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The Privilege of Sorcerers (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

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One of my pet peeves of modern fantasy media is the notion that some people are "special" - and thus implied to be "better" - than other people because of some inherent magical ability. One of the best-known modern examples of this is the Harry Potter franchise, where the protagonists are mostly mages, and even the characters who actually care about the welfare of the latter do so in an extremely patronizing way - i.e. by stopping the "bad mages" rather than working together.

In #dnd and similar #ttrpg, the concept is represent by the "sorcerer" and similar characters who gained their cool powers from some innate birth ability rather than study and hard work.

And while there is nothing wrong with wanting to play such a character, just for once I would like to see an in-setting examination of what it means to have this privilege, instead of the more common:

"Oh no, woe is me, I have been born with special powers and will be hated and persecuted for them. Thus, I must spend most of my time in a secret society with my fellow very special people!"

To be clear, people born with privilege did not ask to be born with privilege, and cannot be blamed for that. However, they should also acknowledge that they have this privilege, and not assume that they are somehow "better" than people without it.

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[–] hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

In D&D sorcerers started in Dragonlance after the Chaos War left Krynn without magic. Palin Majere became the first sorcerer, having already been a wizard, when an aspect of Takhisis taught it to him. It wasn't innate, but it was spontaneous rather than vancian. There were also mystics, which were similar but divine rather than arcane, but when the sorcerer class was picked up for 3e they weren't included.

The main takeaway from sorcerers though isn't that they're somehow "special", it's that they don't have to memorize spells. Their magic is innate because they're related to a creature type that gets spell-like abilities. Same as plenty of other types of characters who have SLAs, like drow or furbolgs or numerous other creatures.

If anything, the association with wild magic probably works to their detriment socially. Wizards have arcane magic, but at least they know how it works. I'm not really sure where you're drawing a connection between the social stigma of unpredictable magic and being treated as "better" than anyone. I haven't seen lore that supports the idea.