I think it's mostly the same for all classes in my view-
Mortals are imperfect vessels for channeling magical energy. They are unable to draw the energy needed for the spell from the source with perfect efficiency. That means the difference gets made up in some of their own energy- when they're out of energy, they can't cast any more spells.
As you get better at it, you get more efficient and can cast more often and more powerfully before you run out of juice.
They draw their magic from the Weave but they channel it by complex formulas and what I imagine to be some weird variant of arcane calculus. Mental taxation is a thing?
This is actually very accurate to how it works based on the lore. In a very short summary casting magic the way wizards do is the same as remembering a specific calculation or formula and replicating it.
Most spells have multiple types of components in order to cast them (Verbal, somatic, material or V,S,M). Every spell has at least one of those components needed unless you're a sorcerer.
The verbal components of most spells in the dnd lore derive from original Draconic language, so we're basically like the dragonborn in skyrim using shouts. It's a foreign language to everyone so you have to learn a new language to understand it.
Then you've got the gestures with your somatic which are specific hand movements in order to basically draw an equation in the weave, If you've ever seen Doctor Strange imagine much like their casting of magic.
Then you've got your materials which is easy to understand as the basis of alchemy which is everything costs/comes from something. Not every spell requires a material but many do.
Putting all of that together and remembering that we're casting these spells by doing this equation V + S + M = spell all within 6 seconds off the top of your head as a wizard it's pretty similar to doing a complex math equation to figure out the answer to something happening in real time.
Then you've got bards who are learning to use the weave through song and dance. They're doing the same thing but with an entirely different style. Instead of writing the equation in the weave and saying words in a dead language, they're using their movements and words to supply those components. Bards are interesting in that manner but it also makes sense if you read deeply Into Creation bards.
Sorcerer just inherit magic naturally and have no idea what the heck math is. They just know when they want something to start on fire it happens.
Warlocks are sugar babies who don't have to memorize anything because the knowledge is borrowed from their patron. I like to imagine when they're casting spells the patron speaks through them or basically uses them as the conduit and casts it through the warlock.
So every caster would experience the fatigue very differently because of this. Wizards would be mentally drained and maybe have a headache by the end of the day from taxing their brain so hard. Sorcerer would feel physically weaker as they've been drawing all of the power from themselves. Bards would probably be tired from performing all day. Warlocks would maybe feel a bit spent but the power really doesn't come from them and being short rest casters they're fine after a cup of tea.
I may occasionally have 'attempted' to cast a spell for which I have no slots left, and then used phrases such as, "I swear, baby, this has never happened before" and "Just give me 20 minutes, I'll be good to go after a quick shower", etc
Know your audience of course, I wouldn't recommend being this crude in front of a PUG, but with friends that you know well it's a reliable way to get a cheap laugh.
I think in dungeons and other dangerous situations it's the same as running low on any supplies, fear and exhaustion. You're tired from exerting yourself and scared because your supplies are running low.
In non-dangerous situations I imagine it's just feeling tired. You've been spending your energy casting spells all day and now you're ready for a good night's rest.
I actually had a fun experience with it.
In the beginning of the campaign, my character did know she can cast spells. She figured it out by accident. Before that, she was really useless (low martial skills) and was treated as a liability by everyone.
So when she figured out she can use magic, people started treating her better. But suddenly, she couldn’t cast spells anymore because she ran out of spell slots. She was panicking because she thought she lost her ability to cast spells and it turning useless again.
Then the paladin explained her the concept of spell slots and she is better now.
I look at it as magic charged in your body. You can always do magic (cantrips), but complex magic requires more energy, and sometimes you run out of it. Something like stamina. You go to sleep and feel recharged in the morning.
This sounds like a fun way to incorporate the mechanic into the story! I can imagine the panic the first time it happens :) So it sounds like you actually have "spell slots" as a real thing in your campaign world? As a measurable amount of the magic charge in your body at any one time?
There are actually a quite a few books set in the dnd universe (usually forgotten realms) and they actually mention spell slots in character. So in some ways it's a known variable but it may be described however you prefer.
