom that I was meaning. It's the way magic has inspired her to greatness and given her the determination to be more than she ever thought possible, and the way she approaches magic with a combination of grit and childlike wonder.
Akko sucks at magic; and yet, her magic is fantastic, and through it, she opens the hearts and minds of the people around her - she gives them the desire, the will, to not just dream big, but to kick reason to the curb and reach for the stars. Still, most of all, she makes people believe in themselves and each other.
She might not be able to move mountains, to travel across the world in the blink of an eye, but she is incredible none the less. Although her magic might be technically far less potent than the kind of magic that wizards and sorcerers, bards and warlocks can wield in d&d, it looks, and feels much, much more wondrously impressive. Akko's magic draws in and wraps around like the comfort of an old friend, and even when she makes mistakes, she is still somehow glorious to behold.
It is this kind of magic that I have been searching for, and thus far failed to find in d&d.
I hope you understand what I mean, because am finding it so very hard to explain.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
You're not describing anything intrinsic to magic, but how this Akko person uses magic. You're conflating the means and the method; there's nothing about the magic in D&D that dictates how it's effects can be applied. You could be a simple hedge mage, knowing nothing but thaumaturgy or prestidigitation, but you could travel from village to village inspiring wonder and awe in the people you meet. Sure, they know of magic, but they likely haven't seen it up close and in the flesh.
This has literally nothing, zilch, to do with the power of magic and describes her relationship with magic. It's 'impressive' because she's passionate about her magic, not because the magic is powerful.
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Chosen are a very select few named NPC's throughout the entirety of Faerun history. They're about 2 steps down from being gods themselves (or at least powerful enough to usurp one and take its place). I think saying that any player can be placed at that level would be undigestable to most who've read about the Chosen (certainly I would have no desire to play a campaign like that, and most certainly not with an entire party of Chosen or Chosen equivalents).
Also, i don't see many scenarios where a campaign written to allow players to become Chosen would not be so riddled with holes and inconsistencies that it would be brushed off as non-playable....at least to anyone whose read the books.
But, if you really want to go there, how about just giving them the already defined abilities of the Chosen instead of inventing your own? I see no need at all for a 10th level spell. I think even Sammaster didn't have anything more powerful than wish and he came very close to destroying all civilization across Toril.
But, if you really think you need a 10th level spell for 5e - I think the only one that would make any sense at all would be wish without the negative consequences (without somehow getting access to heavy magic and now you're talking spells that Krasus had access to - definitely god-killing level magic)....and then you have a player that can do pretty much whatever they want...good luck designing a playable adventure around that.
" Even when it's eveeywhere, it doesn't feel like it's truly world changing or awe inspiring. " if that were built in, you'd have a game world with no ability at all to be consistent....every single module - every single story - would make every other one completely irrelevant. Read the Forgotten Realms Style Guide....what you want would no longer allow anyone to replace their divots.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Again, so what is that you want and why does that require 10th level spells? Nothing you have mentioned so far explains why you need more or less gamebreaking magic to accomplish your goal.
What is it that you want magic to do that you can't do with the powerlevels available to you?