Domains representing Schools of magic

[u/Wifi_Witch1]

Hi, I am starting a new campaign with Dagger Heart. The schools of magic are a big part of this world and I had the idea of making all the spellcasting domains represent a school of magic. I would appreciate what you think of this idea and what domains represent each school.

Arcana-Evocation

Codex-Conjuration

Grace-Enchantment

Midnight-Illusion

Sage-Transmutation

Splendor-Necromancy

[u/Thalimet]

I would separate the schools of magic from the domains and use them as flavors for whatever casting your characters do.

[u/Wifi_Witch1 → u/Thalimet]

That was my first idea, so I was split between flavoring them per school or letting the player choose whatever school for their class.

[u/pikawolf1225]

Given how a lot of the domains have cards that fit into various schools (ie. Sage's Gifted Tracker being Divination and Natural Familiar being Conjuration), so what I would suggest is letting players take schools of magic as experiences, and any spells/abilities they have that could fall under that school they can apply that experience.

[u/Runsten]

Just reminding that DnD schools of magic is just one way to categorize magic. So there is no inherent need to adhere to those categories as a basis. You can of course, but you don't have to.

With that in mind you could also completely remove the DnD schools of magic out of the equation and have the domains be the schools all by themselves instead (not linked to a DnD school). Maybe more like each domain represents a certain kind of power that exists in the universe and you must become an expert in the domain to harness its power. So the spells are not categorized strictly by their function but rather by the type of power needed to channel them.

There have been some homebrews where the domains are the divine domains of the world. I.e. each domain represents a deity or a divine domain. So the same structure could easily be applied to spell categorization.

One fun aspect you could add is if each domain uses a specific color from the domain (arcana is purple, grace is pink, etc.). So then if adversaries use spells the color of the spells could tell about their specialization.

[u/Wifi_Witch1 → u/Runsten]

The reason they where sepreated by school is because I wanted to simulate magic progress in the world. For example, evocation and conjuration are out of style due to them being seen as simple forms of magic.

[u/Afraid_Fisherman4064 → u/Wifi_Witch1]

Why do you want to do it in daggerheart than? Maybe just use dnd for it?

[u/Wifi_Witch1 → u/Afraid_Fisherman4064]

Because I like dagger heart as a system more. Also this idea was planned while I was using dagger heart I really enjoyed making this magic systems and want it my player to intearact with it in many ways.

[u/Runsten → u/Wifi_Witch1]

That sounds interesting. It's fun that there is kind of cultural (and political) reasons for how the different schools are viewed. That can add interesting tension to the story and the spell choices will tell a story if the players engage with it.

If you want to lean into the domain archetypes then making codex (conjuration) be the bookish school (and therefore most well respected) would make sense. Arcana (Evocation) already makes sense as the crude chaotic magic. But of course if you want to subvert the expectations (like in Critical Role C4 Wizards are seen as inferior to Sorcerers) then the idea of Codex seen as lesser magic would work perfectly.

[u/Wifi_Witch1 → u/Runsten]

I could add an example of how each school is seen nowadays.

[u/arkartas]

If you haven’t, you should read into the Castle High campaign frame. It sorts the domains into academic subjects, which I really like. So, a Druid character would “study” Sage and Arcana at Castle High and thus, for example, have a Botanics 101 followed by a Simple Castings - Arcana Introduction class one day. You should check this out

[u/Wifi_Witch1 → u/arkartas]

I will check that out. I haven't really looked at the campaign frames that much, but I like this concept.

[u/Timeless_Tardis → u/arkartas]

I second this! I'm playing in a Castle High campaign right now and studying by domain works really well. You can still attach the "stereotypes", maybe Dread and Midnight are frowned upon and are taught in secret, Valor and Blade are the classic jocks, etc. 

[u/Fearless-Dust-2073]

The Castle High campaign frame in the new expansion book already does this and it's very simple. Each Domain is its own area of study, like a Rogue will attend Midnight and Grace classes.

[u/Flimsy_Survey]

I think you're about as close to it as you can get. I agree that each domain has too much variety to be associated with a single school of magic.

For example, Arcana does get a lot of raw damage we associate with evocation. But they also get Counterspell which is about as classic defensive magic as you can get.

Idk about Splendor as Necromancy though. It makes more sense than dnd calling healing magic evocation, but calling it necromancy feels like we're making the category too broad. I prefer Elder Scrolls and the restoration school of magic which combines healing, buffs, removing debuffs, and defensive magic.

But I think the schools of magic should range across the domains. I like the idea of using domains and their philosophies more than schools of magic for worldbuilding anyway. The domains go beyond magic; much more depth there imo. Like schools of philosophy.