To keep it simple and related to math, cantrip are like simple 2+2 types of equations it doesn't really tax the mind too much to do that correctly and you're not borrowing much from the weave. But the higher the spell slot the more complicated the math equation becomes and the more power you have to draw from the weave.
In my head it's pretty similar to 'spoon theory' that's talked about by disabled people. Most people don't need to think about whether they'll have enough energy ('spoons') to get through the day, because it feels unlimited to them, but a lot of disabled people need to allot their 'spoons' carefully and plan how much they can do in a day - chores, work, socialising, hobbies, all of that takes away from their spoon budget. A magic user having an analoguous idea where they need to be very aware of how much energy they have left to cast spells is just a more specific version of the same thing, it's the reality for quite a lot of people IRL.
I had my Bladesinger Wizard be able to show it to others in-game, by "conjuring" spheres representing spell slots.
He holds up his hand and orbs of magical energy appear. Bigger slots are orbited by smaller ones. As he runs out of slots, fewer orbs appear.
Yeah I've always felt like wizards would speak in game design terms like this. Like, their whole deal is they study magic like a science, because in their world it is. A wizard understands spell slots like a physicist understands forces, I don't necessarily know why but this is clearly how it works and there is a mathematical rigor to it; a fireball from a 4th level slot on average deals an eighth more damage than from a 3rd, with enough casts we can draw a graph proving it.
I find the way players engage with spells to be very awkward. Even pros like CR stumble around the topic.
"I can... uhm... use my magic to... eh... to throw an exploding ball of fire at our enemies! The size of the explosion? Baaaa... about 40 feet across!"
In my DM's world, magic is almost exclusively accessible through a relationship with some sort of deity or super powerful being. My Cleric is allotted a certain amount of magical energy each day from his god. It creates a pretty solid in-character reason for not being able to cast anymore spells for the day, he simply spent all the energy he was granted, just as I spent all my spell slots up-casting Guiding Bolt.
Yes we actually have a wizard in our party. Wizards work more or less the same way. I think the idea for wizards is that while they still have a relationship a deity, their studies allow them to take their prowess and control over the weave one step further, providing an explanation for the massive spell list.
I have always just looked at it like exhausting your available energy, but this post got me thinking, considering a lot of magical items also run on charges.
Any potential official lore that I am unaware of aside, you could explain it as magical energy coalescing on potent magical focuses, be they creatures or items. When used the gathered energies dissipate and will require some time to gather around the focus again, be that short rest features that gets you some slots back or long rests that truly let the magical energies settle uninterrupted around you again for all your slots.
Artificer: "I can't find my glasses, where are my glasses?"
Barbarian: "You guys are getting paid?"
Bard: "I've got blistas on me fingas!"
Blood Hunter: See the class whose magic your subclass replicates
Cleric: "Magic Sky Daddy said that's my allowance for the day"
Druid: "Mother Nature is going straight to voicemail now"
Fighter (EK): "How do you nerds keep that up for so long?"
Monk (Ki): "Guess I'll just cast fist"
Paladin: "Perchance I should've taken the oath of infinite smite slots"
Ranger: "Oh well, I can track you with my eyes, who needs hunter's mark anyways"
Rogue (AT): "The only spell I need is dagger"
Sorcerer: "The ancestors are cutting me off. I'm not even that drunk with power"
Warlock: "If we could please take a power nap so I can talk to Eldritch Daddy and ask him for another deposit"
Wizard: "By my calculations... we're fucked now"
Internal magic: how much energy you’ve got saved. Typical mana
Channeled magic: channeling puts a strain on the body, limits are how much you can do in a day or without rest to recover
Hybrid: use your mana to channel greater power from elsewhere, see above
Imbued: You’ve got some number of imbued talismans, spell constructs, etc that you prepare in advance then activate. This prep takes a long time and you’re limited on how many you can prepare/hold ready
Artifice: limited supply of gadgets/charges/reagents, same as above
There’s plenty of other magic systems, but these are some broad ones that fit spell slots
I'm playing a warforged sorcerer that is kept alive by having magic flowing through him and the way he casts spells is by directing some of that magic outwards, so for him, no spell slots is literal physical exhaustion as he is burning away life force
My wizard kind of plays it like low blood sugar. Glucose is bodily energy same as the weave is magical energy, so I kind of think of it as getting weak, shaky, even faint.
