D&D General Cozy Sunday Discussion: Everyday Magic In Your World

[J.Quondam]

In the City of the Jann in one of my old 3e campaign worlds, small magicks like that are ubiquitous.
A common wedding or baby shower gift is a "fix-it chest." For commoners it's fairly utilitarian in appearance while very ornate for the nobility, but in either case, it's just a box that you can put a broken object in to be fixed by a mending cantrip. There are also cheap "mother's kisses" which are effectively colorful bandaids infused with a cure minor wounds cantrip. Nice things for families with young children.
Aristocrats carry around golden spoons that change color when in contact with poison. Exceptionally wealthy young men from noble and merchant families ride around in self-propelled gigs, both for transportation and for drag-racing.

 

[Cadence]

Not mine again, but here are a bunch from a 3PP book "The Tome of Mighty Magic" from 1982 that apparently came up in their home campaign...

My favorite was:

Hey Bartender - 3rd Level
This magic summons a humanoid figure and his cabinet filled with all sorts of spirits (the alcohol kind). He will politely inquire as to the spell caster's preference, and fill his order within one or two rounds. He will then disappear with his cabinet.

Others of a domestic type included:

Avoid Solicitation (causes those selling things to leave their current target and pick another)
Crate - Makes a 2' x 2' x 2' crate that lasts until dispelled
Easy Catch - Enchants a lure to catch the biggest fish in the area (up to 25 lbs), works every other round for a turn
Seasoning - Alters any food to taste like you want it to.
White Tornado - Removes all foreign matter from target's clothing and gear
Flower Power - landscapes a 10' x 10' area
Moving Crate - Makes a 3'x3'x3' wheel barrow that lasts until dispelled
No Trespassing - Lets you know if you're trespassing. Lasts until you know longer are.
Detect Reefs, Shoals, and Shallows
Analyze Plant - We have an app for that now... (but I don't always trust it)
The Guzzler - Makes a bug that will drink a gallon of anything (I have some old gas in a container that I could use this on...)
Move Tree - Make a forest clearing or fill are farmers field
Analyze Animal - like the plant one, but I don't have an app like this on my phone
Divine Origin - tell where an object came from
Tear Jerker - tell a sad story to escape punishment from neutral creatures, or get help to start a new life from good ones
Prodigy - Temporarily master a nonmagical skill in one hour
Aluap's Lonely Hearts Club - A magical dating service
Duplicate Animal - Just what it says
Floor Plan - alter a room of up to 1000 cubic feet per level to suit your needs
Boat in a Bottle - shrink a ship and it's crew and put them in a bottle until it's broken
Security Force - summon a security force to protect your territory in your absence

 

[J.Quondam]

Not mine again, but here are a bunch from a 3PP book "The Tone of Mighty Magic" from 1982 that apparently came up in their home campaign...

My favorite was:

Hey Bartender - 3rd Level
This magic summons a humanoid figure and his cabinet filled with all sorts of spirits (the alcohol kind). He will politely inquire as to the spell caster's preference, and fill his order within one or two rounds. He will then disappear with his cabinet.

Others of a domestic type included:

Avoid Solicitation (causes those selling things to leave their current target and pick another)
Crate - Makes a 2' x 2' x 2' crate that lasts until dispelled
Easy Catch - Enchants a lure to catch the biggest fish in the area (up to 25 lbs), works every other round for a turn
Seasoning - Alters any food to taste like you want it to.
White Tornado - Removes all foreign matter from target's clothing and gear
Flower Power - landscapes a 10' x 10' area
Moving Crate - Makes a 3'x3'x3' wheel barrow that lasts until dispelled
No Trespassing - Lets you know if you're trespassing. Lasts until you know longer are.
Detect Reefs, Shoals, and Shallows
Analyze Plant - We have an app for that now... (but I don't always trust it)
The Guzzler - Makes a bug that will drink a gallon of anything (I have some old gas in a container that I could use this on...)
Move Tree - Make a forest clearing or fill are farmers field
Analyze Animal - like the plant one, but I don't have an app like this on my phone
Divine Origin - tell where an object came from
Tear Jerker - tell a sad story to escape punishment from neutral creatures, or get help to start a new life from good ones
Prodigy - Temporarily master a nonmagical skill in one hour
Aluap's Lonely Hearts Club - A magical dating service
Duplicate Animal - Just what it says
Floor Plan - alter a room of up to 1000 cubic feet per level to suit your needs
Boat in a Bottle - shrink a ship and it's crew and put them in a bottle until it's broken
Security Force - summon a security force to protect your territory in your absence

