It is well established that there is an international wizard in community of which there are many witches and wizards of varying nationalities. It think that just as there are varying traditions and normalities that there would also be varying incantations to cast spells with or without a wand. We see the spells in some kind of Latin form, and it makes sense as the book is written in British English and Latin is the root language for that and many other European languages. But what about places like India, who have Sanskrit as a kind of base language, or Old Chinese in China, and maybe Ancient Egyptian for Egypt (though I think that a select few Egyptian witches and wizards would study that, most people using Old Arabic instead)? So, do other parts of the world have different incantations for spells?
10652
The spells that we know about in the Harry Potter world all seem to be either in Latin, derived from Latin, or resembling Latin.  This makes sense for the European World, but there were likely witches and wizards in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.  These cultures would have developed independently, and the magical people in them would likely have still found ways to cast their spells.  Do cultures with languages that did not derive from Latin use the same words and phrases that are related to Latin for their spells?  Or did they have other phrases based on the languages in their cultures?
57166
It's often said that , with Germanic words an additional 26%. Wikipedia has , however, a random spot check of many words shows that they have often come via French (I can't check 29% of all English words myself). Also, many of the words on that list are quite obscure, compared to the many French derived words that are in everyday use.  I like looking up the etymologies of words, and in my experience, it's very rare to find a word that's come directly from Latin. Some words like ad hoc don't seem fully naturalised into English. I know scientific language is very highly influenced by Latin, but I consider that to be specialised terminology, as is legal terminology which quite often uses Latin phrases.  If Latin and French really each contributed 29% of our modern lexicon, with French words not counting towards Latin words, why are Latin-only derived words so difficult to find?
62046
Why, oh why, don't the Weasleys "conjure" up some diamonds/gold/etc, sell 'em to Muggles, and get rich? They could buy a mansion (like the Malfoys), and live there happily ever after.  I know there's  that prohibits one from conjuring food (which doesn't make much sense to me, either). Even if it applied to gold, what about all the other elements/compounds/materials? Could the law really be 'don't let a wizard conjure something if it'll make them richer'? That's totally nonsensical.  Why does Wizard society still have poor people, especially if they're talented?
10710
There's talk of wizards abroad and we see the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, but if Voldemort really is trying to take over the world of magic, why was there never any sign of any wizard armies from abroad coming over to help?
114878
A lot of the spells in Harry Potter, including just about every offensive one like Stupefy are what I would call "missile" spells (if there's a better term for it, please tell me). That is, they basically involve shooting a spell out of your wand like a missile, as opposed to an "area of effect" form (a protective spell like Muffliato) or no really perceivable form at all (like Accio).   Do such directed spells have a limit to their range? Or will they travel until they hit something?   I'm interested because if spells have virtually infinite range and high accuracy (which is another matter), then there should be "snipers" in battles that fire curses from long range, and it would be possible to "assassinate" somebody like Voldemort or Dumbledore given appropriate conditions. Of course, people may see the spell coming, but if they're distracted enough or if there's enough interference (a firework show, for example), then this could be a very effective means of killing people from afar.
119769
I am trying to workout what template  (PHB, p. 222) would be on a grid. The spell states:     You fill the air with spinning daggers in a cube 5 feet on each side, centered on a point you choose within range.   So does that mean it would look like this:     Or like this:    From what I've read online, there seems to be some suggestion that it is a single square (tile) though this does stack with the spell description of "a cube 5 feet on each side".  Clearing this up for my group would be great, and I am sure our DM will be pleased as his monster were nicely diced by this spell. Thanks.
106786
In the D&amp;D 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide, there are two magic items named The Book of Exalted Deeds and The Book of Vile Darkness. In their description, under "Vile Lore" it says that the DM could include magic spells, rituals, curses, etc. As such, I was wondering if I would be crossing copyright boundaries if I were to take the 3.5 Rulebooks for both of these books which completely give all the information a DM would ever need for that "Vile Lore" optional rule and translate them into 5th  Edition compatible rules.  I will probably do this regardless if only just for my own benefit as a DM, but...   Am I allowed to distribute this translation of rules to other people for free, for donations, or for profit? Am I allowed to create an entirely new set of 5th Edition compatible rules for something entirely new (such as a Neutral version of those books) and distrubute in the same way?   I would likely be using Chapter 9 in the DMG, the "Dungeon Master's Workshop", to balance the 3.5 rules into 5th Edition gameplay.  I'm aware of the , but I don't know what it means for what I want to do. It seems to say that I can design all of this, publish, and sell it using 5th Edition rules.