Arcane recovery while short resting is the equivalent of popping a candy in your mouth or eating a piece of fruit to get some sugar back into you, but it doesn’t do miracles. The only thing that really helps is a long rest and a solid meal around the campfire.
Sorcerer: I'm feeling tired and drained, one more spell might kill me
Druid/ranger: I cannot ask more of the land, she has given me all she can muster today without becoming unbalanced
Cleric/paladin: There comes a time when the gods require us to solve our own problems
Warlock: My contract does not include that
Bard: I've got blisters on me fingers
Wizard: I'm... Out of spell slots. I don't know how to explain it to you any clearer than that, that's how magic works, read a book for once.
Think of trying to earnestly write a 30 page research paper in one day and how fried your brain feels at the end of the day. That’s the feel I try and evoke.
I view it more like stamina, you are just tired. Your connection to the weave or whatever homebrew magic plane/source is weakened. Rests, short or long can help depending on class, and abilities and meds (potions) can return spell slots as they revitalize you.
all spells require some thought and concentration (not game mechanic wise) and once your mind is exhausted its harder for you to channel the magic. Just like you can't prepare everything due to mental tolls.
Depends on the style of magic user. For arcane casters, I always depict the process of spellcasting as being physically/mentally strenuous, and that it burns a lot of calories. Thus all my Wizards are big eaters during Long Rests since they have to constantly replenish their energy reserves. It's a good justification for the "noodle armed Wizard" beyond them just being wimpy nerds too - their body is constantly burning calories so fast that they can't bulk up. So as they cast spells throughout the day, or toss out really big spells all at once, it exhausts them the same way a martial would be gassed after going all out in a battle. When my arcanists are out of spell slots, I depict them as legitimately being too tired to manage the necessary focus or muster up the power to make a functional spell.
For divine, druidic or eldritch spellcasters, I play those characters as being conduits of a greater force than themselves. So there's only so much of this overwhelming power their mortal bodies can handle at any one time before they just shut down. For example, I once played a Kobold Celestial Warlock of Bahamut - every time she channeled that tiny mote of divine power he'd given her, it practically ripped her apart. Divine magic glowed through her ribcage, she'd exhale fumes, and her fingers would blacken and scorch. There's no actual HP damage being done, but the fluff is a good way to convey how taxing the effort is on her body, and thus justify when she stops slinging spells due to mechanical spell slot shortage.
Depends on your source of magic.
Sorcerer : "I'm exhausted. I won't be able to channel large amounts of energy anymore. I need rest."
Wizard : "Comrades, I'm definitely running low on pre-attuned Arcane Weave-Matrixes ... Until I can reconstruct them, my potential will be severely reduced."
Druid : "Nature won't answer my call anymore ... I need to restore my inner balance."
Warlock : "Gosh ... the price is getting too high ... another like this would tear my soul to pieces ..."
Artificer : "That was my last gizmo, guys ! Next batch is scheduled for tomorrow."
Bard : "Your momma's so ... hum ... so ... hum ... Well, the Muses are gone. Can't do it anymore. You know what ? I need a bath, a caraf of nice mineral white, a cigar and the best masseuse in town."
Cleric : "No more miracles today. The boss is bored of me. Better wait a few hours to bother them again ... they're quite capricious, y'know."
Paladin : "The Powers of Resolve is a blade. It needs to be sharpened, again and again, on the rigorous practice of your tenets, or it will break."
Ranger : "Magic happens at its own pace and time, like any natural phenomena. It isn't ripe anymore today. We'll have to rely on our own skills."
The options are endless and should be tailored to the precise flavour of your character's magic.
