D&D General Crime and Punishment in a Less Magical World

[James Gasik]

Ok, you've decided there's not a lot of magic users in your campaign setting. You let players cast spells, because, well, if you didn't, there'd only be three classes, and you'd have to solve that pesky hit point and status ailment recovery problem for Barbarians and Rogues.

To ramp up things, you say most people are a tad superstitious and suspicious of them finger wigglers, not enough to get burned at the stake for casting Cure Wounds, but enough to get the point across.

You play for a bit, and a caster decides to blatantly commit crimes and use magic to escape the consequences. Maybe they assume another identity. Frame someone by taking on their form. Dominate magistrates, teleport to another continent, create simulacrums to do face consequences while you go free, kill people invisibly and without evidence, use divination spells to learn state secrets and sell them, wild shape into a mouse and become the world's most feared assassin, abuse invisibility- etc., etc..

How do governments catch and punish magical criminals if they do not have access to magic themselves?

 

[Krachek]

They pay some wizards to hunt the renegade wizards.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Well, spells require specific stuff to work. In a low-magic setting, those mages have to quest and search pretty hard to acquire the material for their spells; no magic component shops.

So, to catch them, you do the same thing you'd do in real life: you set a trap. False sellers and rumors of a trove of scrolls to lure your criminals out.

Once you get them, you just have to remove their ability to spellcast: you sew their lips, eyes lids and fingers to their palm. Think the Sarebaas of Dragon Age.

 

[Fanaelialae]

It depends on the setting.

Are magic users relegated to myths and legends? Then there's a decent possibility that they'll get away with it.

Are magic users known but rare? Then there's a decent chance that there would be at least one magic user affiliated or in the employ of the kingdom. Working for a kingdom would likely afford a magic user opportunities that they'd have to work much harder for without government support.

If that's not the case, you might have non-magic-users who are specialized in dealing with magic users. You could have mage hunters who have no ability to cast spells, but were born with a talent for smelling magic, and then trained in combat techniques and tactics for dealing with magic users. You could have oracles or fortune tellers who have the gift, and can truly divine the identity of the magic user despite not being able to cast spells. You could have animals that are bred and raised to track down and kill mages, sort of like an anti-magic police dog. You could have alchemists in the employ of the government who can use their skills to detect and oppose mages. You might even have folk charms that, despite not being explicitly magical, ward against magic (the druid assassin cannot wildshape inside the castle because it's smudged with wolfsbane once a week, and everyone knows that druids can't wildshape in the presence of burnt wolfsbane).

 

[Shiroiken]

Capturing magic users can be tricky, but hiring mercenary adventurers is a good way of doing it (plus an adventure trope). Once defeated, the easiest way to keep them is to blindfold and gag them, with hands bound. This takes away V, S, and M components, plus very few spells can be used without seeing the target location. Additionally, they require a vigilant guard to make sure everything stays in place, ready to execute them if necessary.

 

[J.Quondam]

To catch wizards, just heap up great piles of their favorite spell component: bat guano! The wizards will flock to it like flies to poop.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Chances are that any large kingdom is going to have its own state-sponsored mages and/or clerics (perhaps covertly) even if magic is uncommon and isn't popular* (unless there's a serious social taboo against magic), and although most D&D campaigns don't think about it too hard, in a world full of spellcasters there are probably additional or stiffer legal penalties for committing a crime using magic vs. without it. Particularly if mage-crime is either vanishingly rare (any serious case will set up a call for a legal precedent) or increasingly common.

In Jennifer Robeson's Tiger and Del book series, about a pair of highly-skilled swordsmen, one of the characters is captured by an old enemy and is punished by having the little finger on each of their hands removed so that they're no longer able to wield a sword as effectively.
The simplest way to deter mage-crime is to rule that, in your world, the loss of a couple fingers (perhaps one or two on each hand) and/or slitting the tongue so that the person is unable to speak clearly is enough to prevent someone from casting spells, and so that is the legal punishment for serious mage-crimes**. People convicted of mage-crimes are thus easily recognized.
On a world-building note, there may well be a fair number of folks who've ended up suffering that punishment unfairly at the hands of mob justice despite not actually being spellcasters.


*Diviners and abjurers and anyone else specialized in protection or detection spells will be popular recruits for government jobs or to protect wealthy clients. Illusionists and enchanters will find work as spies.
**Less serious offences might involve broken fingers and a temporary wound to the tongue to remove spellcasting for a certain amount of time until the damage is healed, or perhaps when the person has served their time the damage is healed.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

They pay some wizards adventurers to hunt the renegade wizards.

 

[Irlo]

Governments hire the wizards to commit crimes on their behalf.

 

[LordEntrails]

Bounty Hunters. Mage's have to sleep sometime, and a knife across the throat works just fine.

Governments, like everyone else, adapt when faced with challenges. It's the basis of conflict. Adapt and overcome.