32349
Several wands and other magic items in the DMG cite &quot;spellcaster&quot; as an attunement requirement, specifically &quot;requires attunement by a spellcaster&quot; while others list multiple spellcasting classes (e.g., a Staff of Fire &quot;requires attunement by a druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard&quot; p. 201). However, all the DMG states in this regard is:  Some magic items require a creature to form a bond with them before their magical properties can be used. This bond is called attunement, and certain items have a prerequisite for it. If the prerequisite is a class, a creature must be a member of that class to attune to the item.¹ (If the class is a spellcasting class, a monster qualifies if that monster has spell slots and uses that class's spell list. [emphasis and footnote added] (p. 136)  The language of the Mage Slayer feat describes a spellcaster as a creature casting or concentrating on a spell.  You have practiced techniques useful in melee combat against spellcasters [...] When a creature within 5 feet of you casts a spell ... [and] When you damage a creature that is concentrating on a spell ... (PHB, p. 168)  From the above, it does not appear that &quot;spellcaster&quot; would necessarily be considered a class or group of classes, so Are characters that can cast spells, regardless of their class(es), considered spellcasters? Or, put another way, Does &quot;spellcaster&quot; (as an attunement prerequisite) mean any creature who can cast a spell or does it mean all classes with the Spellcasting feature? I can think of five particular cases—innate abilities, two subclasses and two feats: High Elves know one wizard cantrip (0-level spell) of their choice. Drow can cast the dancing lights cantrip, 1st-level spell faerie fire and 2nd-level spell darkness. Forest Gnomes know the minor illusion cantrip, and Tieflings can cast the thaumaturgy cantrip and 2nd-level spells hellish rebuke and darkness. Also, many monsters have innate spellcasting abilities, which would trigger the Mage Slayer feat. Starting at 3rd level, both the Eldritch Knight (Fighter Martial Archetype) and Arcane Trickster (Roguish Archetype) gain the ability to cast wizard spells and gain wizard spell slots (potentially) up to 4th-level spells. PHB, pp. 75 &amp; 98. The latter's 17th-level Spell Thief feature also states &quot;you gain the ability to magically steal the knowledge of how to cast a spell from another spellcaster,&quot; (Ibid.) which strongly implies that (at least) the Arcane Trickster is a spellcaster, although neither subclass is specifically listed as a prerequisite for any magic item in the DMG. Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster are also found under Multiclassing, Spell Slots in the PHB:  You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes, and a third of your fighter or rogue levels (rounded down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or the Arcane Trickster feature. (p. 164)  With the Ritual Caster feat, a character chooses a spellcasting class (except paladin or ranger) and gains the ability to cast spells of that class with the ritual tag as rituals. The character immediately gets two 1st-level ritual spells of that class and has the potential to (eventually) learn all of the ritual spells of the chosen class. PHB, p. 169. With the Magic Initiate feat, a character chooses a particular spellcasting class (except paladin or ranger) and immediately learns two cantrips and one 1st-level spell from the class with no further advancement. PHB, p. 168. By definition, it seems all of the above would qualify as spellcasters, but I feel spellcaster typically (or maybe traditionally) refers to bard, cleric, druid, paladin, ranger, sorcerer, warlock and wizard.   I believe an exception would be a 13th level or higher Thief (Roguish Archetype) due to the Use Magic Device feature. PHB, p. 97.
23641
Please refer the following questions asked elsewhere on this site:       I am a native Hindi speaker; Hindi has a plethora of terms referring to relationships. To take a trivial example, the term uncle may refer to father's elder brother, father's younger brother, mother's brothers, father's sister's husband, mother's sister's husband, all of which have specific addresses in Hindi.  I discussed the same with one of my teachers. She had the opinion that the development of language mirrors the cultural moorings of the society that uses the language. Now, since all of the above relationships have distinct status and reverence in the Hindi speaking society, that calls for different addresses. That may well not be the case in English speaking societies.  Is that correct? What other linguistic reasons may account for such a dearth of vocabulary in English in this area?
64645
Students at Hogwarts are taught how to use spells, the correct incantation, pronunciation, tone of voice, wand action/movement, thought etc.  However Harry, who simply read the name of it in the Half-Blood Prince's Potions book, manages to produce the spell with no prior knowledge of how.  How does he know how to use Sectumsempra?