Because my favorite fantasy character of ALL time is Raistlin Majere, I become more sarcastic in my tone (even if I’m not being outwardly rude), and when I get REAL low, I begin coughing into my hanker-chief. And I let the other PCs know they see speckles of blood in the cloth when I withdraw it.
WotC printed a 1st-person account of a wizard preparing spells. Can’t the the quote from my phone, but it’s described as clearing your mind and imagining pages in your mind to put your spells on, then as you read your spellbook you’re transcribing into your mind. Casting a spell erases it, but the eraser bits and leftover marks make it impossible to prepare a new spell until you have a nice clear page again.
Running low on spell slots isn’t like running low on mana or energy like in shows, more like running out of items in a bag.
I had a wizard that would roleplay a increasingly bad headache as he used more magic. So when he cast something then keeled over in pain, we'd know he was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Yeah that's honestly how I think of it too that and them showing signs of confusion or mental fatigue. I had a wizard npc that got very absent minded and distracted as he used more of his slots. By the time he was basically spent he was having a hard time focusing on anything going on and would complain about his head pounding.
I don't spend any time on it. I don't want to make combat longer by talking about my character feeling mentally exhausted and drained in great length. I just choose a different tactic.
"Well, I'm out of spells so I'll just take a shot with my crossbow" works perfectly well.
How mentally exhausting do you think it is to cast spells? I mean ever super heroes seem to sweat and get fatigued after casting them over and over again.
Simple, I roleplay my character as being tired, not in a physical sense, but like, mentally exhausted, as if having a mild headache since it's powered by the mental stats.
I've tended to view it as physical or mental exhaustion (depends on the type of caster I'm playing). The process of casting spells requires channeling powerful energies or even drawing on a well of your own so it feels like it makes sense. As a Wizard the mental side fits easily into the narrative of spell casting most Wizards default to. Learning and memorizing spells is hard and mentally taxing. each day you can only refresh so much of your memory and similarly, holding complex magical patterns in your head as you cast them is draining. Once you reach the end of your spell slots it's then easy to put it as though you simply can't draw any further energy above a certain amount until you get a chance to rest.
You can adjust the vibe based on the kind of caster e.g. clerics can't handle any more of their god's divine power burning through them, a sorcerer might go simpler, visualizing a literal pool of power that is depleted like a mental mana bar.
Um. . . I'm more selective about when I cast a spell vs. a cantrip or other action.
Not really any roleplaying about it, other than informing the rest of the party, and trying to get a rest.
I guess I'm more talking about your character. If they had to communicate the fact that you'd run out of spell slots to the other characters, what would they say?
They wouldn't refer to spell slots since that's a real-world character sheet concept. Edit: happy cake day!
They actually are a thing in-universe. 3.5 and earlier had "vancian casting", where a caster would prepare a spell in their mind like a bullet, and when they cast it they're doing the final components and releasing the energy from their mind. A limited number of slots of numerated levels, is well-known and exists in the fiction.
5e removed the individual preperation, but the idea that characters are aware of slots remains.
Roleplaying is taking on the role of a fictional character in a fictional world and making the decisions you think that character would make if they and their world were real.
One roleplays a character who is expending a finite resource (in this case spell slots) by attempting to conserve that resource for important things. It's one of the many, many cases in this hobby where the desire of a player to 'win" D&D dovetails perfectly with roleplaying their PC as a person who doesn't want to die.
What you seem to be talking about is how the PC in-game experiences the effect of the game's rules (ie spell slots and prepared spells). Which certainly can inform roleplaying, it is just not roleplaying in and of itself.
Ah ok, so when you're roleplaying your character who has run out of spell slots, you'd communicate it to the others by saying "Actually it's *they're* too strong for me right now, not *their* too strong". You sound fun to play with!
I think it's mostly the same for all classes in my view- Mortals are imperfect vessels for channeling magical energy. They are unable to draw the energy needed for the spell from the source with perfect efficiency. That means the difference gets made up in some of their own energy- when they're out of energy, they can't cast any more spells. As you get better at it, you get more efficient and can cast more often and more powerfully before you run out of juice.
I've never thought of it this way! That makes sense. I play a wizard. Where do you think they draw their magic from? Isn't it just their book smarts?
