A question about abilities and magic

[Drake Manaweilder]

I'm pretty sure that an Angels fast reflexes are a natural thing. I think it's like a squirrels ability. 'Least according to this "most clever animals" show i watched a few months ago. These guys set up an obstacle course for squirrels and one of them was this spring platform that would go almost vertical when landed upon and each one stuck to it like glue.

'Tis my guess anyways.

[Amber Williams]

Cubi don't need souls to survive...well...save for their own.  Many a Cubi have spent their entire existance soul-stealing free and have lived perfectly fine and happy lives.  They just dont live as long or as powerful lives.

As such, emotional absorbing would be considered a natural trait.  Soul-stealing would be considered a magical ability.

[Gabi]

Ah, thanks!

So, does it work the same way with mind-reading? Is catching someone's current thoughts a natural ability and performing a mental scan to find out more a magical one?

[EvilIguana966]

I've never understood the severe line people tend to draw between magical and mundane in a fantasy world.  One could possibly go so far as to say anything that happens in a world that is against the apparent laws of physics is attributable to some type of magic.  But of course that is a very foggy definition.  My issue with the line drawing is people who, in a D&D world for example, go and say that a level 20 Wizard uses magic but a level 20 Fighter does not.  As far as I'm concerned, in D&D, the farthest a Fighter could go in level without *somehow* bending the generally accepted laws of physics would be level 5 or so.  The fighter may not be conjuring burning balls of flasme that incinerate crowds of people, but there is something giving him a supernatural level of endurance to attack and awareness of his opponents.  Otherwise there would be no way for anyone but a spellcaster to have any chance at all of countering another spellcaster.  There is magic at work there, just a different type. 

As for spell resistence and immunities.  I imagine that there can really be no such thing as total magic immunity.  I assume that dead magic zones and spell resistance work by making an area, object or person able to avoid the influence of certain types and intensities of magical forces.  In other words, a wizard may not be able to cast big spells and some active magic protections may fail, but depending on how things are configured magic items with permanent effects may continue to function and subtle innate abilities may be unimpeded.  As a general rule I don't like "not"s and "never"s, so I would assume that with enough magical energy pretty much any other magical effect can be countered.  In other words, If you are a high level diety and you put your mind to it your ability to smite Bonehead the Lich will not be affected by his wearing a cloak that makes him immune to divine magic and death spells. 

[Jigsaw Forte]

I use the logic that any sufficiently advanced technology IS magic.

In the futuristic setting I work in, it's an easy distinction to make when enough 'nanotech' thrown at anything is sparkly enough to be called magic. I give various species special abilities by giving them a reason to not use the nanites already in their body, so it collects in various body parts to be used in a different manner, like having unsigned code in a computer that you can control.

This way, I get to have my magic, but at any time if I want to get rid of it, I can just claim some sort of nano-cancelling field that nullifies both magic and technology! It's great!

[ITOS]

I use the logic that any sufficiently advanced technology IS magic.

That's funny. I look at it the other way around.
Magic is a form of technology.

[Gabi]

Maybe they're both the same thing achieved in different ways.

[ITOS]

Maybe they're both the same thing achieved in different ways.

Or maybe magic is a sort of energy field just like electromagnetism?

[Tapewolf]

Maybe they're both the same thing achieved in different ways.

Or maybe magic is a sort of energy field just like electromagnetism?

That's the way I've been thinking in my writings - that magic is based on a property of the universe as yet undiscovered by us.

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station does much the same thing - the inhabitants of New Crobuzon have a quasi-Victorian technology although they seem to be descended from Earth colonists.  One of my favourites was the machine (part magic, part electrical) which they'd made to summon daemons by artificially replicating the conditions brought about by a sacrifice.

IIRC, magic worked at the quantum level and the hero was trying to make a grand unified field theory that tied together physics, magic and chaos.