Quote Originally Posted by Theodoxus View Post
Do caster out of combat options matter? I don't think it makes any difference if they do or not. A DM is going to tailor the adventure to the parties capabilities (either intrinsically or through item obtainment), or the party doesn't partake in that particular (side)quest. (In which the DM then tailors the adventure to whatever the results of their inability is - and the best DMs make it appear seamless so the players never really know for sure what transpired.

I do think that D&D's magic is WAY too forgiving. There's nearly no RAW accountability for using magic willy-nilly outside of spell slot limits. I haven't encountered much fantasy literature where magic use, much less knowledge, is afforded such fast and loose comport. Even the novels written for D&D tend to showcase magic in a much more malign light; one doesn't just shoot lightning or teleport across the planet on a whim...

I'm still a bit dismayed that magic has to be the answer for everything. Either a Wizard does it, or a Wizard a millennia ago made an item that does it. A fighter has no chance against something that is immune to mundane weaponry, unless said fighter finds or buys an item magically enchanted - or begs the magic guy in his party or town to... enchant an item. If it isn't magic, regardless of how hard or easy it is to obtain, it is impossible. Certainly can't science your way out of a problem. Need to get to the Plane of Fire? Magic. Not a portal device that uses electricity to spin some diodes that thin the veil between the prime and fire planes... no, just magic. A spell, a box, an amulet... but all magic.

Can a DM use science? Sure. Is it expected, even talked about anywhere? No! The Four Fighter Problem always boils down to someone, somewhere, at some time, doing magic.
I generally agree with all of this.

Though my attitude toward the magic item thing is a bit different.

Firstly, because it's a staple of fantasy, I just give it a huge pass. I've mentioned in other threads that the whole "you don't need magic items" attitude bugs me because for me it's such a huge part of the fantasy aesthetic. That's not to say that I think there should be magic marts everywhere and every game needs to take place in Eberron. But I don't consider it some sort of concession that the fighter finds a magic sword or shield, and a ring that lets him see invisible creatures, etc. That's a large part of the fun of exploration and defeating bad guys and a reward for braving dangers and killing monsters.

Secondly, we can, in some ways, divorce these items from "magic" so to speak (though it will still be "magic" of a kind or another, just not necessarily a spellcaster doing it). But I'm thinking of something like Guts' sword, which has been "tempered by the malice" of all the evil demons Guts has slain with it and is now capable of harming even more powerful evil entities. The sword has taken on magical qualities by killing all of these supernatural creatures. Now, someone could argue that it's still supernatural "magical" creatures making the sword magical, but I'd argue that it's actually Guts, who is capable of killing all of these demons all of the time, that is facilitating this transformation of the sword. In other words, hand the sword to a normal person, and you're not getting a magic sword out of it. Hand the sword to a high level fighter like Guts, and it will probably be a +10 Crushing Vorpal Fiend-Slaying Greatsword Maulblade by the time the manga is over.

On a similar note, the Dragon Hoard items from Fizban's are another way of making magic items without a spellcaster. Items that have been lost in strange places, like a sacred grove, a cursed place, can take on magical properties by the time our heroes, who have braved the dangers to find it, encounter it. Or items that are used in auspicious acts, like heroic sacrifice, or lethal betrayal, etc, can take on magical qualities.

This way the magic originates more from what the item has experienced or been used for, as opposed to the more traditional "a wizard made this". And in the case of something like Gut's Dragonslayer, it's directly tied to how powerful the warrior is, and the feats they perform with it.