>To cast magic spells, all Wizards require wooden magic wands

It doesn't. From a gameplay perspective it's just an extra wrinkle that doesn't need to be there, and from a lore perspective it's hard to justify being able to bend the laws of reality only if you have a wooden stick in your hand

>>53761611
>wooden stick
There are phoenix feces inside it, asshole!

>>53761583
My setting is now Harry Potter, and appeals to actual children instead of manchildren.

That's about it.

>>53761583
It doesnt, exactly. That's pretty much how my settings Wizards work.

>There are several different types of Arcane Magic Users: Wizards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks.
>A Wizard learns magic through years of research and study. Their magic is like a mathematical equation: it must be very precise and calculated, otherwise they could die from channeling magic.
>A Wizard requires (among other things) an Arcane Focus. This Focus can be any number of things: wands, staves, weapons, crystals, living or dead animals, etc. Each Focus is unique to the User.

Some Wizards take the Foci of others they have killed or dueled. They can't use them, of course, as that requires a lengthy and complicated ritual of attunement, but the mummified husk of a Baragaurdian Eel or a glass dagger used to kill 99 virgins makes a great trophy.

That is stupid. Why can't I put all this magic power into a rock? Make a neckless, dagger, staff, hat, or anything else. Why dose it have to be a lame wand?

Also fuck Harry Potter. Their realm of fantasy is trash.

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>>53761683
A ring is fine too.

>>53761611

The universe operates on laws beyond the physical, especially magic. The wand is more then a mere tool, it is a mystic symbol of office and a requirement to cast spells.

>>53761683

Magic requires wands because of its symbolic and physical properties. You couldn't very well point at something with a droopy necklace, nor could you conduct a symphony with a rock. Why do you think you could do the same with magic?

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>>53761683
>>53761759
>not even a tree
filename related

>>53761683
Wandless and wordless magic was a thing in the HP universe, it was just harder and required actual talent, skill and practice to do intentionally.

So if I had to take part in a game set in the HP universe or one very much like it that is what my dude would specialize in. Get disarmed, have wand stolen "oh noes! However shall I get out of FORCE LIGHTNING MOTHER FUCKER!" Turns out that your wand was actually just a stick you were spastically waving as a decoy and those "custom self-made spells" you were using were just slightly Latin sounding gibberish.

A good explanation for the prevalence of wands in-universe could be that they were originally training devices primitive mages used to train their children but then people started using them into later life because they got lazy to the point where society started to rely on them.

It would also explain the apparent stagnation of the wizarding world in that they really are just learning everything by route with no understanding of the theory behind anything that they do.

>>53761883
It doesn't have to be a wand, though. That's just phallic symbolism associated with magic. Your focus could be a ring, hat, cat, baseball bat, bowl of popcorn, taxidermy polar bear or your ex-girlfriend. Your whole rule of "has to be a wooden wand" is pretty restricting.

Also, there's nothing stopping people from conducting a symphony with a rock. Lots of conductors use only their hands.

>>53762122
Don't they also have exotic materials in them to aid their use as a focus?

>>53761583
Not at all because wizards don't fucking exist.
You don't get to decide what's real in MY setting, bitch.

Wands are good in tabletop gane settings for balance purposes and easy class character relationships.

Wizards can now be disarmed without shitty inexplicable antimagic fields everwhere.

Wizards actually have a reason to avoid getting close to enemies, so they can't break or snatched his wand.

Those DMs who allow wizards to just cast spells from their hands are the reason for caster martial disparity and are certainly a bad DM.

>>53762255
Yes. Usually a piece of a magical animal arbitrarily chosen.

But the witches and wizards are magical creatures. And they can use wands that they weren't issued with at age 11ish.

And magic can cure most if not all physical injuries short of actual death.

So a particularly mad bastard could remove a chunk of shin bone (magically regrow it with a chug of skelegrow potion) make a bone tube out of the shin chunk, get some of his own hair, soak it in his own blood, braid it into a nice smooth string and place it inside the bone tube.