They draw their magic from the Weave but they channel it by complex formulas and what I imagine to be some weird variant of arcane calculus. Mental taxation is a thing?
This is actually very accurate to how it works based on the lore. In a very short summary casting magic the way wizards do is the same as remembering a specific calculation or formula and replicating it. Most spells have multiple types of components in order to cast them (Verbal, somatic, material or V,S,M). Every spell has at least one of those components needed unless you're a sorcerer. The verbal components of most spells in the dnd lore derive from original Draconic language, so we're basically like the dragonborn in skyrim using shouts. It's a foreign language to everyone so you have to learn a new language to understand it. Then you've got the gestures with your somatic which are specific hand movements in order to basically draw an equation in the weave, If you've ever seen Doctor Strange imagine much like their casting of magic. Then you've got your materials which is easy to understand as the basis of alchemy which is everything costs/comes from something. Not every spell requires a material but many do. Putting all of that together and remembering that we're casting these spells by doing this equation V + S + M = spell all within 6 seconds off the top of your head as a wizard it's pretty similar to doing a complex math equation to figure out the answer to something happening in real time. Then you've got bards who are learning to use the weave through song and dance. They're doing the same thing but with an entirely different style. Instead of writing the equation in the weave and saying words in a dead language, they're using their movements and words to supply those components. Bards are interesting in that manner but it also makes sense if you read deeply Into Creation bards. Sorcerer just inherit magic naturally and have no idea what the heck math is. They just know when they want something to start on fire it happens. Warlocks are sugar babies who don't have to memorize anything because the knowledge is borrowed from their patron. I like to imagine when they're casting spells the patron speaks through them or basically uses them as the conduit and casts it through the warlock. So every caster would experience the fatigue very differently because of this. Wizards would be mentally drained and maybe have a headache by the end of the day from taxing their brain so hard. Sorcerer would feel physically weaker as they've been drawing all of the power from themselves. Bards would probably be tired from performing all day. Warlocks would maybe feel a bit spent but the power really doesn't come from them and being short rest casters they're fine after a cup of tea.
I may occasionally have 'attempted' to cast a spell for which I have no slots left, and then used phrases such as, "I swear, baby, this has never happened before" and "Just give me 20 minutes, I'll be good to go after a quick shower", etc Know your audience of course, I wouldn't recommend being this crude in front of a PUG, but with friends that you know well it's a reliable way to get a cheap laugh.
Haha! I hear it's surprisingly common, and most spellcasters will experience at some point!
I think in dungeons and other dangerous situations it's the same as running low on any supplies, fear and exhaustion. You're tired from exerting yourself and scared because your supplies are running low. In non-dangerous situations I imagine it's just feeling tired. You've been spending your energy casting spells all day and now you're ready for a good night's rest.
I actually had a fun experience with it. In the beginning of the campaign, my character did know she can cast spells. She figured it out by accident. Before that, she was really useless (low martial skills) and was treated as a liability by everyone. So when she figured out she can use magic, people started treating her better. But suddenly, she couldn’t cast spells anymore because she ran out of spell slots. She was panicking because she thought she lost her ability to cast spells and it turning useless again. Then the paladin explained her the concept of spell slots and she is better now. I look at it as magic charged in your body. You can always do magic (cantrips), but complex magic requires more energy, and sometimes you run out of it. Something like stamina. You go to sleep and feel recharged in the morning.
This sounds like a fun way to incorporate the mechanic into the story! I can imagine the panic the first time it happens :) So it sounds like you actually have "spell slots" as a real thing in your campaign world? As a measurable amount of the magic charge in your body at any one time?
There are actually a quite a few books set in the dnd universe (usually forgotten realms) and they actually mention spell slots in character. So in some ways it's a known variable but it may be described however you prefer. To keep it simple and related to math, cantrip are like simple 2+2 types of equations it doesn't really tax the mind too much to do that correctly and you're not borrowing much from the weave. But the higher the spell slot the more complicated the math equation becomes and the more power you have to draw from the weave.
