Some characters do. The people playing the game never cast spells in real life (the core D&D rulebooks are published by Paizo, a subsidiary of Hasbro, for pete's sake).

Here's an example of a character casting a spell in D&D (keep in mind this example would probably be accompanied by the players moving miniatures--two-inch representations of their characters--around a board, or battle-mat).

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Mark: Okay, Morlind points his fingers at the ogre and casts magic missile.

DM: Sure. How much damage?

Mark: [Rolls some D4s] ah, 7 only. Big whoop.

DM: Okay, three bolts of magical energy streak away from Morlind and slam into the ogre, who staggers under the force, but keeps his feet. The ogre glares at you with his one good eye and you can hear his club creak under the strain as it flexes its massive arms.

Mark: Right... then I take a five-foot step behind the dwarf.

Ger: Of course you do.

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This is typical of "casting" spells in D&D--the player states what spell he is casting, and then either he or the DM describes its effects. No one waggles their fingers or spouts ancient, long-dead, evil languages. Or if they do, they're just being silly.

Detractors often mention that D&D encourages learning about the occult and casting real spells, which is ridiculous. The rulebooks contain notes about each spell above the spell's description that explains how it is cast and what's needed to make it happen, but these are hardly user manuals to real-world magic (not leastly because there's no such thing). For example, you might see a capital letter "S," which stands for Somatic spell components (meaning the character needs to move a certain way to cast the spell). You might also see a material component to the spell--say, a drop of melted wax, or whatever.

Now, if someone had never played the game before and cracked the Player's Handbook, they could come to the snap conclusion that the ruleset provides rules for becoming a witch, wizard, or sorceror. I guess. The truth is, these rules are in place so that if the player's character is ever unable to move or unable to reach his drop of wax, for example, it will be clear that he can't cast that spell. Simple.

The limitations of D&D are that it's a game of the imagination, and none of the game events ever take place in reality. Having said all of that, however, there's nothing stopping you from playing a D&D game where magic is limited or non-existent, but that would take away a lot of the fun (imagine Star Wars without the Force).

Last updated on July 8, 2008 by RPG Ike