There we go. Bone wand. It is your own magic multiplied by itself. It is your own power squared. And given how it is intrinsically you it's also possible that it isn't going to give Elder Wand style buffs to anyone else.

Or you can just learn to teleport, practice until you git gud and Night Crawler around the place hitting people with a short length of scaffolding pole. That plus time turner plus cloak of invisibility makes you Death Incarnate for all practical purposes.

>>53761683
> That is stupid. Why can't I put all this gunpowder into a ball? Make a bomb, a sword, a club or anything else. Why does it have to be a lame gun?
Gee whiz, anon, I dunno, maybe it's because you have to ACTUALLY FOCUS IT AT STUFF YOU WANT TO USE MAGIC ON, YOU LITTLE FUCKING RETARD.

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>>53763191
A staff, a dagger, or even a particularly pointy kind of rock could still be used to focus in a particular direction, the same way you would with a wand.

>>53763429
>A staff, a dagger, or even a particularly pointy kind of rock
Suboptimal for purposes of focusing energy.

You need a long and narrow magical focus not because "they are long and narrow, hurr, you can point it at stuff", but because they have uniform distribution of mass and an axis of central symmetry.
A wand is the easiest form to make that satisfies the above conditions.

>>53762175
>all objects that are not cubes are phalli
Not my fault your vagina can't indicate a target

>>53763956
>You need a long and narrow magical focus
why?

how does the mass of a focus effect magic? Sounds like you're trying to justify forcing wizards to use sticks

>>53761583
Wizards now have a large collection of chopsticks

>>53763956
Crystal Ball

>>53761583

Day 1
Wizard gets a 10 ft pole and turns it into a giant wand.

Day 2
Wizard gets a level in Monk School, anf buys a Monk's belt

Day 3

Wizard changes his name to Son Goku....

>>53763956
>but because they have uniform distribution of mass and an axis of central symmetry.
so a dagger, staff, or rock can't have these? what about a ball? and the crystal on the left posted by >>53763429 has those.
this is the most arbitrary and dumb justification for wands i've ever heard

>>53761583
>wands

Only dumb homosexuals prefer wands over staves, grimoires, or components.

>>53761583
>Wand has to be at least as tall as the wizard
>To cast a spell you have to plant it down and pole dance on it

How does this ruin your setting?

>>53764864
this is true

>>53761583
>wands
Ugh.

Upgrade to a staff, you knave.

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>>53764346
>Sounds like you're trying to justify forcing wizards to use sticks
Actually, machined metal pipes with payloads of somatic components are more practical for all purposes.
They shield the sides, while leaving the ends open for the mana to flow through it.
Metal insulates magic a lot better than wood does.
>>53764401
An axis of central symmetry, not a point of central symmetry (i.e. endless amount of axes).
>>53764813
>what about a ball?
You will be basically spilling mana everywhere. Think about it as funnel.
Conical form > cylindrical form (wands) > everything else.
And crystals are for storing magic, not conducting it.

>>53761583
>for the better
It doesn't. That's dumb as fuck.

>>53764864
This. Collecting the spell books or staves of defeated wizards sounds a lot cooler.

>>53761583
Almost all magic in my setting requires human sacrifice to function, so another stipulation on top of that is pretty inconvenient.

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>>53767408
Also, if you want me to say what I would consider an ideal casting implement - something along the lines of picrelated.

The longer it is, the more precise it is in application of magic (think about in term of guns and barrels), but if it's too long, it's impractical to carry around. Thus, make it collapsible.

Metal is better than wood, because it insulates from mana leakage a lot better than wood does, allowing the mana to enter from your palm and exit from the tip of your wand.

The slightly conical shape allows you to increase the funneling effect ever so slightly (if you want a more serious funneling effect, you are better off using pyramids or conical hats or some shit, but that shit won't be precise at all - just raw power).

