Burning hands was
selected for observation because of how much
it changes across editions of D&D. It's
damage and area of effect change drastically
between editions, but they are always cast
by wizards with roughly the same level of
experience. This is why we are examining
this spell to judge the energy of the magic
between the editions of the game.
Other spells of the
same level could be examined and come out
requiring vastly different amounts of
energy. For example, the energy required for
the spell
feather
fall would be different that
that for
burning hands.
It should be noted
that the energy needed for many spells seem
to just come from nowhere. In this case we
will assume that this energy comes from the
Weave, being channeled by and/or through the
wizard. For lack of a better term, this will
be referred to as Arcane Energy.
The Forgotten
Realms setting did not have a large event to
define the change from the second edition of
Dungeons and Dragons to the third edition.
Thanks to published adventures and books, we
can estimate that the edition change
happened around 1371 DR by Faerun's
calendar.