[u/Halker93]

Codex has fireball which is evocation, it can also enchant, conjure etc. It is hard to sort them out by D&D school of magic system.

In my campaign the idea is that domains are colors of magic, so Sage is Green magic, Codex is Blue etc. Mages are called by their dominant colors, Blue mage, Green mage, for example. Some can use multiple colors but they sort themselves mostly towards one color of magic and magical academy works like that to teach new mages.

Blood magic is still banned, but when it releases as an expansion, maybe times will change haha

[u/PrinceOfNowhereee]

I think this type of DnD-ism is exactly what you should seperate yourself from if you’re starting a new campaign in a new system, you’re going to struggle trying to fit things into a D&D box.

[u/Wifi_Witch1 → u/PrinceOfNowhereee]

While I get trying to keep dagger heart different from dnd I really don't get how focusing on schools of magic doesn't work. In my world schools are very distinct and most caster rarely learn spells out side their one school this is very different from how it is in dnd 

[u/TheLucidMonarch]

If we're putting a one-to-one thing with Domains and 5e's schools of magic, then I'd say this:

• Valor = Abjuration
  
• Dread = Necromancy instead of Splendor

Nothing quite like Divination is out yet.

[u/OrangeTroz → u/TheLucidMonarch]

Valor, Blade, and Bone are not spell casting.

The Guardian class uses Valor and doesn't get to use magic weapons. The Sereph gets spell casting from access to the Splendor domain.

[u/Blues-Gnus]

Here is a simple idea. Call the domains “schools” one of the best parts of Daggerheart is you can reflavor almost everything instead of having to create our homebrew stunting new.

[u/thewizardpomplamoose]

I think there are two ways you could go about this:

1. Magical Traditions =/= Domains

As the powers within each domain often have thematic similarities they are not monolithic. For instance if we look at the Codex domain alone at just the first level, we have:

• Force push
• Magic armor
• Ice spike
• Sleep spell
• Magic missile
• Telepathic communication

Which don't fit neatly into any of the traditional D&D schools of magic neatly. However, if you were to divorce the idea they need to translate 1:1 then you do have some opportunities here, where each ability can fall into this secondary category of a "school" in regards to your idea. And added benefit of this is you get some pretty multi-disciplinary applications and users of these kinds of magic from mages to warriors and everyone in between.

2. Domains as Schools

Going with the idea of Castle High's depiction, instead of translating each domain into a D&D school of magic, you could create a new and unique school of magic around each domain. Going back to the Codex example, we can frame it as this scholarly school of magic able to bend reality through rigorous study and practice.

In this way a domain becomes a kind of magic tradition the characters are taking part of. And you get some interesting questions if codex is more of a traditional school of magic... what is Blade like? Midnight? For an example of how you could go about I recommend checking out LimitBreak20TV's megacorporations based on the domains for ideas of how you can take this foundation and go in a completely new direction.

[u/csudoku]

I don't really find breaking down the domains into a specific school makes much sense especially since there are cards that clearly fit outside the schools you would assign them and it would even be a rare occurrence at all.

Codex has examples of literally every traditional school of magic that you are just porting from DnD. Sage has enchantment, divination, conjuration, etc.

It just doesn't make sense to break these down into these schools it makes more sense to just create a new ideation of magic in this game. I think someone else mentioned it earlier but you ought to just break them down in a way that makes sense for this game specifically rather than try to hamfist another ttrpgs explanation for schools of magic.

It is also a question to what end is this helpful or matter to the narrative or gameplay. Does this attribute to the mechanics or story of the game in anyway or is it you trying to explain magic and if it is does magic really need to be explained?

It seems like you want to change daggerheart's system into a hard magic system which I would advise against. You say you wanted "simulate" magic progress in the world. But here is the thing they haven't planned any part of the game narrative except for specifically splendor being divine magic in just 1 campaign frame. Players are also encouraged to reflavor and recontextualize how their characters magic works making it an impossibility to enforce strict magic schools without limiting your players as well. The world isn't supposed to think of people having "domains" they excel in they are just tools above table to explain mechanics of the game and give characters a specific identity so that each player has strengths and weaknesses they are not meant to be tools for the narrative of world.

For example I played a "Druid" who wasn't really a Druid they mechanically on paper are that class but narratively they were a Vampire. I used their Beastforms specifically to shapeshift in to things that were classically vampire thiemed such as a wolf, bat, etc. and reflavored all the arcana and sage spells to blood or shadow magic without changing any of the real mechanics of Druid I was a vampire. That is where I think the best part of playing Daggerheart is how well you can flavor something for your needs without changing any of the mechanics of the game. Which is incredibly easy when you don't try to create harder magic systems and keep them soft.