One of the greatest draws of Dungeons & Dragons is the magic system. Players can control great forces of nature and divine energy to harness effects that can change the world around them. But magic is one of the greatest learning challenges in D&D, and beginning players can struggle to figure out how to use their magical characters' abilities. You can help your beginners to master magic with a handful of tips in the guide below, and soon your players will be master mages.
If you're a beginner, you may also find this guide useful to learning basic game concepts.
The first step in understanding magic is in grasping the concept behind it. The first detail to consider is the source of the magic. In D&D, magic is either arcane or divine; arcane magic uses natural forces to capture the energy required for spells, while divine magic appeals to the player character's god for use of magical energy. All spellcasting classes are divided into either arcane or divine magic. The arcane classes in D&D 5e are Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard; the divine classes are Cleric, Druid, Paladin, and Ranger.
Whether your character casts with arcane or divine magic, they have a distinct statistic that determines how powerful their spells are. This statistic is an ability score, such as Intelligence or Wisdom. The statistic that your class uses should be one of your highest ability scores. Let's touch on which classes use which spellcasting ability. Charisma is the base stat for Bards, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Warlocks. Wisdom is the score that fuels the Cleric's, Druid's, and Ranger's magic. The Wizard uses Intelligence for their magic.
This ability score translates into what is called the Difficulty Class of your spells, which is how difficult to resist your spell is. Your Spell Save DC, as this statistic is known, is determined by combining your ability modifier (if your Wisdom is 16, your modifier is +3--look next to the larger number for the one with the plus) and your proficiency bonus, which is scaled to your character level, and then added to the number 8. That formula, when written out, looks like this: (8) + (ability modifier) + (proficiency bonus). If your character sheet was not written out by hand, you'll be able to find this number automatically calculated on the sheet with your spells. When you cast a spell on an enemy, they roll to resist, and the number they must beat is your Spell Save DC.
The other vital number that shows up on this sheet is your Spell Attack Bonus. This is the number that you add to your rolls when you're trying to hit an enemy with a spell. This number is once again your ability modifier added to your proficiency bonus, but this time without the addition of the number 8. That means that your Spell Attack Bonus should usually be your Spell Save DC, minus 8. Look out for phrases like "ranged touch attack" or similar phrases about striking the enemy in your spell description--that means you're looking for your Spell Attack Bonus.
Let's get into some other terminology used in spell descriptions. (It would be helpful to be looking at your character sheet for this part to follow along.) There's the spell's save--this is usually the Spell Save DC we already talked about, but some spells have their own unique Save DCs and will indicate it this way. Then there is the time it takes to cast a spell. In D&D 5e, you get one standard action, a move action, and a bonus action per turn, and the time it takes to cast the spell is almost always either one round or one action. If it's an action, it takes up your standard action for your turn. If it's a round, it takes up all your actions for the rest of the turn. The range of a spell tells you how far its effect reaches; this may be a distance that it affects or an area that it concentrates on, and the spell will clarify this in the description. The "Components" of a spell are also listed; these describe what it takes to cast the spell. The traditional three options for spellcasting are Verbal, Somatic, and Material. A Verbal component means that your character must speak aloud to cast the spell. A Somatic component indicates that the spell requires physical movement to cast. A Material component signifies that a special item is required to cast the spell. Many DMs don't follow the component rules very closely, so you should ask what will be required of you in this regard; nevertheless, it is good to know what these mysterious letters indicate on your character sheet. The duration of the spell indicates how long the spell lasts. It's worth noting here that a round of combat is six seconds long, so if the duration is given in rounds/units of time, you can use the 1:6 ratio to understand. Finally, a spell lists its page reference (where in the Player's Handbook the spell can be found for more information) and any further notes about the spell. This is a lot of information--look at how long this paragraph ended up being--but almost all of it will be useful at some point. Just don't be overwhelmed and don't be afraid to ask for help when you're unsure of things.
So now you have the general gist of how magic works. But you almost certainly still have questions. Magic opens many doors to you, and it's difficult to process all the information at once. Let's address some details of the magic casting system to give you a better idea of what's going on. Each spell has a level, and this level describes both how powerful the spell is (the higher level, the more powerful the spell) and when your character gets access to it. This second detail is more complicated than it seems it might be at first glance. First, you have cantrips. These spells are considered level 0. Then, beginning at a set level (1 for the Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard, and later levels for the Bard, Druid, Ranger, and Paladin), the character gains access to 1st-level spells. The character, on their next level up, gets more spell slots (uses of a spell) in their existing spells. On their following level up, they get access to 2nd-level spells. This means that you only gain new levels of spells every other level up, which means that a 3rd-level Wizard has access to 2nd-level spells, and a 5th-level Wizard can cast 3rd-level spells, and a 7th-level Wizard is able to cast 4th-level spells, and so on. This staggered levelling system can confuse a lot of players; the easy way to think about it is that the level of spell you want is multiplied by 2, and then subtract 1. So a 6th level spell would be accessible to an 11th-level Wizard (6x2=12, 12-1=11). You won't need this information directly in the game very often, but this should help make sense of the strange levelling system.