I adored this sort of thing for my old E6 campaigns! In a similar vein, Owen K. C. Stephens published a series of small pdfs called Loot 4 Less detailing minor magical items for low-level characters for PF1e. I made great use of these - and the mechanics advice provided - in its earlier 3e incarnation.

 

[Stormonu]

In most of my homebrew campaign world, magic is unavailable to the common folk, and treated with no small bit of superstision and fear. Spellcasters are truly exceptional and perhaps one in a hundred has the talent to even drum up a cantrip.

Then there's Doonask (AKA, "Don't Ask") This city-state is wild with magic and is in a perpetual Mardis Gras state of being. Minor magical items like the Bard in a Box and the Wand of House Cleaning can be bought for a few silver. For reasons only known to the nobility of the city, most of these items quickly run out of magic a few hours after leaving the city.

Many of the more talented permanent residents know magical tricks such as Cook (cooks raw ingredients), Dress Self (teleports nearby unworn clothes on yourself) and Recolor (changes the color or pattern on non-living items touched). Artisans employ various tricks to embellish their wares appearance or durability, but they still need the skill to craft the base items in the first place.

Minor jinxes also exist for those inclined to mischief, such as Black Cloud (creates a tiny rain cloud that follows a target), Head over Heels (trips an individual), Bargle (confuses someone's speech) and Flick (rapidly moves a coin-sized object in a selected direction).

 

[Reynard]

I adored this sort of thing for my old E6 campaigns! In a similar vein, Owen K. C. Stephens published a series of small pdfs called Loot 4 Less detailing minor magical items for low-level characters for PF1e. I made great use of these - and the mechanics advice provided - in its earlier 3e incarnation.

This isn't really what I am talking about. 5E has a bunch of low powered items in Tasha's but they are still adventuring gear. Adventuring gear shouldn't be the extent of magic in the world. Even Tolkien had enchanted toys crafted by dwarves.

One that was inspired by another thread: magic items meant to help the disabled, from self propelled wheel chairs to a hat the converts sights into sounds to a tablet that automatically writes words spoken to the owner. That sort of thing.

 

[Reynard]

In most of my homebrew campaign world, magic is unavailable to the common folk, and treated with no small bit of superstision and fear. Spellcasters are truly exceptional and perhaps one in a hundred has the talent to even drum up a cantrip.

Then there's Doonask (AKA, "Don't Ask") This city-state is wild with magic and is in a perpetual Mardis Gras state of being. Minor magical items like the Bard in a Box and the Wand of House Cleaning can be bought for a few silver. For reasons only known to the nobility of the city, most of these items quickly run out of magic a few hours after leaving the city.

Many of the more talented permanent residents know magical tricks such as Cook (cooks raw ingredients), Dress Self (teleports nearby unworn clothes on yourself) and Recolor (changes the color or pattern on non-living items touched). Artisans employ various tricks to embellish their wares appearance or durability, but they still need the skill to craft the base items in the first place.

Minor jinxes also exist for those inclined to mischief, such as Black Cloud (creates a tiny rain cloud that follows a target), Head over Heels (trips an individual), Bargle (confuses someone's speech) and Flick (rapidly moves a coin-sized object in a selected direction).

That place must provide much entertainment the first time it is visited by players not expecting it.

 

[J.Quondam]

This isn't really what I am talking about. 5E has a bunch of low powered items in Tasha's but they are still adventuring gear. Adventuring gear shouldn't be the extent of magic in the world. Even Tolkien had enchanted toys crafted by dwarves.

One that was inspired by another thread: magic items meant to help the disabled, from self propelled wheel chairs to a hat the converts sights into sounds to a tablet that automatically writes words spoken to the owner. That sort of thing.

