Samloyal23
Adventurer
I've seen a lot of crossover fantasy stuff that blends magic with either hi-tech sci-fi or retro "steampunk" and it occurs to me that given the sophistication of magic in the average D&D fantasy setting there would no motivation for anyone to invent something even as complex as printing press, let alone a locomotive or a computer. So how do you get that gnomish engineer to actually want to be bothered with hard technology when he can do more with a spell? The only logical answer I can come up with is spell resistance. There has to be a reasonably common situation in which it is either impossible to cast the spell or a target is able to resist it. So in a fantasy setting only a race that had a high resistance to magic and poor ability to cast spells would have the need or drive to create even simple machines. Throw in a magic resistant material like cold iron and maybe there would be enough cause for concern to make canny berk experiment with a aeliopile long enough to make it do something useful... Thoughts?