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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2914527" data-attributes="member: 13966">But wizards in the core rules have no implications that their power requires special talent or gifts or quirks.  Anyone, in a RAW D&D world, can study and learn to cast Magic Missiles, Mage Hands, Prestidigitations and Expeditious Retreats.  Only sorcerers are implied in the core rules to require some kind of magical gift or bloodline to use their magic.  Divine casters are of course referred to as receiving their power from divine forces, and must adhere to certain tenets and alignment restrictions to receive power from any given deity.  But people are going to trust their local pastor, just as in the real world, even moreso if that pastor can visibly and undoubtedly heal the injured, cure the sick, raise the dead, smite evildoers, and instantly repair broken objects with a prayer.The local cleric of Heirroneous can confirm that Heirroneus has revealed to him that there is no madness and no ill intent within the town's neighborhood wizard.  A priest of Pelor or the like may be a little less trustworthy in that regard (since they can be chaotic good and still receive divine spells), but would only have reason to lie if they had some deep and significant personal rivalry/disputes/feud with the local wizard.  The wizard isn't trying to steal his flock or corrupt them, if anything he's just selling alchemical concoctions and minor arcane baubles and his services as a spellcaster.  So no inherant reason for the local priest to lie and claim that the local wizard is not, in fact, just as normal and relatively innocent as the priest's flock (the wizard could well even be a part of that flock).Ergo, there is nothing really preventing wizardly colleges and individuals proving that they can be trusted as much as any other person in town, and nothing preventing them from proving to the general populace that they can, indeed, learn to do the exact same things that the wizards do, without any silly misconceptions of being corrupted or driven insane by such practices.  The local priests can prove it, and the wizards are not fundamentally antireligious or unfaithful.  This is even more true amongst elves and gnomes, for instance, where their patron deity, the one who empowers their priests to heal and protect the community, also endorses wizards and their ilk quite openly and freely.  And the local human priest of Pelor can confirm for the town that the local elven wizard devoted to Corellon Larethian is, in fact, quite a decent fellow by Pelor's admission.Surely, if you expect every wizard to rampage maniacally, would you not expect the similarly-powerful clerics to go rampaging likewise in a mad rush of power?  Certainly not.  The wizard devoted to Pelor is nearly as trustworthy as the cleric devoted to Pelor, and at least as trustworthy as the commoner devoted to Pelor.  The fact that the wizard probably contributes as much to the community's defense as any of the local sheriffs or templars do would certainly add clout to the wizard's claims of being trustworthy.  Now, sure, true neutral or chaotic neutral or chaotic good wizards may be less trustworthy, but there would be enough precedent for common folk to know that wizards in general aren't any worse than normal people, or at least no worse than adventurers, mercenaries, soldiers, or any other person with power.  Certainly the town guards don't all go around threatening and mugging every person they see, just because they have some combat training and better armaments than the common farmer or merchant.  The fact that those guards are 3rd-level warriors who can kick most commoners' butts does not mean that they WILL do so.  Just as the fact that the local mage is a 2nd-level wizard who can incinerate a typical farmer and steal his meager possessions does not mean he is just going to go right ahead and do so; the wizard can just as likely be a decent fellow as the average town guardsman, and the rules support an average town guardsman being more advanced in level than the average town wizard.</blockquote>

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