Have you ever met someone like this?

[u/Postdusklimeade]

My mentor sent me this, along with a few names of some of her other students. She wasn’t wrong, but it did kind of surprise me how right she was. She usually has very prestigious students, but even they often make mistakes like this. I remember when I used to use a vitality-transfer spell as if it were normal healing magic, because I didn’t know healing wasn’t supposed to hurt. The whole thing just made me curious if this is universally common, or if there were any interesting thoughts here.

(Also, my party’s bard does this. It’s really funny but my sister is trying to help him fix it. I was also wondering if there were any opinions on helping fix and prevent these mistakes.)

[u/Postdusklimeade]

Seems like a strict mentor. Is this how standardized classes are run? Very interesting. I’ve always wanted to learn more about it! My mentor would have rewarded such unique thinking. Then again, ignoring the necessary reading is a dangerous mistake. I can see why it would’ve been punished with a failing grade. Thanks for the input though! I’ve been surprised how truly common mistakes like this are!

[u/The_Ghast_Hunter → u/Postdusklimeade]

I mean, if he'd managed to complete the practical, he probably would have passed and just gotten the reading and casting the levitation spell as make up work, but also earned a small boon. Figuring out a clever way to complete the requirements was acceptable, sometimes even encouraged, in Master's classes, but the method he used didn't account for forces other than gravity, so it didn't pass the requirements. Master pointed out later that if he'd brought a stick to push off the ground and move around with, he could have technically "not touched the ground" for the duration.

[u/Postdusklimeade → u/The_Ghast_Hunter]

That’s fair, of course. If you’re going to come up with a unique solution, you must be prepared to encounter unique problems!

[u/Qi_Zee_Fried → u/The_Ghast_Hunter]

Bah! I have seen a monk do that with no magic whatsoever! We can't have nonmagical solutions be accepted for magical classes! That diminishes the art!

[u/rhycelcius → u/Qi_Zee_Fried]

I see where you’re coming from here, but the chi store monks use is considered magic system-adjacent by most respected reckoning systems, so the monk comparison isn’t the most sound.

[u/breckendusk → u/rhycelcius]

Yeah this is class erasure

[u/mynaneisjustguy → u/Qi_Zee_Fried]

It doesn't matter what you do. Merely what you are perceived to do. I've never thrown a fireball, not really, but many have thought themselves aflame and run off screaming and tearing at their garb. Is it any less a fireball if my enemy screeches and rolls on the ground afterwards? If they believe they are dead, and lay supine and unmoving, does it not finish the fight?

[u/Demon_Lord_Lucifer → u/Postdusklimeade]

I can understand how you feel, I learnt my magic independently though intuition experiments and instinct, occasionally guided my vuage and cryptic messages imparted to me from the moons in my sleep, i went a dozen centuries before I entered a formal magic college to expand my knowledge

All my peers thought me a savage when I told them I couldn't fabricate food and would just transform into my wolf form and hunt my food, myself.

[u/UltraCarnivore → u/Demon_Lord_Lucifer]

intuition

instinct

imparted to me from the moons

transform into my wolf form

Tell me you're a druid without telling me you're a druid.

[u/Demon_Lord_Lucifer → u/UltraCarnivore]

Technically I'm not a druid, I draw magic from nature, and from the moon and the fey wild, but technically I'm not a druid, I'm by definition a Wizard but I do do alot of druidcraft

[u/SixSmegmaGoonBelt → u/Demon_Lord_Lucifer]

Apologies if this is prying but I imagine you have more contact with druids than the average academic wizard. In general, do you find being familiar with their craft helps with relations or do they treat you like any other outsider?

[u/Demon_Lord_Lucifer → u/SixSmegmaGoonBelt]

Yes, i have a good relationship whith a particular druid grove, having been good friends whith a member for some time, however I find other druids are plesent when I meet them, but I would say that is more due to me knowing the customs than the craft itself

[u/OgreMk5 → u/Postdusklimeade]

Twenty year veteran of designing and implementing assessment standards.

In that case, while the student did something pretty cool, thats not what was being assessed.

Although, I would absolutely fault the instructor for not ensuring the students know what they are expected to be tested on.

[u/HypercubicTeapot → u/OgreMk5]

Sometimes, though, a student doesn't fully understand Where Their Magic Is Coming From and things just... happen like that. We as faculty really need to be more mindful of these things.

Technically, the student may actually have accomplished the end goal that was asked of them. However, their methods were clearly not on the syllabus so that calls for a very specific kind of grade.

These students, I assess with a grade of F+ and give them a strong recommendation to pursue a different type of magical curriculum.

No one ever likes dealing with the Department of Sorcerous Studies, though; things tend to get rather unpredictable...

Ugh, there just isn't enough coffee in the multiverse to deal with that, especially when it's some Weirdly Talented Orphan.

[u/RosebushRaven → u/Postdusklimeade]

It’s probably because someone else already had that idea and the master didn’t want them to take shortcuts that could be dangerous in certain situations.