Yeah, I get that; hence my earlier post. The reason I mention Loot 4 Less is because so much of the material was actually useful for non-adventurers (at least in the earlier 3e version). Things like his

- ring of canine control (charms only dogs), helpful for guards, thieves, and postal delivery workers;​

- coin belt (makes a single silver piece every day), a nice heirloom for a commoner;​

- dowsing (ability that finds water), as useful for farmers as for foraging adventurers.​

Personally, I found great utility in how Owen approached breaking down spells. It's exactly the sort of process I had in mind with the mending chest and mother's kisses I mentioned earlier. Other stuff:

- weedbane (item property makes the blade of a farming implement insubstantial to anything but weed plants)
- ice cube (heats or cools a beverage)
- picky eater's spoon (flavors a single bite of food however the user wishes)
- dimensional siphon (cantrip that slowly channels fluid from one container to another)
- fire extinguisher (glass globe that puts out flames in its vicinity when shattered)
- cradle of sleep (plays quite music and gently soothes a baby in the enchanted creche)
- garden gnome (tiny construct for watch and pest control)

 

[aco175]

I didn't want to have to "invent" bathroom plumbing for my well-to-do noblemen's manors, but I also didn't want them to have to dump out the contents of their latrines. So I created a variant of dust of dryness, and made the creation cost fairly low - enough that hedge mages can crank the stuff out and make enough money selling it to keep them in business. There's a bag of this dust in the bathrooms of most manors; when a pinch of it is sprinkled onto the contents of the toilet, it reduces the waste material to a pea-sized pellet. It only affects water and bodily wastes and the pellet thus formed dissolves into nothingness on its own within about a day. That and some incense in the bathroom and most manor house bathrooms are good to go.

Johnathan

From the Envy movie 20 years ago

 

[Tony Vargas]

What are some examples of everyday magic from your world? Are there ever burning torches lighting the streets? Does the baker sell goodberry scones to get your day started right? Do the wealthy have portal portapotties?

Back in the day, it seemed inescapable that there would be scads of low-level casters out there. Out millions of people, how many qualify to be wizards or clerics? Like, millions, it's just a 9 INT or WIS, that's dead average. In 1e, permanent duration spells started as low as 2nd (continual light) the Cleric's 3rd level version was reversible. So, yeah, more organized cities had 3rd level wizard lamp-lighters maintaining the infrastructure. Larger/older temples had Con.Light (or darkness) just cast into certain rooms for esoteric reasons.
And it's not just the permanent stuff, lost of low level spells could be used to run confidence games, wreck security precautions, and generally make a hash of medieval power-centers.
Shopkeepers routinely thwack every gp they get with cold iron to make sure it's not those darn lamplighters trying to pass Fools Gold, again. (no wonder gp are so big in 1e, they had to take a lot of abuse). Secure buildings have not just guards but almost air-lock-like doors to prevent invisible saboteurs from slipping by.
For that matter, there's upsides from lower level spells, a 1e 3rd level Druid could cast Plant Growth on crops, and save lives of people and livestock with Neutralize Poison and Cure Disease and Cure Light Wounds for accidents... Predict the Weather, too.

It gets really silly, really fast.

 

[jmartkdr2]

One area that I tend to daydream about is fashion magic - all the little enchantments rich people would put on their fancy designer clothes for reasons of comfort, aesthetics, and just plain showing off.

Magical glitter to really stand out at the Grand Ball, a bag of holding that automatically changes to match your dress, cloaks that keep the rain off at a 1-foot radius from your whole body, outfits that never get dirty no matter what they're splashed with. High-heeled shoes that constantly protect you from the physical damage cause by wearing high heels. And self-fitting clothes that, when attuned, resize themselves to fit perfectly, even if that means the clothes could never otherwise be put on.

Rich adventurers (or nobles pretending to be adventurers) would add lots of quality-of-life effects to their outfits, like coats that provide magical warmth (or even cooling if meant for hot weather), boots of gripping / floating in mud / never slipping on ice, stuff that self-cleans a la prestidigitation and so on.

Of course, I also assume most suits of full plate or similarly expensive armor also come with a variety of quality-of-life enchantments, since the magic is cheaper than the base armor anyways, but that gets beyond the scope of the thread.