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Swords & Sorceries: Mystical Inspiration for 5E Spellcasters
🕑 Added 2019-12-16 14:00:00 +0000 UTCMy Swords & Sorceries campaign and adventures are inspired myth and history. I am fascinated by the challenge and opportunities of playing 5E adventures in a setting that evokes the mythologies that inspired D&D, and that inspired the sword & sorcery fiction that inspired D&D. In my campaign, a large part of that is rethinking the way magic works.
Magic in the Broken Empire, as I run it, is not a font of energy to be mechanistically tapped but the working of otherworldly powers upon the world. It is a mystical connection to the unseen. It is almost always an exchange. You ask some particular spiritual creature to change the world around you, and you either offer it something that makes its exercise of power worthwhile or you call on ancient obligations to compel it.
There are exceptions, of course. Monks have meditated so deeply upon the connection between the mortal and the sublime that they can work power for themselves in limited ways. Sorcerers and nonhuman characters with innate spellcasting abilities have the blood of magical beings or the gods in their veins.
Because I'm a big believer in encouragement rather than requirement, I frame this in play with my own descriptions of spellcasting and by granting inspiration when players narrate gaining magic through mysticism.
MYSTICAL INSPIRATION
After completing a short or long rest, a spellcaster gains inspiration when the spellcaster's player takes a moment to describe the replenishing of their magical power.
Barbarians, Druids, and Rangers
Druidic spells are powered by the countless spirits that inhabit and shape the natural world, by the spirits of an ancestors who watch over the adventurer, and by minor gods unknown outside the adventurer’s home. Each spirit is identified by name, personality, and a totem or amulet. For inspiration, name the spirit that powers one of your spells, the totem by which you conjure it, and why it responds.
Bards
Bard spells are powered by personal or familiar spirits known only to the bard, gods encountered on the bard's travels, and by evoking the spirits of heroes, poets, and singers. For inspiration, name the god, hero, or spiritual tradition that empowers one of your spells and why it responds to your song.
Clerics and Paladins
In the Broken Empire, clerics and paladins evoke the influence of the divine. Each spell has a divine domain, and each domain is governed by specific gods. A character replenishes spell slots through prayers to the various gods who govern the domains of the character’s spells. Even clerics dedicated to particular gods pray to others at need, whether it is a good god who is honored or an evil god who must be propitiated. For inspiration, name a god for one of your spells, the prayers and sacrifices it demands, and why it deems you worthy of its favor and intercession.
Monks
Monk powers are fueled by ki, which is replenished by meditation. For inspiration, describe it: silent contemplation, ritualistic exercises, or practicing an art or skill for its deep focus.
Sorcerers
Sorcerers draw power from their own sorcerous origin, and spell slots are replenished by resting. For inspiration, describe how your companions sense that magical replenishment.
Warlocks
Warlock spells draw power from the warlock communing with their patron. For inspiration, describe that communion and how and why the patron responds.
Wizards, Fighters and Rogues
Arcane spells draw power from celestials, elementals, fey, or infernal spirits. The adventurer utters incantations to conjure the spirit, working from memory or a spellbook, making demands on ancient pacts and exchanged or commanding the spirit by its secret name. For inspiration, name a spirit that provides one of your spells and describe its nature and why it responds.
