Arcanodynamics: What does a high-magic society look like?

[blargney the second]

I'm trying to figure out what a high-magic world would be like. Some spells that are essentially free to cast would tend to linger or even to accumulate - they are either permanent or instantaneous effects. Other spells tear those down. The whole thing becomes a bit more complex when you add in spells that cost something, such as permanency and crafting magic items.

I just ran through my PHB and noted all the spells with a duration of permanent or instantaneous that affect the environment in some way. (I made a separate list of spells that permanently affect people and creatures, that'll be a subject for another day!)

If these spells and effects accumulate, what would this world normally look like?
-blarg

Spells that alter the environment permanently
--
Arcane Lock
Arcane Mark
Continual Flame
Create Water
Disintegrate
Dispel Magic (Greater)
Earthquake
Erase
Explosive Runes
Fabricate
Fire Trap
Forbiddance
Glyph of Warding
Hallow
Illusory Wall
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Magic Mouth
Move Earth
Permanency
Permanent Image
Phantom Trap
Polymorph Any Object
Programmed Image (once)
Refuge
Secret Page
Sepia Snake Sigil
Snare (once)
Soften Earth and Stone
Stone Shape
Stone to Flesh
Symbol of X
Transmute Metal to Wood
Transmute Mud to Rock
Transmute Rock to Mud
Unhallow
Wall of Iron
Wall of Stone
Warp Wood
Wood Shape

Spells that could be used to alter the environment:
--
Elemental Swarm
Planar Ally/Binding (Lesser, Greater)
Summon Monster/Nature's Ally
{Example: You could bring in earth elementals to do some serious landscaping, or fire elementals to level a forest, etc.}

Also: Magic Items

 

[WayneLigon]

I think it really depends less on the spells themselves, than the casters. The major things that will move a world from 'normal magic' to 'high magic' will be

1. The number of spell casters in the general population
2. The number of those casters that know the permanent spells above (not all of them will)
3. The available level of spellcasters
4. The number of spell casters that have the (stat) to get to the high level spells, regardless of their level (not all spellcasters will be like PC's and place 16's and 17's in Int or Wis or Cha; indeed, if they are built with the point buy system there will be very few casters that will be getting over 5th level spells)
5. The numbers of casters willing to use those spells to create permanent effects.

 

[nopantsyet]

One part of society that would be heavily impacted by magic would be government. There are numerous directions the prevalence of magic might lead a society.

First is the form of government. The feudal system that grew into monarchy was based on collective protection. Nobles had armies that could protect commoners, and the medieval manor thrived on a symbiotic relationship.

But with magic, that relationship is fundamentally altered. Power is not in numbers, but in knowledge. A small number of skilled wizards could protect or opress large numbers of people.

Magic assists in growing crops, reduces mortality rates, eases hard labor. The society becomes sophisticated very quickly. Depending on political rule, this yields two very different types of societies. Possible rivals?

First is the authoritarian magocracy. Led by the most powerful of wizards who constantly scheme to gain more power both politically and magically. The populace are pressed into servitude in order to serve the desires of the elite.

Second is the enlightened republic. If magic is not king, it must lead to a meritocracy where various skills enable one to succeed politically. Under these circumstances, magically-assisted agriculture and labor lead to a service-based economy with middle- and leisure classes. Magic in this society is probably regulated.

Minimalistic regulation would restrict common spell use to practical spells. No offensive spells, none that are intended for illicit uses, like invisibility. Allowed summonings provide beasts of burden rather than battle. And elite group of spellcasters maintains a library of all kinds of magic to be used as necessary, for war, against crime, etc. The other side is full restriction. No magic use unless specifically authorized.

I'm doing the latter in my current campaign. Well, in one city within my current campaign. It is a republic of sorts, based loosely on the Italian republics of the late middle ages and early renaissance. Magic use is heavily regulated, but it is not too difficult, albeit at a cost, to obtain authorization for "practickal magicks." The elite organization also has a shadow arm that provides certain questionable services to the government in exchange for continuing monopoly on magical regulation.

By way of extension of the spell list, my approach was to categorize spells by regulation level. Use of certain spells won't even be prosecuted, even though it is technically restricted. More powerful practical spells, and dual-use spells (practical and illicit) are more strictly enforced. Strictly illicit spells (invisibility, offensive, etc.) are always prohibited. (Except by those with the equivalent of a double-0 rating.)

You could go other directions. I consider Menzoberranzan to be a high-magic tribal anarchy. You could go a communist direction with the authoritarian regime. But a tremendous amount of how magic affects the society will be an outgrowth of how the power structure has grown up around it.

 

[blargney the second]

I think it really depends less on the spells themselves, than the casters.

Those are some good points that I hadn't really considered, Wayne.

For the conditions that I'm looking for, let's assume a green light to all of those requirements. Casters exist in significant enough numbers over the course of the last few hundred years and with enough ability for these spells to have been brought to bear with some sort of frequency.

It's interesting to think of magic items in light of the question: "Why were they created?" A +5 holy evil-outsider bane weapon is not made for fun. Somebody somewhere at some point NEEDED that thing to be made, and there was probably somebody worthy of wielding it.

I'd really like to implement a dynamic cycle for the creation of magic items and permanent spell effects for the world I am planning.
- Items are made and spells are cast in response to a problem.
- They achieve their purpose and the situation that called for them passes.
- Time goes by in which they continue to exist, until
a) they are destroyed or not found and somebody else must create them to fit their needs, or
b) they are found and used for the purpose for which they were created.

With a setup like that, I could envision a high-magic world where magic items are regularly destroyed as a means of weakening foes, requiring somebody else to create the required items; permanent spell effects are created and destroyed as necessary, changing the environment after most combats.