Not something that is officially canon. We use it as a role play device
"I've exhausted a lot of my energy." "So drained I can barely conjure more than a spark."
In my head it's pretty similar to 'spoon theory' that's talked about by disabled people. Most people don't need to think about whether they'll have enough energy ('spoons') to get through the day, because it feels unlimited to them, but a lot of disabled people need to allot their 'spoons' carefully and plan how much they can do in a day - chores, work, socialising, hobbies, all of that takes away from their spoon budget. A magic user having an analoguous idea where they need to be very aware of how much energy they have left to cast spells is just a more specific version of the same thing, it's the reality for quite a lot of people IRL.
I had my Bladesinger Wizard be able to show it to others in-game, by "conjuring" spheres representing spell slots. He holds up his hand and orbs of magical energy appear. Bigger slots are orbited by smaller ones. As he runs out of slots, fewer orbs appear.
Yeah I've always felt like wizards would speak in game design terms like this. Like, their whole deal is they study magic like a science, because in their world it is. A wizard understands spell slots like a physicist understands forces, I don't necessarily know why but this is clearly how it works and there is a mathematical rigor to it; a fireball from a 4th level slot on average deals an eighth more damage than from a 3rd, with enough casts we can draw a graph proving it.
I find the way players engage with spells to be very awkward. Even pros like CR stumble around the topic. "I can... uhm... use my magic to... eh... to throw an exploding ball of fire at our enemies! The size of the explosion? Baaaa... about 40 feet across!"
Mostly just getting tired, physically exhausted, little animic.
In my DM's world, magic is almost exclusively accessible through a relationship with some sort of deity or super powerful being. My Cleric is allotted a certain amount of magical energy each day from his god. It creates a pretty solid in-character reason for not being able to cast anymore spells for the day, he simply spent all the energy he was granted, just as I spent all my spell slots up-casting Guiding Bolt.
This is exactly what I mean, thanks. Cleric makes perfect sense this way. Maybe warlock would too. Any thoughts about wizard?
Yes we actually have a wizard in our party. Wizards work more or less the same way. I think the idea for wizards is that while they still have a relationship a deity, their studies allow them to take their prowess and control over the weave one step further, providing an explanation for the massive spell list.
I have always just looked at it like exhausting your available energy, but this post got me thinking, considering a lot of magical items also run on charges. Any potential official lore that I am unaware of aside, you could explain it as magical energy coalescing on potent magical focuses, be they creatures or items. When used the gathered energies dissipate and will require some time to gather around the focus again, be that short rest features that gets you some slots back or long rests that truly let the magical energies settle uninterrupted around you again for all your slots.
Artificer: "I can't find my glasses, where are my glasses?" Barbarian: "You guys are getting paid?" Bard: "I've got blistas on me fingas!" Blood Hunter: See the class whose magic your subclass replicates Cleric: "Magic Sky Daddy said that's my allowance for the day" Druid: "Mother Nature is going straight to voicemail now" Fighter (EK): "How do you nerds keep that up for so long?" Monk (Ki): "Guess I'll just cast fist" Paladin: "Perchance I should've taken the oath of infinite smite slots" Ranger: "Oh well, I can track you with my eyes, who needs hunter's mark anyways" Rogue (AT): "The only spell I need is dagger" Sorcerer: "The ancestors are cutting me off. I'm not even that drunk with power" Warlock: "If we could please take a power nap so I can talk to Eldritch Daddy and ask him for another deposit" Wizard: "By my calculations... we're fucked now"
Internal magic: how much energy you’ve got saved. Typical mana Channeled magic: channeling puts a strain on the body, limits are how much you can do in a day or without rest to recover Hybrid: use your mana to channel greater power from elsewhere, see above Imbued: You’ve got some number of imbued talismans, spell constructs, etc that you prepare in advance then activate. This prep takes a long time and you’re limited on how many you can prepare/hold ready Artifice: limited supply of gadgets/charges/reagents, same as above There’s plenty of other magic systems, but these are some broad ones that fit spell slots
I'm playing a warforged sorcerer that is kept alive by having magic flowing through him and the way he casts spells is by directing some of that magic outwards, so for him, no spell slots is literal physical exhaustion as he is burning away life force
My wizard kind of plays it like low blood sugar. Glucose is bodily energy same as the weave is magical energy, so I kind of think of it as getting weak, shaky, even faint. Arcane recovery while short resting is the equivalent of popping a candy in your mouth or eating a piece of fruit to get some sugar back into you, but it doesn’t do miracles. The only thing that really helps is a long rest and a solid meal around the campfire.
