| Ross Byers RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 |
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It's just how the character shapes the magic.
In my mind, divine magic is 'top down': controlling and shaping it is about taking something larger than oneself and getting it to do the desired task. That bigger something is often a deity or demigod (and has to be, in the clerical style*), but can also be any powerful abstract. 'Nature' for druids and rangers. 'Justice' for paladins. Ancestor spirits, elements, and more for shaman and oracles.
In contrast, arcane magic is 'bottom up': knowing the secrets of reality to borrow, cheat, and exploit the rules to make something out of nothing. Wizards, alchemists, and magi all have to keep long books that allow them to reconstruct their spells step-by-step each day. Witches do the same thing, but by conferring with a patron instead of writing in a book. Bards are a bit more freestyling, but don't draw their power wholesale from a larger concept. Sorcerers, summoners, and bloodragers all draw an inkling of power from somewhere else, but they have to know how to amplify it and build it up into a spell.