Gaming Question Reduxious

[caraig]

So a pen-and-paper gaming question for anyone inclined.

In most RPGs, there's really no difference between 'secular' arcane magic and 'ecclesiastic' divine magic; the difference between the wizard and the cleric is really just the spell list and the cleric is better-armored. I'm trying to find a way to elegantly differentiate the two. Do any of y'all out there have favored ways of doing this, or favored systems, or just plain ideas?

Comments

[points.livejournal.com]

The idea to me always seemed to be that the cleric had more 'limitations' than the wizard, in reguards to being 'on call' to his or her higher power. Likewise, in many systems, there was some amount of 'devotional' time required to maintain powers, as well as much tighther alignment and action restrictions. On the other hand, they usually seem to have better armor, sometimes weapons.. and didn't need to carry around all sorts of expensive spell components. ;)

[caraig.livejournal.com]

Well, there was 'spell preparation' time for secular spell-slingers as well. I guess that there are 'meeble'-based differences, but what got me was that they both drew from the same spell lists of 'spells' more often than not. I was wondering if there are game systems out there that make strong differentiation ebtween divine and arcane magics. =)

[points.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'd have to go digging, but in Talislantia, the divine magics were more of a description to the GM of the requested result, combined with the made up prayer. The GM was expected to take into account the difficulty of the boon, the standing of the player, and use that as the index into the single result table. Spellcasters, on the other hand, still had lists. However, my memory may be awry, and this may be simply how I had -my- players playing it. ;)