Sorcerer: I'm feeling tired and drained, one more spell might kill me Druid/ranger: I cannot ask more of the land, she has given me all she can muster today without becoming unbalanced Cleric/paladin: There comes a time when the gods require us to solve our own problems Warlock: My contract does not include that Bard: I've got blisters on me fingers Wizard: I'm... Out of spell slots. I don't know how to explain it to you any clearer than that, that's how magic works, read a book for once.
Think of trying to earnestly write a 30 page research paper in one day and how fried your brain feels at the end of the day. That’s the feel I try and evoke.
I view it more like stamina, you are just tired. Your connection to the weave or whatever homebrew magic plane/source is weakened. Rests, short or long can help depending on class, and abilities and meds (potions) can return spell slots as they revitalize you. all spells require some thought and concentration (not game mechanic wise) and once your mind is exhausted its harder for you to channel the magic. Just like you can't prepare everything due to mental tolls.
Depends on the style of magic user. For arcane casters, I always depict the process of spellcasting as being physically/mentally strenuous, and that it burns a lot of calories. Thus all my Wizards are big eaters during Long Rests since they have to constantly replenish their energy reserves. It's a good justification for the "noodle armed Wizard" beyond them just being wimpy nerds too - their body is constantly burning calories so fast that they can't bulk up. So as they cast spells throughout the day, or toss out really big spells all at once, it exhausts them the same way a martial would be gassed after going all out in a battle. When my arcanists are out of spell slots, I depict them as legitimately being too tired to manage the necessary focus or muster up the power to make a functional spell. For divine, druidic or eldritch spellcasters, I play those characters as being conduits of a greater force than themselves. So there's only so much of this overwhelming power their mortal bodies can handle at any one time before they just shut down. For example, I once played a Kobold Celestial Warlock of Bahamut - every time she channeled that tiny mote of divine power he'd given her, it practically ripped her apart. Divine magic glowed through her ribcage, she'd exhale fumes, and her fingers would blacken and scorch. There's no actual HP damage being done, but the fluff is a good way to convey how taxing the effort is on her body, and thus justify when she stops slinging spells due to mechanical spell slot shortage.
Depends on your source of magic. Sorcerer : "I'm exhausted. I won't be able to channel large amounts of energy anymore. I need rest." Wizard : "Comrades, I'm definitely running low on pre-attuned Arcane Weave-Matrixes ... Until I can reconstruct them, my potential will be severely reduced." Druid : "Nature won't answer my call anymore ... I need to restore my inner balance." Warlock : "Gosh ... the price is getting too high ... another like this would tear my soul to pieces ..." Artificer : "That was my last gizmo, guys ! Next batch is scheduled for tomorrow." Bard : "Your momma's so ... hum ... so ... hum ... Well, the Muses are gone. Can't do it anymore. You know what ? I need a bath, a caraf of nice mineral white, a cigar and the best masseuse in town." Cleric : "No more miracles today. The boss is bored of me. Better wait a few hours to bother them again ... they're quite capricious, y'know." Paladin : "The Powers of Resolve is a blade. It needs to be sharpened, again and again, on the rigorous practice of your tenets, or it will break." Ranger : "Magic happens at its own pace and time, like any natural phenomena. It isn't ripe anymore today. We'll have to rely on our own skills." The options are endless and should be tailored to the precise flavour of your character's magic.
Because my favorite fantasy character of ALL time is Raistlin Majere, I become more sarcastic in my tone (even if I’m not being outwardly rude), and when I get REAL low, I begin coughing into my hanker-chief. And I let the other PCs know they see speckles of blood in the cloth when I withdraw it.