47318
What are the requirements for a wizard to successfully copy a spell from a scroll into their spellbook?  First, I’m thinking that copying a spell from a scroll is similar to copying a spell from my own book into another book (as the scroll is in my possession just like my spellbook), but I could be wrong on this too.   Otherwise, the cost goes to 2 hours and 50 gp per spell level to copy (as opposed to the 1hr &amp; 10gp).  It seems like one would have to succeed the intelligence check and pay the cost in terms of time and gold. But then I’m wondering about the order in which one would make the check and spend the resources (hopefully the check comes first, so as to not waste time and gold in the unfortunate event of a failed check).
111991
I'm new to D&amp;D and am the DM playing with a group of lower-level players. I do not understand spell slots for druids and sorcerers, am I correct to say: Each day players &quot;prepare&quot; list of spells for that day, and place one in each spell slot to use later.  Is this correct? Can each spell be used only once per day? Do spells come from all spells for that level or only known spells? If it comes from &quot;known spells&quot;, how does a druid or sorcerer add to their list of &quot;known spells&quot;?  I have a level 2 sorcerer who wants to use the same spell every round. We've played that he can use that spell every time, but only as many times as the spell slots he has. But, I think we misunderstand the rules. I've read the  and many answers on this site, and I've figured a lot of it out. I'm still confused about how the spell slots work, and which spells are available at a certain level.
110664
Recently I played a game of D&amp;D 5th Edition. While we liked the simplicity and made characters quickly, there was one big bottleneck: the Wizard (and to a lesser extent, the Cleric) kept having analysis paralysis over the spell choices!  Most of my players were more familiar with 4th Edition in which a Wizard or Cleric had only a handful of spells to choose at first level (without supplement books). We really didn't have analysis paralysis because it was generally "here's four powers, pick one of them". We've also played some systems with moderately more complicated spell systems (e.g. Savage Worlds), but didn't really have analysis paralysis there either.  However in D&amp;D 5th Edition, there are many more spells (about a dozen cantrips and another dozen first level spells). It seems that we've come across analysis paralysis with spell selection pretty hard. This has exhibited itself in several ways:   After reading the dozen cantrips &amp; dozen 1st level spells, picking which ones should be purchased as players were constantly waffling between each one. They kept wondering if they would regret not taking a certain spell because it would be expensive to purchase later. Out of all those we purchased, picking which spells to prepare for the day. They kept wondering if they would regret it if they needed a spell if they came across a situation.   After about 15 minutes of waffling back and forth with their spell selection in what felt like  (to the annoyance of the Fighter and Rogue who had been ready to go for a while), we threatened to just make them randomly choose spells if they couldn't decide (they finally did pick, but kept feeling like they might have made the wrong choice).  The only difference I see between this system and others is the amount of spells, but perhaps there are other aspects too, like complexity of spells. At any rate,  what can we do in the future? How can we prevent choosing spells from leading to analysis paralysis?
8904
Although it's a valid word for a magic user, the word "magician" feels cheap to me, probably, because this is attached with those who displays trickery. Also, there are better words which I see everywhere in the canon: wizard, witch, warlock.  But I see lots of people using the words magician. Has this word ever been used in the canon (Canon meaning books, movies, interviews, Pottermore, Twitter, and official statements)?
40233
From my memory of the last Harry Potter movie I saw, I've seen many wizards cast spells without saying the spell at all.  During the final battle in Hogwarts, many wizards just swung their wands and their enemies were knocked out. I am 100% sure about this!  The most remarkable spells were the ones that emit a green or red beam in the final battle of Harry Potter against Voldemort when they pushed their beams towards each other.  So, the question is, are they cheating? Because, unless there are wordless spells, they must say the words for a spell.
120302
I'm about to write a fanfiction based in the Harry Potter universe, but I want it to be strictly canonical.  A lot of fanfics invent spells of their own similar to Eliezer Yudowsky's satirical Fixus Everythingus in Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.  These always make stories seem unrealistic and overly contrived, and I don't want that to happen, so I only want to use spells that J. K. Rowling invented and used in the Harry Potter series.  What magical spells, enchantments and charms are taught in the first-year Hogwart's curriculum at the time that Harry was first-year? (eg it may have been different under Umbridge).
75559
suggests that the wizard can use:   Axes Daggers Maces Spears Swords   (Click on the Wizard icon, and all of those weapons are not disabled, meaning that the class can use them.)   explains weapons types, but it is not clear whether the Wizard can use only wands, or other weapons.  So do you know the exact list or weapons type that a class can use? Or can you find this information somethere?  My motivation to know is that the damage per second of those weapons can change quite a bit from one to the other, and the spell damage is based on that. For example, the level 1 wand () is only 3 DPS, whereas the level 1 spear () has a DPS of 7.2–8.4.