pt1-question
in the campaign setting it describes the mana wastes a bunch of different ways in including "warped reality", "magic dead", and "warped magic".
I assume that the writers were purposefully vague to give DM's some space to interpret this area in their own ways.
anyway, I was wondering if there had ever been anything published about how exactly the manawastes affects magic, meaning is it 100% magic dead both arcane and divine, or is it only 100% dead to arcane, or does magic function there but is warped in some way.
pt-2 idea
so here is my idea for how to run the mana wastes in a campaign.
First off divine magic would have to function there (it makes sense that too much arcane magic would affect arcane magic in the area but i find it hard to see that there is a place the is almost completely cut off from the gods).
2nd magic items IE arms and armor with permanent passive bonuses IE +1 weapons or gauntlets of ogre power do not function there.
Arcane magic and supernatural abilities (and scrolls wands and ect.) function there but suffer a 60% failure rate and have a chance to be warped by the chaotic nature of magic in the mana wastes giving a 30% chance for a mishap. so every time a player, NPC, or monster uses a arcane spell, spell completion item, or supernatural ability you (the GM) roll 1d100 and on a result of 01-39 the spell goes off as planned, 40-69 the spell has no effect, and 70-100 a the caster suffers a spell mishap.
for the mishaps you can use any random table that gives a random effect that takes the place of the spell. the easiest example of this is the rod of wonder table in the DMG. in my game i will be using the "spell mishap table" from the "hackmaster" system which has everything from casters hair grows to caster spontaneously combusts.
in my opinion this gives at least explanation on why there are undead and abberations in the mana wastes while still making arcane magic not nessecarly useless but dangerous to use while in there.
anyway, obviously my group will be running through the mana wastes soon and I was researching how exactly to run it and had this idea figured i would share it with the community. thanks for reading.
You could take the approach the regardless of the type of magic, arcane, divine, or psionic, they all still rely on manipulation of the known world or planes, and that relationship is warped or broken, i.e. the physics has changed.
Therefore, there is more reliance on the know physical world, or hard science (as least how it works in the mana wastes), as the link between magic and manipulating the physical world is tenuous during the best of times.
well that is something to think about perhaps i will have to keep the 60% failure rate on divine magic as well just with out the mishap chance. anyway thanks for bringing that up ill have to refine this a little more.