So, to reiterate:
- Long, but collapsible.
- Metal outside, hollow (or filled with gaseous mana conductor) inside.
- Has a single axis of central symmetry.
- Slightly conical, with the base of the wand being larger than its tip.

>>53767513
That said, this is what I would consider an ideal PERSONAL casting implement.

For serious stuff, you are better off using custom-engineered conductor shapes for the purposes of your spell.
A pyramid is a good start, but some people were known to use the hourglass shape (for example, when they were using it as a magical filter) or a sphere when you need a uniform distribution of mana regardless of the direction.

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>>53761583
Wizards often do "have a stick up there ass" solely as a backup weapon ofc.

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>>53767513
LAPD wizard's agree

>>53764864
True as fuck
>>53767513
No one asked and no one cares. OP asked if there's benefit to magic requiring a wand, and you started this turbo-autism rant about some Harry Potter shit. Fuck off.

>>53769186
Anon, this is /tg/. Turboautism is the name of the game here. I don't know what you expected, to be honest.

>>53764864

>being so insecure you think using one of the most classic symbols of magick is "ew so gay looks so effeminate, I'm a man can't do that >:( "

>>53770330
>magick
No.

>>53770415
Hey, if you're using it for belief-based chaos magic, it's a perfectly fine use of the term. Using it for wand-and-book style magic is a good indicator of being a fag, though.

>>53770415
>gryphon
>faerie
>daemon

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>>53761583
>I just fucking fireballed myself

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>Wizard gains the wands of all the other wizards
>Noob Wizard accidentally somehow defeats the Wizard through a series of untimely rolls
>Noob Wizard now has a million wands

>>53761583
Wizards rely more on melee to avoid losing their wands

>your party spots a strange and macabre figure approaching from the distance
>as the figure draws nearer, you see that it is a robed and hooded figure
>the man has a brace of various exotic staves slung across his back, ranging from ebony to oak to yew, each topped with eccentric and varied staff heads
>as he gets even closer, your party wizard begins to tremble
>his knuckles grow white from the grip on his staff

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>>53763956
>You need a long and narrow magical focus not because "they are long and narrow, hurr, you can point it at stuff", but because they have uniform distribution of mass and an axis of central symmetry.
Ok, I pick a smallsword. It's long, it's well balanced, the blade is symmetrical and they're typically found with ornate decorations that many wizards love to have.

And don't say "OH BUT YOU'RE A WIZARD YOU CAN'T CARRY A SWORD" when one of if not the most popular wizard in fiction carried a fucking sword

>>53773008
>smallsword
>the shortest and most peasantly of the non-ancient sword family

You gonna get rightly ended. Unless you're a filthy cheat and cast magic instead.

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>>53773130
>Smallsword
>Peasantly
I think you have it confused with those barbaric arming swords those pathetic fighters carry around.

>swords
Should be valid desu, considering there are athames in contemporary Wicca and magical swords in folk tales

>>53762175
Man, I would watch the shit out of harry potter movies if Harry had to go get Cho Chang every time he wanted to cast a spell and jam his fist up her ass to make the correct 'wand' motions. Or if Dumbledore was swinging a stuffed polar bear around in his duel with Voldemort.

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>>53763956
>>53767408
>>53767513
>ITT: Niggers trying to explain magic

Think of them like laser pointers that shoot magic.

Magic follows its own rules, but you gotta know how to direct the result. Swords usually require swings which can misdirect the shot and the stabbing swords would require you to make stabbing motions which tire you out after 30-50 times.

A wand is far more portable than crystal balls or swords. They are small, easily aimed, and are so easy to create compared to a gun that it's kinda dumb to think that wizards should make guns in the first place when things the size and shape of sticks can shoot out fire.

>magic requires physical energy to focus physical energy and direct it
>magic requires magical energy to call spells into existence
Which one better?

I think you'd get a lot of wizards snapping their own wands before they let their rivals get their hands on them.
>ITT: a metaphor

>>53761583
>How does this change your setting for the better?
It doesn't, it just adds a arbitrary restriction that barely even fits in with the settings magic.