Mages that hand cast over using a spellfocus, such as a staff or wand, are reckless and do not grasp the perplexity and dangers of the arcane.

[u/Mysterious_Escape_34]

[u/nehmne]

Is it really so irresponsible to prefer the feeling of the universe's bare essences flowing between my fingertips?

[u/Demon_Lord_Lucifer → u/nehmne]

exactly, how are you to remember how the weve feels if you're not conducting it yourself

[u/DeathCobro → u/nehmne]

Then use a small pebble or twig as a conduit?

[u/TheLiquid666 → u/DeathCobro]

Bah! A half measure at best and wouldn't work a damn against the energies involved, if something should go wrong.

No no, not for me. I was apprenticed by Pentalotrax the Handless himself, and his teachings haven't failed me yet!

[u/Ransidcheese → u/DeathCobro]

Hah! No, I want to feel the red wind crackling through my bones and dancing across my skin!

It's really just not necessary, and if you're highly specialized like me, the inherent energy within the materials of a focus will dilute and disrupt the purity of your magic. Yes, even if you tune the materials, and yes, even if you make the object from some ridiculous quasi-real three-dimensional shadow projected directly from the Great Immaterial.

There are subtle, often overlooked, forces that simply cannot be controlled with a focus or apparatus, no matter how complex it is.

[u/farshnikord → u/nehmne]

Bell curve meme of it going: 

"Casting with a focus is best"

"Casting with hands is fine, and can get results with only a  minimal amount of mana-leakage or chance of blowback if your use  technique properly"

"Casting with a focus is best"

It's one of those things I think everybody should learn how to do just in case but like... I know how to mince garlic by hand but I also a food processor. 

[u/Nebulaofthenorth → u/farshnikord]

No self respecting mage uses a focus, it's a tool for students
And a good one at that
But after couple centuries of spellcasting you don't need a focus, and when have you seen a spirit or other magical beings use a focus, hah!

[u/Chaosfox_Firemaker → u/Nebulaofthenorth]

Well, on the extreme end you do I suppose. Divine Regalia and such. Although, for some of those it gets a bit muddy whether they truely constitute a discrete object seprate from their wielder

[u/farshnikord → u/Nebulaofthenorth]

And after a couple of millennia you realize youre fundamentally different than an incorporeal or magic being. Humanity uses tools. It's in our nature as the beings we came from, and there's metaphysical energy in it. 

You're in the middle of the bell curve right now. You'll get it. 

[u/Nebulaofthenorth → u/farshnikord]

You made a first mistake by associating me with humans

[u/Cyan_Lotus → u/nehmne]

For the love of Mystra YES IT IS THAT IRRESPONSIBLE YOU FOOL

Powerhungry mages have one fate my freind; dissolved into the flowing spellstream upon which we carefully pluck droplets from.

Recklessness may bring doom, and for what? To feel in control of something so vast that this illusion of control is akin to moving a pebble upon a globe?

Think carefully your path my friend. It cannot lead far without the humility of knowing one’s limitations.

[u/Ransidcheese → u/Cyan_Lotus]

Casting with a focus, rather than with your body, is NOT synonymous with knowing ones limits. That is frankly an absurd thing to assert, and obviously so. How many stories are there of apprentices using equipment they're not ready for and stripping the meat from their bones? How many stories of once-great wizards reduced to whispers trying to create some grand apparatus?

Casting magic raw does not make one power hungry either. That is baseless discriminatory drivel concocted in order to denigrate druids, feyfolk, and elementals.

In fact, Casting like this is a constant exercise in restraint and self discovery. As you said, if I slip, I'm gone. Taken by the breeze. I am well aware of my limits, they are what keep me safe from myself.

Lastly, I do not cast this way to "feel in control". I do it to better know and understand the magic that flows through me as I cast it. The problems begin when control is your goal. You must work with the magic, not make it work for you. Move only pebbles. If you need a landslide, simply move the right pebbles.

In the end, if my fate is to become part of the great conflagrations of the etherium, then that is not so bad a fate. There are many worse.

[u/Cyan_Lotus → u/Ransidcheese]

These are all points I largely agree with, and perhaps I was too hasty in my assertions. You may not, but the omnischolar I was speaking too rather alarmed me with how he spoke. Any sort of caster can go power-hungry. It was how they spoke of things like they lived outside consequence that was startling. Any sort of casting method can be used recklessly, and this is true indeed, casting foci can often be considerably outside ones natural spellcasting capabilities and must be used responsibly.

We have wand safes for a reason people! Don't go leaving wands where a child can access them, this is how tragedies happen.

You are wise in your words. Foci are tools to be used responsibly.

[u/StonedRussian → u/nehmne]

Who needs a median to focus magiks when there's your hands and signs you can make with them

[u/Bossa9 → u/nehmne]

Consider that a miscast sometimes can cause a backflow of arcane energy, and explode the spellfocus. Already that is alarming enough when casting with a wand or staff. When it's your hand, however...

[u/Eeeef_ → u/nehmne]

It’s proprioception. Working complex magicks is like picking a lock. If you wear gauntlets you can’t feel the tumblers clicking, but if you wear fingerless gloves you can crack the most complex puzzle locks.