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[Lord Shonus]

I kind of feel, for proper discussion to occur in this thread, the OP needs to include the post that started the discussion in the past thread.

I just kinda realised something

The vast majority of wizards in fiction are noncombatants who learn combat spells, the vast majority of their spells will be for killing people.

Why!?!

It is like me going to school to learn how to use a gun when I never want to own or shoot one.

And I suppose it was somewhat covered in the previous thread, but the metaphor is flawed. Magic is the gun, and, if you want to cure cancer, you need cancer-curing bullets. But you still have a gun, so you could still use regular bullets. Though you probably won't be that good at shooting them at an attacker, since you need to practice to get good aim with a handgun, whereas you really wouldn't need to aim well to hit someone with magic-curing bullets if you're treating them.

So I don't know, maybe doctors figure, since they already have guns, they might as well practice using them, just in case a situation comes up where they need to heal someone from long range?

From the other thread, since it wasn't copied over:

In most forms of fiction, there is no inherent difference between your ability to cast "fireball" as opposed to "make these crops grow" other than skill. If you know both, and are in a position to cast one, then you can cast the other. This is a stark difference between magical and nonmagical persons, as, for example. I would have to make or obtain a gun before I could shoot someone, regardless of how good I might be with it. Since you cannot disarm a wizard, except (in some settings) by taking all their magic away, then a wizard is never [i[not[/i] a potentially lethal threat. Besides this, most magical settings include some sort of powerful magical creatures, which you are more likely to have to fight than nonmagical predators. Thus, not learning some form of combat magic almost qualifies as suicide.

Then why not learn combat?

This isn't Dragon Age where magic can ONLY be applied in Combat and thus if you learn magic you are pretty much learning to kill people with magic.

These are academics who study in a tower to learn magic and the vast majority of their learning involves throwing fireballs, and yet they never plan on using those abilities because they forgo any sort of combat training whatsoever or conditioning.

If magic is in any way systematic (which is admittedly overused, but it's a standard), then learning combat spells still improves your understanding of magic, whereas learnig to swing a sword not only teaches you nothing, but takes valuable time away from your magical study.

 

[Devling]

But is magic the aiming of the gun or the creation of the bullet?

[Aklyon]

But is magic the aiming of the gun or the creation of the bullet?

It can be both.

[Devling]

But is magic the aiming of the gun or the creation of the bullet?

It can be both.

What about the gun?
Is it the rules that reality has put in or hands?
Or is it something that you can make?
Both? Neither?

[PanH]

OP has been updatificationed.

With magi !

[Max White]

Pah, all this talk of bullets and guns.
Magic is like sitting down and calculating the trajectory required to fire a gun so that the bullet flies off and cuts the chain holding up a hanging light, so that the light falls down onto a plank of wood that happens to have a knife on the other end, catapulting the knife into the air so that it falls in a way that happens to perfectly remove that cancerous growth. Except a lot trickier. And there is another mage standing next to you telling you it will never work because you have the wrong sort of hat on. And the bastard is actually right.

Look long story sort don't play with guns.

[Devling]

so... Magic is TF2?

[Aklyon]

so... Magic is TF2?

No, that would involve hats. The Hat Paradox has already been enough trouble as it is.

[Kadzar]

And there is another mage standing next to you telling you it will never work because you have the wrong sort of hat on. And the bastard is actually right.

That does bring up a good question: can magic be done properly without a hat. I see all these young wizards walking around bareheaded, and I'm worried they'll accidentally put their eyes out. Similarly, are robes a necessity? I see all these sorceresses running around in naught but bikinis these days, and I think, that's got to mess up their form, doesn't it?

[Sirus]

Robes can get in your way and get caught on obstacles. The modern mage wears whatever is most comfortable; not only for concealment amongst the Muggles, but also for practical reasons.

Also, PTW.

[Hanslanda]

Magic can be done properly without a hat, but that requires special training.

[Eric Blank]

Indeed; without a hat bent at the appropriate angle, it can be difficult to ensure that magic cast across a distance of air between you and your target will travel in the direction you want it to. Wizards have specially-enchanted pointed hats that 1) act as a focus to give magic a bearing relative to the angle of the hat and 2) ensure that the angled tip of the hat is always at the same angle relative to the caster's facing. Then, when the mage has become accustomed to accounting for the angle of the hat, he can successfully will his cast magic in the direction he so desires.

In short, the hat gives the magic direction, the mage provides a modifier to this direction in order to direct his or her power.

Other items can act as a similar focus, but the hat is an old tradition, and magic is often as steeped in tradition as the organization of military powers.

In order to focus magic's direction without the aid of an enchanted implement, a mage must concentrate much harder on the task at hand, which can be mentally exhaustive, but represents the transition from a mere novice to a well-adapted scholar of the magical arts. With more and more practice even that becomes as simple and instinctive to the mage as swordplay is to a masterful swordsman.


In terms of why so many magi choose to use simple elemental attacks; it is sometimes a lack of imagination on their part, that they cannot adapt to the idea of causing harm without invoking the special powers of nature, and yet sometimes it is also because these sorts of things most represent the power of a magi to the uneducated multitudes. A sort of shock and awe tactic.

[Kadzar]

Yeah, all that concentration malarkey is why I've taken to using a caster gun and making spell cartridges. I've exploded my kitchen enough times making toast that I decided to say bugger with it all and just start making toasting spell cartridges in my laboratory, where, if anything does go wrong, I have anti-explosion wards up to mitigate disaster. Granted, it does take up a lot of my extra-dimensional storage space to carry my spells around in physical form, but the method does have its advantages. Having a spellgun has quite literally saved my bacon several times when I've found myself in dead-mana zones; it's the reason why I never leave the house without a meat-preservation spell cartridge.

Now, with that all said, even though I use the spellgun these days in lieu of actual casting, I still like to wear the old robe and wizard hat when I'm out and about, if only just for tradition's sake, and I always make sure my hat's pointed the right way when preparing cartridges.

[RedWarrior0]

Is your spellgun a staff, or is it a wand?

[Kadzar]

I don't quite understand what you're asking. It's a specialized device made for casting pre-made spells without requiring any magical effort from the user.