D&D 5E World Building: Army building

[Lanefan]

Exploring Eberron has a couple of spells specifically designed for battlefield use, and others to do tasks like cooking and cleaning. The spell lists in most D&D books are largely based around adventuring. If we have a society where magic is common, one has to assume that spells will be developed for other purposes that are not of interest to PC casters.

I've always kind of assumed the existence of some non-adventuring spells cast by stay-at-home clerics and mages e.g. temple or guild defenses, spells specific to enchanting or crafting magic items, spells that take care of basic housework chores, and so on: the sort of things that can't or wouldn't usually be cast in the field due to time and-or material requirements.

One of these days maybe I'll sit down and write some up just for kicks, along with elaborating many of the clerical "Ceremony" spells which also tend to fall under this umbrella.

 

[cbwjm]

I've always kind of assumed the existence of some non-adventuring spells cast by stay-at-home clerics and mages e.g. temple or guild defenses, spells specific to enchanting or crafting magic items, spells that take care of basic housework chores, and so on: the sort of things that can't or wouldn't usually be cast in the field due to time and-or material requirements.

One of these days maybe I'll sit down and write some up just for kicks, along with elaborating many of the clerical "Ceremony" spells which also tend to fall under this umbrella.

Pretty sure a lot of these types of spells were in 2e. Looking back I thought who would be using them and figured it would probably be stay at home sages or wizards who are doing some research with spell complements to support that activity.

 

[jmartkdr2]

It kind of annoys me how few spells there are for specific medical problems. I understand that Dr House isn't necessarily a great DnD character, but you'd think there's be a "remove acne" spell somewhere. Not one people prepare often, but out there.

 

[AmandaBarbarian]

Pretty sure a lot of these types of spells were in 2e. Looking back I thought who would be using them and figured it would probably be stay at home sages or wizards who are doing some research with spell complements to support that activity.

that sounds cool for world building

 

[AmandaBarbarian]

you'd think there's be a "remove acne" spell somewhere.

My dream cantrip for highschool

 

[Keith Langley]

If this is a big part of your game, either Kingdoms & Warfare or Crowns & Castles has useful rules for it. K&W assumes that PCs don’t directly interact with troops but the players play the army units as a side game, and the results of the side game give the PCs bonuses on their mission. C&C has rules that let PCs and mobs of troops interact.

 

[cbwjm]

that sounds cool for world building

It is! I imagine that there are so many spells we don't have in 5e simply because they aren't typically useful for adventuring. Going back to BECMI, there was a clothwall spell, sure someone on an adventure would find a use for it, but otherwise it was used to create sails or clothing. A colour spell that let you paint objects and a bleaching spell that could undo it.

These spells were permanent and I can't imagine them being created for anything other than economic or artistic purposes by non-adventuring wizards.

 

[AmandaBarbarian]

It is! I imagine that there are so many spells we don't have in 5e simply because they aren't typically useful for adventuring. Going back to BECMI, there was a clothwall spell, sure someone on an adventure would find a use for it, but otherwise it was used to create sails or clothing. A colour spell that let you paint objects and a bleaching spell that could undo it.

These spells were permanent and I can't imagine them being created for anything other than economic or artistic purposes by non-adventuring wizards.

do you have a listof them?

 

[cbwjm]

do you have a listof them?

I don't unfortunately, these were scattered around various supplements back in the day, they might be in the 2e spell compendiums, I find them a great resource for new spells for 5e.

 

[Azzy]

I don't unfortunately, these were scattered around various supplements back in the day, they might be in the 2e spell compendiums, I find them a great resource for new spells for 5e.

Yep there were four volumes for Wizard spells (here's Vol 1 on DriveThruRPG) and three volumes for Priest spells (Vol 1, here). I unfortunately never had them.

Edit: Don't look to buy the physical books—unless you want to pay hundreds of dollars for them.