D&D General wait what is arcane magic anyway?

[Mind of tempest]

on my grand quest to make a more fitting but still sane dnd style world for playing, I realised something, I have no idea how arcane magic is defined as more or less a thing.
I know how divine magic works it is a gift from some sort of god or spirit.
but arcane the other common magic I have no idea how that is supposed to work save how the arcane classes work, as in it seem to be harnessing something and you can learn to do it or do it instinctually.
you do not need a god for it but that there are gods of it and that lesser power can teach it.

does anyone know any more solid things or decent takes on it?

 

[Oofta]

My take? Magical energy suffuses the world. It's ever present, right there at our fingertips. Some creatures such as dragons have made it a very part of their essence. Some people gain their power through an intermediary like gods for clerics or patrons for warlock. Most people don't even realize it's there.

Some tap into that energy directly to affect the physical world. How this energy is described varies from campaign to campaign. In The Forgotten Realms, it's The Weave. In my campaign it's called Aether.

In either case it's like the air we breath. Ever present, something we take for granted, we all need it to live. But the lucky few have learned how to use it to fly.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

You could consider Divine magic like the Gods shaping the winds of the Astral Sea and the outer planes and sharing it . OTOH, Arcane magic is the will of mortals trying the same with the magic stuff of the Primes and Inner Planes.

 

[dave2008]

on my grand quest to make a more fitting but still sane dnd style world for playing, I realised something, I have no idea how arcane magic is defined as more or less a thing.
I know how divine magic works it is a gift from some sort of god or spirit.
but arcane the other common magic I have no idea how that is supposed to work save how the arcane classes work, as in it seem to be harnessing something and you can learn to do it or do it instinctually.
you do not need a god for it but that there are gods of it and that lesser power can teach it.

does anyone know any more solid things or decent takes on it?

Well here is what the 2014 PHB said about spells and magic.

"A spell is a discrete magical effect, a single shaping of the magical energies that suffuse the multiverse into a specific, limited expression. In casting a spell, a character carefully plucks at the invisible strands of raw magic suffusing the world, pins them in place in a particular pattern, sets them vibrating in a specific way, and then releases them to unleash the desired effect — in most cases, all in the span of seconds."

and here is what the 2014 DMG has to say:

"In most D&D worlds, magic is natural but still wondrous and sometimes frightening. People everywhere know about magic, and most people see evidence of it at some point in their lives. It permeates the cosmos and moves through the ancient possessions of legendary heroes, the mysterious ruins of fallen empires, those touched by the gods, creatures born with supernatural power, and individuals who study the secrets of the multiverse. Histories and fireside tales are filled with the exploits of those who wield it."

Seems by default that magic is a type of energy that exists everywhere and you can either be intrinsically attuned to it or learn to use it. Pretty much what @Oofta said.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Magic is an inherent element of the multiverse.

Divine magic is mediated access to this element. It's based on getting power from some deity-like being directly, or attuning to universal principles like those represented by cleric domains. Generally this is done through some form of faith or meditation or conviction, or having that connection directly conferred to you by some sort of ritual from someone else with that connection.

Arcane magic is direct access to this magical element. You make the magic happen in one of a couple ways.

It can be done scientifically, by learning words, gestures, and materials which, when combined with directed intent, invoke and channel this power in a more focused way than its ambient existance all around you. Ths is how wizards do it.

Or you can have an inborn (or similar) connection that gives you an intuitive feel for this magical energy, and makes it easier to learn how to channel and focus it. Typically you use the same components to direct it, but you grasp them intuitively and channel it without needing to ritually prep your brain (ie, without spell preparation). This is how sorcerers do it.

Innate magic can be considered a form of arcane, kind of like an extra innate sorcery. Or you can like at it as in-between divine and arcane, where it is somewhat mediated by the nature of your species. Or you can imagine it as more like a manifestation of the magical from its raw form, which defies the arcane/divine divide.

Warlock magic is arcane magic that mostly works like sorcery, but rather than being inborn you acquire it from another magical being. So it has a mediated acquisition, but an arcane nature. Or you can view it as borrowed arcane magic where an entity that uses arcane (rather than divine magic) sets up a funnel to channel it to you. By contrast, even deities themselves use divine magic, mediated by essential principles of their portfolios, which would distiguise this from divine magic.

