Extracted from the journal of a prominent wizard who will remain nameless, here are some useful hints, written, it would seem, as notes for treatises or dialogues, for those who must deal with spellcasters on a day to day basis, occasionally, or at all...
On the Difference Between Wizards And Dragons
"In what way," asks the young adventurer, "Is a wizard different from a dragon? Scales and fangs and tails and wings aside, they both may have massive strength (the wizard aided by magic, the dragon having it come naturally), they both use magic to some degree of effectiveness, and they both can project some form of elemental damage - the dragon with a breath weapon, the wizard using a fireball spell, or an acid sheathe, or whatnot."
Questions like these simply show the lack of the young adventurer's understanding about how both wizards or dragons work. Indeed, the role of any upstanding wizard is to instruct, or inform, whereas many dragons spend a good deal of time eating. If you do not think this sufficient difference, consider this.
If you have just cheeked a dragon, the dragon may well eat you. If you have just cheeked wizard, the more rambunctious mage may cast a slaying spell, or convert you into a pile of ashes, or perhaps skip the middle man, and simply turn you into a toad.
Either way, you are no longer a cheeky young adventurer. In this way, dragons and wizards are very much the same. However, the difference is this.
Regardless of the fact that you have just cheeked the dragon, it may well have just eaten you because it was hungry. The wizard, on the other hand, has doubtless performed his or her action in order to instruct you. Or perhaps those around you. At the very least, your next of kin will think twice about cheeking a wizard in the future.
What? You disagree?
How well do you like the taste of flies?