I like the idea of the persistence and breakability of magic requiring constant re-adaptation. Turnover keeps life interesting

-blarg

 

[blargney the second]

One part of society that would be heavily impacted by magic would be government.

Minimalistic regulation would restrict common spell use to practical spells. By way of extension of the spell list, my approach was to categorize spells by regulation level.

But a tremendous amount of how magic affects the society will be an outgrowth of how the power structure has grown up around it.

Those are some excellent ponderings, nopantsyet! I'll have to find a reason why wizards and their ilk are not the de facto rulers of the world. I guess the easiest solution would be to take a page from Jack Vance's books, where mages simply lack the motivation to dominate the rest of the world: they're too busy delving into arcane mysteries to really take the plunge into politics. (That and the fact that they've taken a pact not to interfere with that stuff!)

I think the nature of government is composed of more considerations than sheer magical power - the D&D system is balanced in the sense that there is always someone that can exploit a weakness. Assassins could wipe out most wizards by forcing enough Fortitude saves, or X class/monster could do Y, or, or, etc. There's no shortage of ways to kill people in D&D, and I think that most adventurers worthy of the name are quite capable of proving that.

Other than "might makes right", some factors in determining government type could be tradition, legitimate ownership of land, amount of leisure time available to the general population, what works and what doesn't, and religion. People tend to be very inclined to follow persuasive and decisive leaders.

As for my government type, I was intending for the region to be feudal. I've got Magical Medieval Society, and I'm itching to use it! A patchwork of manors surrounding and supporting the city, with different lords who have sworn fealty to the area's great landholder, yet they don't necessarily all get along. Fun!

I'd be very interested in seeing your list of spells categorized by regulation level! I was planning on doing that already, and any shortcuts would be much appreciated. I'm beginning to discover the expanding nature of DM preparation...

-blarg

 

[WayneLigon]

I have Magical Medieval Society, but I haven't gotten around to really looking at it very closely. It might change some basic assumptions I use in my next campaign.

Generally, I assume most high level casters don't interact with the real world much at all. They could care less if the common folk have crops, or whatnot. They're too busy. The lower level ones, I assume the basically cancel each other out.

For the good priest that cures the peasents and blesses the crops, you have an evil one that delights in causing stillbirths and plagues. They're at each other's throats too much to really affect society on a long-term basis. Sure, you get the occassional village where you have three moderate-level clerics that have created a pretty stable and nice community; they cure people for free and help protect the village from outsiders. But eventually they get old and die, and the villagers get used to dying from cutting themselves on sawblades again.

It also depends on how cynical I want the campaign to be, too Usually, when something does not get done even though sufficient resources, time and labor exist to fix the problem, it's because someone in a position of power has no interest in fixing that problem or profits from it not being fixed.

Priests of Iona bless crops. Farmers get in record crops with little effort. Farmers send off their tithe to the local lord, and still have a lot left over to bank for the winter. Farmers have spare time now, and spend it thinking about how maybe they should not pay taxes, or in taverns talking bad about the king. Spies hear this and send word back to the King. The King tells the Matriarch of the Ionans that she better keep closer reign on her personnel, or heads will roll. Priests stop blessing crops. Peasents too tired from picking weeds to drink in taverns and complain about the king. All is well.

 

[Mac Callum]

Don't think about this too hard - this way lies madness. If you really start to think about it, you say "Hmmm, if I used a Permanent Gate from the elemental plane of water, and encircled it with a inward facing Magic Circle, I could irrigate the Saharra."

Or "Hmmm, Permanent Teleportation Circles would make Marco Polo interesting for the sole reason that he walked all the way to China. Everyone else just teleports in for the weekend."

Or "What's with all these castle walls? A Scry+Teleport Circle could put 1000 Commandos inside the king's toilet in half an hour." Even just a regular Teleport could put a Enraged, Bull's Strenght, Stoneskined, Magic Fanged, Improved Invisibility Dire Monkey in any royal bedroom.

Or, how long would it take a Dwarven Sorcerer with Stone Mastery from Unearthed Arcana and a Wall of Stone to build the Pyramids of Giza all by himelf? If one Dwarven Sorcerer can build the pyramids, how many pyramids are there lying around? Are pyramids and giant statues becoming a problem?

Say, a low level Druid or Cleric really boost crop yield ... and Britain & America's economy really started to boost when their agricultural efficiency started to shoot up in the 18th centuries - how far away is your average D&D world from the Industrial Revolution. Come to think of it though, would the industrial revolution ever have happened if Orcs, Dragons and Lich-Kings kept razing London to the ground? Probably not.

Any why is gold anything at all? A quick trip to the Elemental Plane of Earth would put serious inflationary pressures on the local economies. They'd end up using gold for wall paper because 1) it's pretty and 2) it doesn't rust.

Would we ever have a drought or a bad growing season with Control Weather spells? Would there be fighting over the weather, as various kingdoms keep trying to flood each other?

And this is just stream of consciousness ... not that I recommend thinking about it too hard. As much as hate to say it: listen to Hong. Thinking about D&D too hard is bad.

 

[Mac Callum]

Oh, and Wizards don't rule the world because of Sorcerers, Clerics and Monks.

 

[Dirigible]

comdemn this post to perdition! perdition I say!

 

[Dirigible]

Even just a regular Teleport could put a Enraged, Bull's Strenght, Stoneskined, Magic Fanged, Improved Invisibility Dire Monkey in any royal bedroom.

Some people pay good money for that kinda thing.

If one Dwarven Sorcerer can build the pyramids, how many pyramids are there lying around? Are pyramids and giant statues becoming a problem?

I love it. Maybe the government needs the PCs to hunt dwn and stop this dwarf - "We're running out of land! He keeps building Hextor-damned pyramids all over the place!"