| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I think I've decided that the universal explanation in Pathfinder for HP, dragons flying, violations of the square-cube law, alchemists infusing reagents with their "essence," barbarian rage abilities, rogues squeezing through microscopic cracks, non-ki monk craziness, and all other impossible yet somehow nonmagical feats is that the main difference between Pathfinder physics and ours, other than magic, is the life essence and the ability of creatures to subconsciously, genetically, or through study to use it to effect the material world.
Also called heart, faith, instinct, or vital essence, life represents the animating universal force within all things. Whereas matter provides the base materials for a body, life keeps it alive and well. This essence is responsible for unconscious responses and belief, such as ancestral instincts and divine guidance. The divine and primal traditions hold power over life. Life spells are usually necromancy.
Natural use of the Material essence is just engineering or crafting, natural use of the the Mind essence includes things like hypnotism and meditation, natural processes involving Spirit essence leads to, uh, undead, and I guess natural use of Life essence lets living things enhance their bodies beyond what the Material would allow.
It's good enough for me to quit rolling my eyes at this stuff, anyway.
Dragons, giants, alchemists, barbarians, and any number of mystical beasts or character that don't explicitly cast spells, are still magical. They exist in a world where the line between what's natural and what's supernatural is blurred, since nature itself can provide magic in the form of primal spells.
It's not some kind of "non-magical" essence. It's straight up magic, just in a more raw, intuitive, non-categorized format, so we don't call them spells. In fact in a world like Golarion it's pretty futile to try and classify things based on whether or not they're magical, because supernatural stuff pretty much screwed actual physics up beyond recognition.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Dragons, giants, alchemists, barbarians, and any number of mystical beasts or character that don't explicitly cast spells, are still magical. They exist in a world where the line between what's natural and what's supernatural is blurred, since nature itself can provide magic in the form of primal spells.
It's not some kind of "non-magical" essence. It's straight up magic, just in a more raw, intuitive, non-categorized format, so we don't call them spells. In fact in a world like Golarion it's pretty futile to try and classify things based on whether or not they're magical, because supernatural stuff pretty much screwed actual physics up beyond recognition.
It’s not magic, because it can’t be dispelled or suppressed by an antimagic field. It’s not natural in real world terms, but it’s not “magic.”
It’s not magic, because it can’t be dispelled or suppressed by an antimagic field. It’s not natural in real world terms, but it’s not “magic.”Dragons, giants, alchemists, barbarians, and any number of mystical beasts or character that don't explicitly cast spells, are still magical. They exist in a world where the line between what's natural and what's supernatural is blurred, since nature itself can provide magic in the form of primal spells.
It's not some kind of "non-magical" essence. It's straight up magic, just in a more raw, intuitive, non-categorized format, so we don't call them spells. In fact in a world like Golarion it's pretty futile to try and classify things based on whether or not they're magical, because supernatural stuff pretty much screwed actual physics up beyond recognition.
Those spells conteract spells and magic items specifically, not other forms of supernatural/magical effects that would be (Su) abilities in 1e. Dispel Magic or Antimagic Field as written also won't do anything against a ley line, for instance.
It's really just semantics at this point, and my argument isn't to force these things into spells, but rather it doesn't actually matter if there's a name or explanation for how non-spell supernatural abilities work. In universe, a wizard probably won't call it magic because it doesn't fit their rigid, academic definition of magic. But pretty much everyone would look at a rogue literally disappear before their eyes and colloquially call it "magic" anyway.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Note that our Earth exists in the same universe as Golarion. We now need to explain why we do not have the same level of unnatural occurrences here.
It's also a version of Earth where Great Cthulhu slumbers in the deep and Rasputin was a level 18 Oracle. Suffice to say, it's as much our real life Earth as the Earth in World of Darkness or Marvel. It's an alternate universe, and this version of earth is likely only superficially similar but have a ton of weird differences if you look closely.
What's weirder is the question of why Golarion not only has cultures suspiciously similar to Earth.
It’s not magic, because it can’t be dispelled or suppressed by an antimagic field. It’s not natural in real world terms, but it’s not “magic.”Dragons, giants, alchemists, barbarians, and any number of mystical beasts or character that don't explicitly cast spells, are still magical. They exist in a world where the line between what's natural and what's supernatural is blurred, since nature itself can provide magic in the form of primal spells.
It's not some kind of "non-magical" essence. It's straight up magic, just in a more raw, intuitive, non-categorized format, so we don't call them spells. In fact in a world like Golarion it's pretty futile to try and classify things based on whether or not they're magical, because supernatural stuff pretty much screwed actual physics up beyond recognition.
Those spells conteract spells and magic items specifically, not other forms of supernatural/magical effects that would be (Su) abilities in 1e. Dispel Magic or Antimagic Field as written also won't do anything against a ley line, for instance.
It's really just semantics at this point, and my argument isn't to force these things into spells, but rather it doesn't actually matter if there's a name or explanation for how non-spell supernatural abilities work. In universe, a wizard probably won't call it magic because it doesn't fit their rigid, academic definition of magic. But pretty much everyone would look at a rogue literally disappear before their eyes and colloquially call it "magic" anyway.
Thus "non-magical magic."
Note that our Earth exists in the same universe as Golarion. We now need to explain why we do not have the same level of unnatural occurrences here.
It’s because of you, The Raven Black. The reason we have no magic here on Earth is specifically because you exist.