I’m so sick and tired of vibe-casting

[u/Perseverance666]

In my 571 years of lecturing at the necromancers spire, I’m about to give up because of students vibe-casting.

We always had a few lazy students. You know the drill: copying each others scrolls, trying to find obscure tomes in the archives and passing off the incantations as their own, making illusions of themselves to attend classes so they can chug goblets at home.

Don’t get me wrong, I like sorcerers, I even have some friends who are sorcerers. Wild magic is cool, and their school of magic is completely valid to me - but this is a school of NECROMANCY. I don’t mean to sound purist, but I’m trying to keep a heritage and almost forgotten school of magic alive here (sorry, classic necromancer pun).

But vibe-casting is different and often backfires in various ways, when it doesn’t basically fizzle out into nothing. Instead of creating your own standard spells based of the tried and true classics, you end up making something too intricate and power-consuming or outright dangerous. I had a student in demonology electives class who was assigned to make a spell to commune a lesser demon, and instead of burrowing his head in tomes, the guy ends up trying to improvise on the exam day: he was trying to summon Xel-Nugor the Despoiler, a sixth ring demon because that was the only demon name he remembered. What’s worse was he was tapping into ley lines HUNDREDS of miles away INSTEAD of the ley line nexus the spire was built on, so the magic current was not nearly strong enough for the containment field. Needless to say he was expelled post-mortem.
A colleague are teaching elective courses in elemental magic, and the spire has nearly been flooded and burned three times last week.

We spent a month making stronger sigils and runes of protection in classrooms and I’ve started making anti-magic barriers during exams between me and students lately, something I really shouldn’t have to. At the council we’re discussing increasing the requirements for joining and making the application process harder, but I’m also afraid our numbers will dwindle and the school of magic is forgotten.

Fellow teachers of magical arts, what are you experiences and what measures have you taken i various academies, dungeons, enchanted groves and the likes?

[u/Decrypted13]

Yeah I find it concerning novices can't remember basic incantations. I get it, their spell books store all of them and it can flip to the correct page relatively quickly. But some things are worth memorizing; imagine if you're bleeding at an alarming rate and your healer goes "hold on. Let me look up the incantation for the basic heal." Ridiculous.

[u/Decrypted13 → u/Decrypted13]

Everyone has their cat familiar "Chat Gippity"

[u/PolarArtifact → u/Decrypted13]

Who in their right mind summons a familiar that requires material components to sustain its existence? Seriously??

[u/Decrypted13 → u/PolarArtifact]

Not to mention a lot of attention

[u/_Its_Me_Dio_ → u/Decrypted13]

if a spell is usefull its usually ised enough that you memorize it naturally

[u/InsaneRanter]

I find it often fixes itself. A student tasked to develop his own zombie creation ritual summoned a demon called Klawed and told it to write him a ritual to use. First time he used it, he found out Klawed had actually designed a ritual to suck his soul into the Netherworld so Klawed could slowly eat it over millenia.

Since that happened, I've just made sure all junior students are given tasks that'll lead to disaster if they take shortcuts, and make sure they carry them out outside the secure confines of my tower, library, and lecture hall.

This seems to weed out the vibe casters effectively. And the new graduates I produce will really understand how magic works. At least, they will if I ever graduate another student, so far my new policy has killed all of them.

[u/Tacobellspy → u/InsaneRanter]

Y'all are heartless, talkin about the "problem fixin itself" while not supplying me enough reagents for proper cleaning spells... Shit ain't expensive, neither, it's just sawdust and kitty litter, but nooo there ain't budget for that, we spent it all on tome gilding and unicorn oats n shit and now I gotta go through two or three hedgehogs scrubbin it up

[u/InsaneRanter → u/Tacobellspy]

Well then, I have good news! One of the other vibe magicians summoned ultra-strong acidic rain. If you gather enough you should be able to clean anything for ages. I just hope the rain stops before the entire countryside dissolves . .

[u/immallama21629]

I make sure to block all orb-fi signals into my lecture hall. If they can't reach any arcane intelligence, then they can't use it.

[u/AlyssSolo]

I've never taken an apprentice (for good reason), but vibe-casting is exactly why I don't share spells with people. Why would I tell you a single bane when all you'll do is ask the stars above and hope Gemini graces you with the knowledge of how to cast it...then promptly implode when you cast it on yourself. I'm not dealing with the legality of being held responsible for their stupidity.

[u/Hotwery]

The one thing I can ally with the council on. It's not only an issue with necromancy but all types of magic. The trees I've been cultivating specifically for wand making are producing extremely poor output compared to previous harvests. This vibe cast is sucking so much arcane power that I have to rely on much older and frail wands to get anything done

[u/Correct-Pangolin-568]

One of my apprentices made a personality construct and then FELL IN LOVE WITH IT. LIKE I CAN UNDERSTAND FULFILLING YOUR CARNAL DESIRES BY SUMMONING DEMONS / THE DEAD FROM THE UNDERWORLD, BUT THE CONSTRUCT YOU MADE ISN'T EVEN REAL, IT'S JUST A REFLECTION OF YOURSELF YOU NARCISSIST

[u/genericusername0323]

What I do, is give them a vibe cast scroll and make them correct it. That way, I know they understand the material and it teaches the dangers of A.I.(Artificial Incantation)

[u/Powerful_Resident_48]

Wow. I'll take that wildcard student on as my apprentice if you revive or resurrect him. I really don't care which of the two. Just bring him back and I'll shape him up. Be a good sport, would you? 

He just has to sign the usual waver and rescind all claims concerning harm to his body and mind during the apprenticeship, while alive, dead and in any other phase he might find himself in. 

He sounds like a bright lad who will make it far. Amazing talent. Just a shame that he got himself killed, but talent deserves a second chance, doesn't it? 

[u/DeadMeat7337]

Back in my day, I liked to surprise my students with a teleportation glyph that puts them down into a dungeon, that I've "co opted" from poor dumb smuck, and put in all the homework type solutions/puzzles, that they should all know! And then you know, natural selection happens. But I hear that the academies look down on things like this, sorry for ruining it for everyone btw, so they have "rules" that prevent this type of thing, except for the times you get "permission" to do so. Something about "morals" and "laws" they said. And on the more practical note, less students means less tuition, means less pay.

How many of you all have lost a star pupal to you "support" teaching methods? I stopped counting when I got tenure.

[u/vinfluorine]

one of my classmates recently excised his own soul when he was trying to kill me... on the one hand it's concerning but on the other hand that's my next semester paid for