Bards basically use highly flavored sorcery. They include extra techniques involving words of power not utilized by wizards and sorcerers.

 

[jayoungr]

It depends a lot on your setting. Are you running your game in the Forgotten Realms, a homebrew setting, or somewhere else?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Since the "power sources" of magic are all so wishy-washy and have no cohesive categorization... I pretty much just remove the identities of "divine", "arcane", "primal", and "psionic" altogether.

Instead, as has been mentioned above, magic (or The Weave) just suffuses the Multiverse and all manner of creatures and objects and locations can tap into in and manipulate it in various ways. Each Class just gives us a different way it can occur.

But trying to group different classes together is kinda pointless in my opinion, because the line of reasoning for the different groups doesn't hold up. The Cleric gets their access to tap into The Weave via a grant by their god. The Warlock gets their access to tap into The Weave via a grant by their patron. So were we to group classes together, these two should be in one grouping, but they aren't. One gets called Divine while the other is called Arcane.

Likewise... Sorcerers just naturally are able to tap into The Weave by who they are as creatures and can produce magical effects, which is precisely what Monks and Psions do as well. And yet Monks and Psions get their magic attributed to Psionics, and a lot of people don't even want to call what they do "magic"-- they say Psionics is something else entirely from Magic. Which might have made sense if Sorcerers being "arcane spellcasters" had any kind of important attribution or meaing. But it doesn't... Magic being "Arcane" doesn't really mean anything, so there's not a lot of reason to suggest Sorcerers and Psions are at all different or manipulate different energy.

To me, this is precisely why the whole idea of D&D having "too much magic" never meant anything to me. Because as far as I can see... D&D is a magical world and everything in it has magic-- including the so-called "non-magical classes". The way the game works... the fact that these supposedly "non-magical" classes can reach unheard-of levels of power (up in the high teens all the way to Level 20) and be able to actually harm massively magical creatures like dragons and such with supposedly "non-magical" means... or fall from great heights and not die on impact because of their "hit points" (and then in fact just standing right up and brushing themselves off via a "Second Wind") just tells me that "non-magical" doesn't really exist. To me, "Magic" is merely the D&D substitute word for our real-world "Physics". The same way our real world is defined and explained by Physics (and we couldn't be separated from that if we wanted or tried)... every D&D world is defined and explained by Magic. Which is why all the rules that make up the D&D game are not representative of any presentation of "reality", they are representative of the game worlds of D&D.

 

[ezo]

It is the Force.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I use the 2e definition. Magic is energy that can be channeled in different ways and has different rules based on how you access it. Arcane magic comes from the planes ultimately, including our own (I like to think through the Astral as it's the "backstage" of the multiverse), and every being in the multiverse shares some portion of that magic. The ability to harness this planar energy can come about naturally (as it does with the sorcerer) or can be learned (like the wizard). In either case, study and training can improve one's facility to access more and greater arcane magic.

Divine magic is acquired indirectly through a powerful entity granting the use of a small portion of their power. The more powerful the entity, the more power that being can grant to its representatives, and how powerful a deity is is determined by how much divine energy they are receiving through their worshippers across the multiverse.

Warlock patrons allow people to tap into the patron's personal planes-granted power directly and siphon it off for their own use, generally mediated through the terms of a bargain (though not always; this philosophy allows for Great Old One patrons who a warlock learned to tap into without the patron even being aware of it necessarily).

Finally, psionic magic comes from within the mind of a sentient being with the ability to access it (usually a quirk of fate or genetics). Like arcane magic, it can be developed through study and training.

That's my system.

 

[Hriston]

The "Music of the Valar" was the verbal component of the original spell, which created the world. The gods, who have intimate knowledge of the music, having sung it themselves, can directly empower and implant mortals with their insight, which is what's called divine magic, or mortals can acquire knowledge of "snippets" of the music which have been gleaned through study and passed down through the eons. This is what is called arcane magic.