Another important idea in spellcasting is Concentration. In earlier editions of D&D, Concentration was a skill that spellcasters used to preserve a spell's effect in the face of great distraction (such as being attacked). In 5e, Concentration is translated into a different expression; instead, it represents the idea that a spell doesn't last a certain length of time automatically; rather, the spellcaster can extend the effect as long as they concentrate on it (though there is usually a limit placed on this as well, as in "Concentration, up to 1 minute," indicating that it lasts between one round and ten rounds, depending on the player's concentration). It's worth noting that you can't cast another spell that requires Concentration while you're already concentrating on another spell, but you can still cast spells which don't require Concentration.
Magic has a lot of rules, and not all of them are followed directly by every DM. The rules state that some spellcasting classes have to prepare their spells ahead of time, that other spellcasting classes can cast spontaneously but only know a few spells, that components are required for spells, and other considerations. As I've written before, not all details in the game are worth roleplaying, and your DM may be either a rules stickler or a loose cannon or somewhere in between. It's important to talk to them and get a sense of which of these rules you'll need to pay attention to. If you're feeling anxious about jumping in and learning magic, talk with your DM about it. They may be willing to waive certain details like components and spell preparation to make it easier for you to learn. Then again, they may add these details to what you need to monitor, and listen closely if that's the case: don't be discouraged. You'll figure it out in time. Just ask for patience and help, and soon you'll be casting spells with the best of them.
I've addressed some big picture ideas and the details you need to understand the magic system. It's likely, though, that you still have concerns about learning and want a leg up. Fortunately, I have a few suggestions for that as well. Let's consider some tools that can make things a little easier.
The Player's Handbook, as a standard physical book, has limitations. It's true that you can find most any information about the game that you need in it, but that doesn't means that finding all that information is easy. The layout of spells in D&D Player's Handbooks for several generations now displays short, detail-less lists of spells according to the spellcaster's class, which means you can view all your spells at once, but without the advantage of the necessary details. The part of the book that actually displays all of the details on spells is done in alphabetical order, not by class, so you would need to do a lot of searching to get that information (unless you can use the reference page listed on your character sheet, and even then, you're flipping through the book). Fortunately, I can recommend two strong alternatives to searching for spells than using the Player's Handbook.
The first, the cheapest, and the most widely accessible is to use the many internet sites that have hyperlinked versions of the Player's Handbook information. For folks who want a hypertext version of the complete 5e spellbooks, categorizable by level, class, school, and much more, check out these three databases. With a computer or smartphone, you have access to an organized and highly useful list of spells you can cast. The only downside to using these databases is that some out there include homebrew spells from across the internet that are wildly unbalanced or which are removed from the canon of acceptable spellbooks. I recommend that you check with your DM before getting too set on a spell that you find online, as it may not be a balanced part of the game.
A solution which is more useful and elegant, but yet which can cost a bit of money, is the official D&D spellbook cards. I addressed spellbook cards when I wrote about which gaming accessories to collect, and I still stand by my opinion. These handy little cards are decorated so that all the information I described above about a spell (like duration, range, and components) is clearly listed, along with designs that indicate what level and class a spell is. When you have the deck of spellbook cards that matches your class, you have the ability to easily flip through the deck for just the right spell, and you'll never be without the information you need. I can say that as a GM, I always have my beginners use spellbook cards, and when they are overwhelmed by searching for information on the card, they can simply hand it to me so I can help them find the important information. A well-organized deck of spellbook cards will give even the most lost newbie a chance to become a master spellcaster.
While we're on the topic of helping beginners, let's have an aside for DMs. Whether you remember it or not, there was a time that you, too, were a beginner at D&D. There was a time that you couldn't make heads or tails or what a saving throw was or which spells do extra damage against undead or what have you. Don't let your players flounder! They want to learn, and if you take a bit of extra time here and there to help them, you'll soon have a player who can navigate magic on their own.
Another note for DMs: a player doesn't have to struggle with casting spells in order for them to be struggling to learn the system. My mom, who plays in a family campaign that I run, controls Broomhilda the Cleric. In the game, Broomhilda is a menacing force who loves to threaten to light people on fire. But after a couple of sessions, I began to realize that Broomhilda wasn't casting spells at all. For a Cleric to avoid casting magic is like a Rogue avoiding using Sneak Attack; it's one of their main powerful abilities. Not using magic with a spellcasting class is a sign that the player doesn't necessarily get the rules for magic yet. I'm working with my mom to use spellbook cards and teach her about how and when to use spells, but there's a lot for her to learn, and it's a slow process. This is likely what you'll face as a DM--players who don't grasp the rules but still want to play, and who are perhaps nervous to admit that they're still figuring it all out. Be on the lookout for players ignoring their abilities, magical and otherwise, to diagnose struggling players.
So with all of this in mind, I hope that magic doesn't seem too forbidding now. Once you've learned the rules presented here, you get to start on the fun part: familiarizing yourself with your spells and how they work. A good DM makes spells have different (yet mostly predictable) effects depending the situation, so there's lots of learning left to do, and this time, in a way that should be fun for you. After all, mastering magic is one of the most high-flying and satisfying parts of D&D. So get out there, jump in, and start casting.
That's all for now. Coming soon: common sayings by D&D race, how to develop a historical event in your setting, and a list of ideas for Big Bad Evil Guys/Gals (BBEGs). Until next time, happy gaming!
Back to the homepage (where you can find everything!)
No comments:
Post a Comment