D&D 5E What would a 'real' D&D society look like?

[clearstream]

Something that's bothered me for a while is that societies in most D&D settings don't really reflect the natural laws that govern their reality. I'm not entirely sure what happens in a world where people can recover from most wounds in a day and Raise Dead is a thing, but I'm pretty sure it's not Medieval World with a side order of Crazy Old Wizard In That Tower Over There. I realise that 5e tries to show that the class system is basically an abstraction of reality and only really applies to PCs, but I'm curious: what social, economic, legal and political changes do you think would be visible in a society where, say, 12% of the population have class levels (1% of each class) and all humans are vhumans who get to choose a feat? (I'm happy for this to be a conscious choice rather than random so most don't just end up with minor combat benefits). Levelled characters get the PC standard array, others get the peasant standard array (11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10).

I'd suggest an order of magnitude fewer - 1.2% of the population - have class levels (or their equivalent). Also, I believe for the society to hang together it works better to use either Gritty Realism or something near that, so that casts are less frequent. That all said, it seems to me it would be a volatile society. Persistent organisations would need to entrench themselves with considerable power. Political realities would be built around supernally powerful individuals.

 

[Aldarc]

Its been mentioned, but Eberron differs from generic fantasy world no. X in several important ways other than actually treating magic logically.
Gods that don't talk directly to people/come down and stomp all over the landscape.
Very rare PC classes: most priests for example can't cast spells. Also much fewer high-level casters etc.
Existence of magically-gifted families and resources that allow for much more common magical items than the dearth of PC-class casters would normally indicate.

Perhaps, but I think that Eberron (and coincidentally also Planescape) is one of the few D&D settings that genuinely sought to address how magic (or simply D&D's assumptions) would be actively utilized by society.

 

[Coroc]

Do not cherrypick real world ethics / ideals to create a realistic D&D world following RL logics.
There may be 1% clerics, but they are not the health insurance based doctor of our world.
Most of them do not have a high Level, they could e.g. fix a broken leg but eventually not cure a disease if:
- you got the right health insurance (=faith, alignment) and/or
- enough Money (like in our world, we would have the means to treat more peoples health probs but it does not happen due to multiple reasons or circumstances)


Also your cleric is not your create food so the farmers do not need to grow it anymore automaton. (Compare with Jesus, he divided the food as a miracle but he only did it once not all the time as a RL example)

As it goes for raise dead: Most of todays earth Population has less than 1 silver in D&D equivalent to live upon. They never ever can afford the Diamond needed for that, nor would the rare 9th Level cleric be able to raise them all even if they did.

For magitech: In a medieval context there is no such Thing as work process optimization and such. People labored decades on their masterpieces carved by Hand e.g.
No Need for the automaton to do this for you, and the high Level wizard would not see that as an application for his science to create you a golem if he is not convinced with enough gold for his studies as a compensation for his valuable time which might make the whole Thing economically pointless.

And so on, and so on, and it does not add nice fluff to the game imho.

Better do a base list of those goods / spellcasting services the *PCs* really need and try to make reasonable prices for These.

 

[jasper]

Hmm If you don't go with the must save the world every other season model. I say pretty much like now. You will have your war lands. You will have your high magic cities. You have low magic cities.
But think of the horrors ahead.
THE ROLLING STONES will still being touring because they elves.
The BULLY THAT PICKS ON YOU will be a half-orc and protected minority.
VEGAS GONE. Why go to desert to gamble when your luck feat helps at home.
DRAGON DROPPINGS FROM THE SKY! FARMERS are not going to cover that damage.
TROLL TOLL BOOTHS.
Gargoyles SUEING Doctor Who and getting ownership due to the blink statues.
Planet of the APEs and KING KONG will be documentaries or the apes will be sue due to using humans instead of apes.
Cows with Guns. or at least repeating crossbows.
The Good
Less drought, better farming. Less chemicals in food.
The Just life
Three people were killed in a teleportation miscast today which cause the disruption of Hamilton.
ZAP successfully wins against the Walking Dead. (Zombies Are People) The production company must start hiring real zombies for their horde scenes.

Copyright and patent laws would change.
Howard Halfling of Hobbitown was arrested again for the tenth time for impersonality an jr high school kid.
The New York Giants win the World series again due their competition not measuring up.

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=277]jasper[/MENTION] although we disagree about the rolling stones your post gave me the roflmao of the day

 

[Satyrn]

The New York Giants win the World series again due their competition not measuring up.

San Francisco Giants.

Or the Superbowl.

 

[Imaculata]

In my campaign setting, all military and pirate ships have atleast one mage onboard, to protect the ships against spells.

Local rulers all have their own magical advisors, or sometimes even a council of wizards to advise them on magical matters.

Harbors spread news of recent seamonster and/or dragon sightings to warn any vessels.

Some magic stores are specifically interested in cursed items, which they then sell with a warning. Some magic stores even have a special section for such objects. Because a chest with a desintegrate spell on it, is still a free desintegrate.

 

[Ed Laprade]

First, there would be no cemeteries, to keep the zombieapocalypse at bay. Assuming the people had any brains at all, and wanted to keep them. (Cremation, beheadings, or whatever else constituted 'permanent' death would be the way to go.) Then it would depend on how many casters there were, and what kind. The more there are, the more likely powerplays will be a thing.

 

[snickersnax]

Fairs and festivals will have log chopping competitions with whips, because in the hands of a dexterous wielder they are better at chopping wood than than a hand ax.

 

[Ancalagon]

10% is to high along with 1% of every class.

Barbaian restricted to geographical area probably a small one.

Lal Qalander would like to have a word with you

There is no reason why the barbarian class has to be restricted to "Conan types". With proper use of backgrounds many concepts are possible. We had a big thread about it!

However, I completely agree with you that some classes will be much more common than others.



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