WotC printed a 1st-person account of a wizard preparing spells. Can’t the the quote from my phone, but it’s described as clearing your mind and imagining pages in your mind to put your spells on, then as you read your spellbook you’re transcribing into your mind. Casting a spell erases it, but the eraser bits and leftover marks make it impossible to prepare a new spell until you have a nice clear page again. Running low on spell slots isn’t like running low on mana or energy like in shows, more like running out of items in a bag.
"I'm low on juice" "I'm saving my magic for the boss" "Can't do Sending, as need to be able to Revivify if one of you kick the bucket!"
Low on juice is definitely something I'd thought about using. I wanted to add a bit of a class flavour to it, bit am stuck for ideas. (I play wizard)
I had a wizard that would roleplay a increasingly bad headache as he used more magic. So when he cast something then keeled over in pain, we'd know he was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Yeah that's honestly how I think of it too that and them showing signs of confusion or mental fatigue. I had a wizard npc that got very absent minded and distracted as he used more of his slots. By the time he was basically spent he was having a hard time focusing on anything going on and would complain about his head pounding.
I don't spend any time on it. I don't want to make combat longer by talking about my character feeling mentally exhausted and drained in great length. I just choose a different tactic. "Well, I'm out of spells so I'll just take a shot with my crossbow" works perfectly well.
Getting tired
How mentally exhausting do you think it is to cast spells? I mean ever super heroes seem to sweat and get fatigued after casting them over and over again.
We use the alternate points system but made it a little more like the concept of mana.
Simple, I roleplay my character as being tired, not in a physical sense, but like, mentally exhausted, as if having a mild headache since it's powered by the mental stats.
"I'm fuckin tired man" - every spellcasting class
I've tended to view it as physical or mental exhaustion (depends on the type of caster I'm playing). The process of casting spells requires channeling powerful energies or even drawing on a well of your own so it feels like it makes sense. As a Wizard the mental side fits easily into the narrative of spell casting most Wizards default to. Learning and memorizing spells is hard and mentally taxing. each day you can only refresh so much of your memory and similarly, holding complex magical patterns in your head as you cast them is draining. Once you reach the end of your spell slots it's then easy to put it as though you simply can't draw any further energy above a certain amount until you get a chance to rest. You can adjust the vibe based on the kind of caster e.g. clerics can't handle any more of their god's divine power burning through them, a sorcerer might go simpler, visualizing a literal pool of power that is depleted like a mental mana bar.
Um. . . I'm more selective about when I cast a spell vs. a cantrip or other action. Not really any roleplaying about it, other than informing the rest of the party, and trying to get a rest.
I guess I'm more talking about your character. If they had to communicate the fact that you'd run out of spell slots to the other characters, what would they say? They wouldn't refer to spell slots since that's a real-world character sheet concept. Edit: happy cake day!
They actually are a thing in-universe. 3.5 and earlier had "vancian casting", where a caster would prepare a spell in their mind like a bullet, and when they cast it they're doing the final components and releasing the energy from their mind. A limited number of slots of numerated levels, is well-known and exists in the fiction. 5e removed the individual preperation, but the idea that characters are aware of slots remains.
Can we take a long break soon? I'm almost tapped out.
Roleplaying is taking on the role of a fictional character in a fictional world and making the decisions you think that character would make if they and their world were real. One roleplays a character who is expending a finite resource (in this case spell slots) by attempting to conserve that resource for important things. It's one of the many, many cases in this hobby where the desire of a player to 'win" D&D dovetails perfectly with roleplaying their PC as a person who doesn't want to die. What you seem to be talking about is how the PC in-game experiences the effect of the game's rules (ie spell slots and prepared spells). Which certainly can inform roleplaying, it is just not roleplaying in and of itself.
Ah ok, so when you're roleplaying your character who has run out of spell slots, you'd communicate it to the others by saying "Actually it's *they're* too strong for me right now, not *their* too strong". You sound fun to play with!