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[hops]

In support of that, there is an "eschew materials" feat where you don't even need the guano.
The shit was within you all along.

But yeah that's where I was going with Maxwell's Daemon, theoretically it's infinite energy for no effort.  It merely violates thermodynamics is all.

Maybe you're just using abstract concepts as components.

Wizards are int based and usually old.
Pretty sure they just learn extensive amounts of physics hacks which happen to require guano or diamond dust

My headcanon is that components in magic are like chemistry but for rewriting the laws of chemistry. The reason they're mundane(ish) objects is because those are the stuffs empirically tested to work. You could theoretically try to cast a spell using literally anything as component but usually due to an object's interactions with reality you end up with a feedback loop of requiring more components.

There's a part in Discworld where the witches summon a demon using a washing tub, a scrubbing board and brush and some old soap flakes. Referring to them as artifacts was enough to satisfy the spell requirements. Another moment was when archchancellor Ridcully reduced the otherwise complex spell of summoning Death to only needing a fresh egg.


In Forgotten Realms don't mages get their magic from the Mystra? Not really worshipped but she is the mother of all magic.

I think magic is mostly mental in Discworld, given how Pratchett makes righteous anger the most powerful force in that universe, and how reality-altering beings are fed with beliefs.

[TheBiggerFish]

@Mech#4:Actually that was Stibbons, and it was teo bits of wood and a fresh egg, I believe.

That or 4 cc of mouse blood?

Yeah, something like that. It's like the miniaturization of technology in a way, being able to do more with less. It moved into being like physics where they determined the smallest unit of magic usable to do... something, I forget exactly what.

The unit of magic is the thaum, which is one medium-sized pigeon.  Dunno when they found the *smallest* unit.

[scriver]

Magic use isn't lazy, because it usually has a cost.  That cost depends a lot on the setting and spell effect, though.  DND magic tends to be exceptionally cheap, making fireballs from pinches of guano you don't even need to track (just have "bag of spell components" that covers 90% of spells). 

Actually DND wizards are just weird, I'm not sure where the "power" comes from...  other spellcasters all channel raw power from somewhere.  Perhaps wizards intricately yet passively defy thermodynamics like Maxwell's Daemon.

Of course, DND is a game.  In a lot of fantasy settings magic requires "equivalent exchange"... even if you're allowed to take the cost out of a victim instead of yourself.  Here magic is a entity or entities which must be bargained with, like spirits or devils (but maybe more primal).  This magic is fundamentally different from sufficiently advanced technology.

Magic in D&D comes from Spellweave, which is a thing created by a God of Magic, Mystara. Its destruction is what caused D&D 4e to happen, by the way.

The spellweave, by the way, is pretty much a construct to enable wizards to do magic while keeping them from being able to do real magic. Magic used to be a lot more powerful and eventually that caused quite the cataclysm. Mystra created the spellweave to keep that from happening again.

In the Forgotten Realms lore, that is.

[Tack]

My "favourite" definition of magic would be ley lines.
Or specifically one random type of ley line which was veins of extraplanar energy where the barrier between the material plane and the plane-void is very thin, and it can be borrowed in order to steal a few laws of reality from other neighbouring planes.

A moment was when archchancellor Ridcully reduced the otherwise complex spell of summoning Death to only needing a fresh egg.

If I recall, death was pretty unimpressed at the cut corners.

I think magic is mostly mental in Discworld, given how Pratchett makes righteous anger the most powerful force in that universe, and how reality-altering beings are fed with beliefs.

The Dresden files has the same system and I can vouch that when it's not being presented facetiously, it sounds extremely plausible.

[pisskop]

I ... ah ...find it odd that I still have what I presume is one of the only surviving copies of ye old adventure mode story involving modded body parts and an elven child

[overseer05-15]

I ... ah ...find it odd that I still have what I presume is one of the only surviving copies of ye old adventure mode story involving modded body parts and an elven child

Nah, you can find it online.

But what do you mean 'have?' Is it saved to your computer?
(If yes, please seek psychological help immediately.) Also contact your doctor if you have an erection lasting more than four hours.

[pisskop]

hunh.  I guess I feel better about that.

And yes, its in the dungeons of my DF folder.

[overseer05-15]

I just discovered that not only is there a page on the wiki, but ends with a link to the archived story.

What the fuck, DFWiki.

[AzyWng]

I just discovered that not only is there a page on the wiki, but ends with a link to the archived story.

What the fuck, DFWiki.

Should I even go looking for it or...

[endlessblaze]

I'm tempted to.....

[Helgoland]

Do it. It's part of Bay12 culture.

[pisskop]

Well its really not all that bad.  OR rather, its not all that vile, until the end.

Its not really that well-made a story, as far as entertainment goes.  plenty of forumites have made better stories.

*COUGH*

[overseer05-15]

The only reason its notorious is because the fall of VN is occasionally attributed to it. Probably apocryphal, though.

[Tawa]

Definitely apocryphal for multiple reasons; VN fell because people got out of hand in general. IIRC, the specific reason was a "battleship megathread" that was moved from topic to topic to cause mayhem. I think penguins were involved somehow? And besides, Stoneblock Fleetrod would've been in a DF subforum, rather than VN.

[Edmus]

My wtf is that caffeine highs are so damn useful. I had forgotten just how bloody good they are. Life is electric.
Does anyone know if it's possible to ride a caffeine high 24/7?
And by 24 I mean throughout the day and early evening, and by 7 I mean on weekdays.
So to rephrase that, does anyone know if it's possible to ride a caffeine high 12/5?
My intuition tells me no, but I'd be interested to know just how well this can be exploited before its downsides outweigh its upsides.